aleph - extended Unicode TeX
aleph [
options] [
&format]
[
file|
\commands]
Run the Aleph typesetter on
file, usually creating
file.dvi. If
the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it.
Instead of a filename, a set of Aleph commands can be given, the first of
which must start with a backslash. With a
&format argument
Aleph uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in
format.fmt; it is usually better to use the
-fmt
format option instead.
Aleph is a version of the TeX program modified for multilingual typesetting. It
uses Unicode, and has additional primitives for (among other things)
bidirectional typesetting.
Aleph's command line options are similar to those of TeX.
Aleph is no longer being actively developed; see LuaTeX for current activity.
Run aleph --help to see the complete list of options; this is not exhaustive.
-
-cnf-line string
- Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration
line. See the Kpathsea manual.
-
--fmt format
- Use format as the name of the format to be used,
instead of the name by which Aleph was called or a %&
line.
- --halt-on-error
- Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during
processing.
- --help
- Print help message and exit.
- --ini
- Be `initial' Aleph for dumping formats; this is implicitly
true if the program is called as inialeph.
-
--interaction mode
- Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and
errorstopmode. The meaning of these modes is the same as that of
the corresponding \commands.
- --ipc
- Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output
file. Whether this option is available is the choice of the
installer.
- --ipc-start
- As --ipc, and starts the server at the other end as
well. Whether this option is available is the choice of the
installer.
-
--kpathsea-debug bitmask
- Sets path searching debugging flags according to the
bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for details.
-
--maketex fmt
- Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of
tex or tfm.
-
--no-maketex fmt
- Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of
tex or tfm.
-
--output-comment string
- Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the
date.
-
--output-directory directory
- Write output files in directory instead of the
current directory. Look up input files in directory first, the
along the normal search path.
- --parse-first-line
- If the first line of the main input file begins with
%& parse it to look for a dump name.
-
--progname name
- Pretend to be program name. This affects both the
format used and the search paths.
- --recorder
- Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the
files opened for input and output in a file with extension .ofl.
(This option is always on.)
- --shell-escape
- Enable the \write18{command}
construct. The command can be any Bourne shell command. By default,
this construct is enabled in a restricted mode, for security reasons.
- --version
- Print version information and exit.
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications' node) for
precise details of how the environment variables are used. The
kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
One caveat: In most Aleph formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give
directly to Aleph, because ~ is an active character, and hence is expanded,
not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as Metafont, do not
have this problem.
- TEXMFOUTPUT
- Normally, Aleph puts its output files in the current
directory. If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT. There
is no default value for that variable. For example, if you say tex
paper and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has
the value /tmp, Aleph attempts to create /tmp/paper.log (and
/tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.) TEXMFOUTPUT is also
checked for input files, as TeX often generates files that need to be
subsequently read; for input, no suffixes (such as ``.tex'') are added by
default, the input name is simply checked as given.
- TEXINPUTS
- Search path for \input and \openin files.
This should start with ``.'', so that user files are found before system
files. An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined in
the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the current directory and
``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
- TEXEDIT
- Command template for switching to editor. The default,
usually vi, is set when Aleph is compiled.
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for
this version of Aleph can be found in the info manual
Web2C: A TeX
implementation. See http://tug/org/web2c.
This version of Aleph implements a number of optional extensions. In fact, many
of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent with the definition
of Aleph. When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed when Aleph
starts is changed to print
Alephk instead of
Aleph.
This version of Aleph fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are
added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it does the
generated
DVI file will be invalid.
tex(1),
mf(1)
The primary authors of Aleph are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous.