1TEX(1) General Commands Manual TEX(1)
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6 tex, virtex, initex - text formatting and typesetting
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9 tex [options] [& format ] [ file | \ commands ]
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12 Run the TeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.dvi. If the file
13 argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a
14 filename, a set of TeX commands can be given, the first of which must
15 start with a backslash. With a &format argument TeX uses a different
16 set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually
17 better to use the -fmt format option instead.
18 TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named
20 files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI, which is
21 short for DeVice Independent). TeX's capabilities and language are
22 described in The TeX for nroffbook. TeX is normally used with a large
23 body of precompiled macros, and there are several specific formatting
24 systems, such as LaTeX, which require the support of several macro
25 files.
26 This version of TeX looks at its command line to see what name it was
28 called under. If they exist, then both initex and virtex are symbolic
29 links to the tex executable. When called as initex (or when the -ini
30 option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a .fmt file.
31 When called as virtex it will use the plain format. When called under
32 any other name, TeX will use that name as the name of the format to
33 use. For example, when called as tex the tex format is used, which is
34 identical to the plain format. The commands defined by the plain for‐
35 mat are documented in The TeX for nroffbook. Other formats that are
36 often available include latex and amstex.
37 The non-option command line arguments to the TeX program are passed to
39 it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended
40 arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up
41 or misinterpret TeX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you
42 quote them.) As described in The TeX for nroffbook, that first line
43 should begin with a filename, a \controlsequence, or a &formatname.
44 The normal usage is to say
46 tex paper
47 to start processing paper.tex. The name paper will be the ``jobname'',
48 and is used in forming output filenames. If TeX doesn't get a filename
49 in the first line, the jobname is texput. When looking for a file, TeX
50 looks for the name with and without the default extension (.tex)
51 appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If paper is
52 the ``jobname'', a log of error messages, with rather more detail than
53 normally appears on the screen, will appear in paper.log, and the out‐
54 put file will be in paper.dvi.
55 This version of TeX can look in the first line of the file paper.tex to
57 see if it begins with the magic sequence %&. If the first line begins
58 with %&format -translate-file tcxname then TeX will use the named for‐
59 mat and transation table tcxname to process the source file. Either
60 the format name or the -translate-file specification may be omitted,
61 but not both. This overrides the format selection based on the name by
62 which the program is invoked. The -parse-first-line option or the
63 parse_first_line configuration variable controls whether this behaviour
64 is enabled.
65 The e response to TeX's error prompt causes the system default editor
67 to start up at the current line of the current file. The environment
68 variable TEXEDIT can be used to change the editor used. It may contain
69 a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes and "%d" indicat‐
70 ing where the decimal line number (if any) goes. For example, a
71 TEXEDIT string for emacs can be set with the sh command
72 TEXEDIT="emacs +%d %s"; export TEXEDIT
73 A convenient file in the library is null.tex, containing nothing. When
75 TeX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you
76 for another filename; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you
77 don't want to input anything. You can also type your EOF character
78 (usually control-D).
79
81 This version of TeX understands the following command line options.
82 -enc Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
84 combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX exten‐
85 sions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
86 -file-line-error
88 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
89 lar to the way many compilers format them.
90 -no-file-line-error
92 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
93 -file-line-error-style
95 This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.
96 -fmt format
98 Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
99 name by which TeX was called or a %& line.
100 -halt-on-error
102 Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro‐
103 cessing.
104 -help Print help message and exit.
106 -ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
108 can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and
109 basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.
110 -interaction mode
112 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode,
113 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
114 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
115 -ipc Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.
117 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
118 -ipc-start
120 As -ipc, and starts the server at the other end as well.
121 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
122 -jobname name
124 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
125 of the input file.
126 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
128 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
129 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
130 -mktex fmt
132 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
133 -mltex Enable MLTeX extensions. Only effective in combination with
135 -ini.
136 -no-mktex fmt
138 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
139 -output-comment string
141 Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
142 -output-directory directory
144 directory instead of the current directory. Look up input files
145 in directory first, the along the normal search path.
146 -parse-first-line
148 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
149 to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.
150 -no-parse-first-line
152 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
153 -progname name
155 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
156 and the search paths.
157 -recorder
159 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files
160 opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.
161 -shell-escape
163 Enable the \write18{command} construct. The command can be any
164 shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for secu‐
165 rity reasons.
166 -no-shell-escape
168 Disable the \write18{command} construct, even if it is enabled
169 in the texmf.cnf file.
170 -src-specials
172 Insert source specials into the DVI file.
173 -src-specials where
175 Insert source specials in certain places of the DVI file. where
176 is a comma-separated value list: cr, display, hbox, math, par,
177 parent, or vbox.
178 -translate-file tcxname
180 Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping of input
181 characters and re-mapping of output characters.
182 -default-translate-file tcxname
184 Like -translate-file except that a %& line can overrule this
185 setting.
186 -version
188 Print version information and exit.
189
191 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
192 node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
193 The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
194 One caveat: In most TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
196 give directly to TeX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
197 expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as
198 Metafont, do not have this problem.
199 TEXMFOUTPUT
201 Normally, TeX puts its output files in the current directory.
202 If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
203 in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUT‐
204 PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
205 if you say tex paper and the current directory is not writable,
206 if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, TeX attempts to create
207 /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)
208 TEXINPUTS
210 Search path for \input and \openin files. This should probably
211 start with ``.'', so that user files are found before system
212 files. An empty path component will be replaced with the paths
213 defined in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
214 ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend the current direcory and
215 ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
216 TEXFORMATS
218 Search path for format files.
219 TEXPOOL
221 search path for tex internal strings.
222 TEXEDIT
224 Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
225 vi, is set when TeX is compiled.
226 TFMFONTS
228 Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
229
231 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
232 Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
233 texmf.cnf
235 Configuration file. This contains definitions of search paths
236 as well as other configuration parameters like parse_first_line.
237 tex.pool
239 Text file containing TeX's internal strings.
240 texfonts.map
242 Filename mapping definitions.
243 *.tfm Metric files for TeX's fonts.
245 *.fmt Predigested TeX format (.fmt) files.
247 $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex
249 The basic macro package described in the TeX for nroffbook.
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252 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen‐
253 tation for this version of TeX can be found in the info manual Web2C: A
254 TeX implementation.
255
257 This version of TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In
258 fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent
259 with the definition of TeX. When such extensions are enabled, the ban‐
260 ner printed when TeX starts is changed to print TeXk instead of TeX.
261 This version of TeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions
263 are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it
264 does the generated DVI file will be invalid.
265
267 mf(1),
268 Donald E. Knuth, The TeX for nroffbook, Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN
269 0-201-13447-0.
270 Leslie Lamport, LaTeX - A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley,
271 1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X.
272 K. Berry, Eplain: Expanded plain TeX,
273 ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc.
274 Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX for nroff, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley,
275 1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.
276 TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
277
279 TeX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper spell‐
280 ing in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''
281
283 TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
284 system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by
285 Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now
286 offered with the Unix TeX distribution is that generated by the Web to
287 C system (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
288 The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.
290Web2C 7.5.4 21 August 2004 TEX(1)