Ubuntu Manpage: tex, initex - text formatting and typesetting

Provided by: texlive-binaries_2023.20230311.66589-9build3_amd64

NAME

       tex, initex - text formatting and typesetting

SYNOPSIS

       tex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]

DESCRIPTION

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).

OPTIONS

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.

ENVIRONMENT

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.

FILES

       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.

NOTES

       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.

BUGS

       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.

TRIVIA

       TeX,  pronounced  properly,  rhymes  with  ``blecchhh.''  The proper spelling in typewriter-like fonts is
       ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''

AUTHORS

       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.

Web2C 2023                                        6 August 2019                                           TEX(1)