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📁 Kpathsea: Supported File Formats

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Locate a file in the TeX search path	kpsewhich article.sty	🔍 Find the full path of a file (e.g., .sty, .cls)
List all supported file formats	kpsewhich --help-formats	📋 Show all file types, variables, and suffixes
Override search path for a specific program	export TEXINPUTS_latex=/my/path//:	🔧 Use _ instead of . in environment variable names
Find a font metric file (TFM)	kpsewhich cmr10.tfm	🔢 Locate TeX font metric files
Find a bitmap font (PK)	kpsewhich cmr10.pk	🖼️ Locate packed bitmap font files
Check configuration file (texmf.cnf)	kpsewhich --progname=tex --format=cnf texmf.cnf	⚙️ Find the runtime configuration file

📖 Original Content

Kpathsea has support for a number of file types. Each file type has a list of environment and config file variables that are checked to define the search path, and most have a default suffix that plays a role in finding files (see the next section). Some also define additional suffixes, and/or a program to be run to create missing files on the fly.

Since environment variables containing periods, such as TEXINPUTS.latex, are not allowed on some systems, Kpathsea looks for environment variables with an underscore, e.g., TEXINPUTS_latex (Config files).

The following table lists the above information. You can also get the list by giving the --help-formats option to kpsewhich (Auxiliary tasks).

📁 File Type	🔧 Environment Variables	🔗 Suffixes	📝 Notes
📄 afm (Adobe font metrics)	AFMFONTS	.afm	See (dvips)Metric files
📦 base (Metafont memory dump)	MFBASES, TEXMFINI	.base	See (web2c)Memory dumps
📚 bib (BibTeX bibliography source)	BIBINPUTS, TEXBIB	.bib	See (web2c)bibtex invocation
📄 bltxml (BibLaTeXML bibliography files for Biber)	BLTXMLINPUTS	.bltxml	See https://ctan.org/pkg/biber
📑 bst (BibTeX style)	BSTINPUTS	.bst	See (web2c)Basic BibTeX style files
🔧 clua (dynamic libraries for Lua)	CLUAINPUTS	.dll, .so	See https://ctan.org/pkg/luatex
🗺️ cmap (character map files)	CMAPFONTS	.cmap
⚙️ cnf (Runtime configuration files)	TEXMFCNF	.cnf	See Config files
📄 cweb (CWEB input files)	CWEBINPUTS	.w, .web; additional: .ch
🖨️ dvips config (Dvips config.* files)	TEXCONFIG		See (dvips)Config files
🔤 enc files (encoding vectors)	ENCFONTS	.enc
📦 fmt (TeX memory dump)	TEXFORMATS, TEXMFINI	.fmt	See (web2c)Memory dumps
🗺️ font cid map (CJK mapping)	FONTCIDMAPS	.cid
🔤 font feature files (primarily for OpenType font features)	FONTFEATURES	.fea
🖼️ gf (generic font bitmap)	PROGRAMFONTS, GFFONTS, GLYPHFONTS, TEXFONTS	gf	See (dvips)Glyph files
🖼️ graphic/figure (Encapsulated PostScript figures)	TEXPICTS, TEXINPUTS	.eps, .epsi	See (dvips)PostScript figures
📑 ist (makeindex style files)	TEXINDEXSTYLE, INDEXSTYLE	.ist
🔗 lig files (ligature definition files)	LIGFONTS	.lig
📂 ls-R (Filename databases)	TEXMFDBS		See Filename database
🗺️ map (Fontmaps)	TEXFONTMAPS	.map	See Fontmap
📦 mem (MetaPost memory dump)	MPMEMS, TEXMFINI	.mem	See (web2c)Memory dumps
🔧 MetaPost support (MetaPost support files, used by DMP)	MPSUPPORT		See (web2c)dmp invocation
📄 mf (Metafont source)	MFINPUTS	.mf	Dynamic creation: mktexmf; see (web2c)mf invocation
📦 mfpool (Metafont program strings)	MFPOOL, TEXMFINI	.pool	See (web2c)pooltype invocation
📄 mft (MFT style file)	MFTINPUTS	.mft	See (web2c)mft invocation
🔤 misc fonts (font-related files that don't fit the other categories)	MISCFONTS
📚 mlbib (MlBibTeX bibliography source)	MLBIBINPUTS, BIBINPUTS, TEXBIB	.mlbib, .mlbib
📑 mlbst (MlBibTeX style)	MLBSTINPUTS, BSTINPUTS	.mlbst, .bst
📄 mp (MetaPost source)	MPINPUTS	.mp	See (web2c)mpost invocation
📦 mppool (MetaPost program strings)	MPPOOL, TEXMFINI	.pool	See (web2c)pooltype invocation
🔧 ocp (Omega compiled process files)	OCPINPUTS	.ocp	Dynamic creation: MakeOmegaOCP
📏 ofm (Omega font metrics)	OFMFONTS, TEXFONTS	.ofm, .tfm	Dynamic creation: MakeOmegaOFM
🔤 opentype fonts (OpenType fonts)	OPENTYPEFONTS
📄 opl (Omega property lists)	OPLFONTS, TEXFONTS	.opl
🔧 otp (Omega translation process files)	OTPINPUTS	.otp
🔤 ovf (Omega virtual fonts)	OVFFONTS, TEXFONTS	.ovf
📄 ovp (Omega virtual property lists)	OVPFONTS, TEXFONTS	.ovp
⚙️ pdftex config (PDFTeX-specific configuration files)	PDFTEXCONFIG
🖼️ pk (packed bitmap fonts)	PROGRAMFONTS (PROGRAM being XDVI, etc.), PKFONTS, TEXPKS, GLYPHFONTS, TEXFONTS	pk	Dynamic creation: mktexpk; see (dvips)Glyph files
🖨️ PostScript header (downloadable PostScript)	TEXPSHEADERS, PSHEADERS	.pro	See (dvips)Header files
📚 ris (RIS bibliography files, primarily for Biber)	RISINPUTS	.ris	See https://ctan.org/pkg/biber
🔤 subfont definition files (subfont definition files)	SFDFONTS	.sfd
📄 tex (TeX source)	TEXINPUTS	.tex	Additional suffixes: none (list cannot be complete); dynamic creation: mktextex; see (web2c)tex invocation
📚 TeX system documentation (Documentation files for the TeX system)	TEXDOCS
📄 TeX system sources (Source files for the TeX system)	TEXSOURCES
🔧 texmfscripts (Architecture-independent executables)	TEXMFSCRIPTS
📦 texpool (TeX program strings)	TEXPOOL, TEXMFINI	.pool	See (web2c)pooltype invocation
📏 tfm (TeX font metrics)	TFMFONTS, TEXFONTS	.tfm	Dynamic creation: mktextfm; see (dvips)Metric files
🔤 Troff fonts (Troff fonts, used by DMP)	TRFONTS		See (web2c)DMP invocation
🔤 truetype fonts (TrueType outline fonts)	TTFONTS	.ttf, .TTF, .ttc, .TTC, .dfont
🔤 type1 fonts (Type 1 PostScript outline fonts)	T1FONTS, T1INPUTS, TEXPSHEADERS, DVIPSHEADERS	.pfa, .pfb	See (dvips)Glyph files
🔤 type42 fonts (Type 42 PostScript outline fonts)	T42FONTS
🔤 vf (virtual fonts)	VFFONTS, TEXFONTS	.vf	See (dvips)Virtual fonts
📄 web (WEB input files)	WEBINPUTS	.web; additional: .ch
⚙️ web2c files (files specific to the web2c implementation)	WEB2C

📌 Special Cases

There are two special cases, because the paths and environment variables always depend on the name of the program: the variable name is constructed by converting the program name to upper case, and then appending INPUTS. Assuming the program is called foo, this gives us the following table.

📁 File Type	🔧 Environment Variables
📄 other text files (text files used by foo)	FOOINPUTS
📄 other binary files (binary files used by foo)	FOOINPUTS

If an environment variable by these names are set, the corresponding texmf.cnf definition won't be looked at (unless, as usual, the environment variable value has an extra :). See Default expansion.

For the font variables, the intent is that:

• 🔤 TEXFONTS is the default for everything.
• 🖼️ GLYPHFONTS is the default for bitmap (or, more precisely, non-metric) files.
• 🔤 Each font format has a variable of its own.
• 🔧 Each program has its own font override path as well; e.g., DVIPSFONTS for Dvipsk. Again, this is for bitmaps, not metrics.

📁 Kpathsea: Supported File Formats 🚀 Quick Reference 📖 Original Content