tex, initex - text formatting and typesetting
tex [
options] [
&format]
[
file|
\commands]
Run the TeX 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 TeX commands can be given, the first of which
must start with a backslash. With a
&format argument TeX
uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in
format.fmt; it is usually better to use the
-fmt
format option instead.
TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named files and
outputs a typesetter independent file (called
DVI, which is short for
DeVice Independent). TeX's capabilities and language are described in
The TeXbook. TeX is normally used with a large body of precompiled
macros, and there are several specific formatting systems, such as LaTeX,
which require the support of several macro files.
This version of TeX looks at its command line to see what name it was called
under. If they exist, then both
initex and
virtex are symbolic
links to the
tex executable. When called as
initex (or when the
-ini option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a
.fmt file. When called as
virtex it will use the
plain
format. When called under any other name, TeX will use that name as the name
of the format to use. For example, when called as
tex the
tex
format is used, which is identical to the
plain format. The commands
defined by the
plain format are documented in
The TeXbook. Other
formats that are often available include
latex and
amstex.
The non-option command line arguments to the TeX program are passed to it as the
first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended arguments as the
first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret TeX's
favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you quote them.) As described in
The TeXbook, that first line should begin with a filename, a
\controlsequence, or a
&formatname.
The normal usage is to say
tex paper
to start processing
paper.tex. The name
paper will be the
``jobname'', and is used in forming output filenames. If TeX doesn't get a
filename in the first line, the jobname is
texput. When looking for a
file, TeX looks for the name with and without the default extension
(
.tex) appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If
paper is the ``jobname'', a log of error messages, with rather more
detail than normally appears on the screen, will appear in
paper.log,
and the output file will be in
paper.dvi.
This version of TeX can look in the first line of the file
paper.tex to
see if it begins with the magic sequence
%&. If the first line
begins with
%&format
-translate-file tcxname then TeX will use the named
format and translation table
tcxname to process the source file. Either
the format name or the
-translate-file specification may be omitted,
but not both. This overrides the format selection based on the name by which
the program is invoked. The
-parse-first-line option or the
parse_first_line configuration variable controls whether this behaviour
is enabled.
The
e response to TeX's error prompt causes the system default editor to
start up at the current line of the current file. The environment variable
TEXEDIT can be used to change the editor used. It may contain a string with
"%s" indicating where the filename goes and "%d"
indicating where the decimal line number (if any) goes. For example, a TEXEDIT
string for
emacs can be set with the
sh command
TEXEDIT="emacs +%d %s"; export TEXEDIT
A convenient file in the library is
null.tex, containing nothing. When
TeX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you for
another filename; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you don't want
to input anything. You can also type your EOF character (usually control-D).
This version of TeX understands the following command line options.
-
-cnf-line string
- Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration
line. See the Kpathsea manual.
- -enc
- Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective
in combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX
extensions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
- -file-line-error
- Print error messages in the form file:line:error
which is similar to the way many compilers format them.
- -no-file-line-error
- Disable printing error messages in the
file:line:error style.
- -file-line-error-style
- This is the old name of the -file-line-error
option.
-
-fmt format
- Use format as the name of the format to be used,
instead of the name by which TeX 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
- Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats.
The INI mode can be used for typesetting, but no format is
preloaded, and basic initializations like setting catcodes may be
required.
-
-interaction mode
- Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either
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.
-
-jobname name
- Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it
from the name of the input file.
-
-kpathsea-debug bitmask
- Sets path searching debugging flags according to the
bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for details.
-
-mktex fmt
- Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either
tex or tfm.
- -mltex
- Enable MLTeX extensions. Only effective in combination with
-ini.
-
-no-mktex fmt
- Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either
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, then
along the normal search path. See also description of the TEXMFOUTPUT
environment variable.
- -parse-first-line
- If the first line of the main input file begins with
%& parse it to look for a dump name or a -translate-file
option.
- -no-parse-first-line
- Disable parsing of the first line of the main input
file.
-
-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
.fls.
- -shell-escape
- Enable the \write18{command}
construct. The command can be any shell command. This construct is
normally disallowed for security reasons.
- -no-shell-escape
- Disable the \write18{command}
construct, even if it is enabled in the texmf.cnf file.
- -src-specials
- Insert source specials into the DVI file.
-
-src-specials where
- Insert source specials in certain places of the DVI
file. where is a comma-separated value list: cr,
display, hbox, math, par, parent, or
vbox.
-
-translate-file tcxname
- Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping
of input characters and re-mapping of output characters.
-
-default-translate-file tcxname
- Like -translate-file except that a %&
line can overrule this setting.
- -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 TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give
directly to TeX, 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, TeX 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, TeX 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 probably 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.
- TEXFORMATS
- Search path for format files.
- TEXPOOL
- search path for tex internal strings.
- TEXEDIT
- Command template for switching to editor. The default,
usually vi, is set when TeX is compiled.
- TFMFONTS
- Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
Notes for Debian developers: please keep in mind, that this version of the TeX
interpreter ignores the
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH variable. Instead the current
timestamp is written into the
DVI file. If you need a reproducible time
stamp, please use any engine based on pdfTeX, e.g., etex, pdftex, latex,
pdflatex.
The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system. Use the
kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
- texmf.cnf
- Configuration file. This contains definitions of search
paths as well as other configuration parameters like
parse_first_line.
- tex.pool
- Text file containing TeX's internal strings.
- texfonts.map
- Filename mapping definitions.
- *.tfm
- Metric files for TeX's fonts.
- *.fmt
- Predigested TeX format (.fmt) files.
- $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex
- The basic macro package described in the TeXbook.
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for
this version of TeX can be found in the info manual
Web2C: A TeX
implementation.
This version of TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In fact, many of
these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent with the definition of
TeX. When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed when TeX starts is
changed to print
TeXk instead of
TeX.
This version of TeX 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.
mf(1),
Donald E. Knuth,
The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13447-0.
Leslie Lamport,
LaTeX - A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley,
1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X.
K. Berry,
Eplain: Expanded plain TeX,
https://tug.org/eplain
Michael Spivak,
The Joy of TeX, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN
0-8218-2997-1.
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
https://tug.org/TUGboat
TeX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper spelling in
typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''
TeX was created by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web system for
Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard Trickey, and at
Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now offered with the Unix TeX
distribution is that generated by the Web to C system (
web2c),
originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.