1DVISELECT(1) General Commands Manual DVISELECT(1)
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6 dviselect - extract pages from DVI files
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9 dviselect [ -s ] [ -i infile ] [ -o outfile ] list of pages [ infile [
10 outfile ] ]
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13 Dviselect selects pages from a DVI file produced by TeX, creating a new
14 DVI file usable by any of the TeX conversion programs, or even by dvis‐
15 elect itself.
16 A range is a string of the form even, odd, or first:last where both
18 first and last are optional numeric strings, with negative numbers
19 indicated by a leading underscore character ``_''. If both first and
20 last are omitted, the colon may also be omitted, or may be replaced
21 with an asterisk ``*''. A page range is a list of ranges separated by
22 periods. A list of pages is described by a set of page ranges sepa‐
23 rated by commas and/or white space.
24 Dviselect actually looks at the ten count variables that TeX writes;
26 the first of these (\count0) is the page number, with \count1 through
27 \count9 having varied uses depending on which macro packages are in
28 use. (Typically \count1 might be a chapter or section number.) A page
29 is included in dviselect's output if all its \count values match any
30 one of the ranges listed on the command line. For example, the command
31 ``dviselect *.1,35:'' might select everything in chapter 1, as well as
32 pages 35 and up. ``dviselect 10:30'' would select pages 10 through 30
33 (inclusive). ``:43'' means everything up to and including page 43
34 (including negative-numbered pages). To get all even-numbered pages,
35 use ``even''; to get all odd-numbered pages, use ``odd''. If a Table
36 of Contents has negative page numbers, ``:_1'' will select it. Note
37 that ``*'' must be quoted from the shell; the empty string is more con‐
38 venient to use, if harder to read.
39 Instead of \count values, dviselect can also select by ``absolute page
41 number'', where the first page is page 1, the second page 2, and so
42 forth. Absolute page numbers are indicated by a leading equal sign
43 ``=''. Ranges of absolute pages are also allowed: ``dviselect =3:7''
44 will extract the third through seventh pages. Dot separators are not
45 legal in absolute ranges, and there are no negative absolute page num‐
46 bers. Even/odd specifiers, however, are legal; ``dviselect =even''
47 selects every other page, starting with the second.
48 More precisely, an asterisk or an empty string implies no limit; an
50 equal sign means absolute page number rather than \counts; a leading
51 colon means everything up to and including the given page; a trailing
52 colon means everything from the given page on; the word ``even'' means
53 only even values shall be accepted; the word ``odd'' means only odd
54 values shall be accepted; and a period indicates that the next \count
55 should be examined. If fewer than 10 ranges are specified, the remain‐
56 ing \counts are left unrestricted (that is, ``1:5'' and ``1:5.*'' are
57 equivalent). A single number n is treated as if it were the range n:n.
58 An arbitrary number of page selectors may be given, separated by commas
59 or whitespace; a page is selected if any of the selectors matches its
60 \counts or absolute page number.
61 Dviselect normally prints the page numbers of the pages selected; the
63 -s option suppresses this.
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66 Chris Torek, University of Maryland
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69 dviconcat(1), latex(1), tex(1)
70 MC-TeX User's Guide
71 The TeXbook
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74 A leading ``-'' ought to be allowed for negative numbers, but it is
75 currently used as a synonym for ``:'', for backwards compatibility.
76 Section or subsection selection will sometimes fail, for the DVI file
78 lists only the \count values that were active when the page ended.
79 Clever macro packages can alleviate this by making use of other
80 ``free'' \count registers. Chapters normally begin on new pages, and
81 do not suffer from this particular problem.
82 The heuristic that decides which arguments are page selectors and which
84 are file names is often wrong. Using shell redirection or the -i and
85 -o options is safest.
86 Dviselect does not adjust the parameters in the postamble; however,
88 since these values are normally used only to size certain structures in
89 the output conversion programs, and the parameters never need to be
90 adjusted upward, this has not proven to be a problem.
91 DVISELECT(1)