man > HISTRETCH(1)

HISTRETCH(1)                           General Commands Manual                          HISTRETCH(1)

NAME
       histretch - translating binary HINT files to ASCII files

SYNOPSIS
       histretch [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION
       Stretching converts a binary HINT file, usually with the extension .hnt, into an  ASCII based
       HINT file, with the extension .hint.

       The  binary  HINT file format - also called `short' format - is optimized for displaying HINT
       files. It can be parsed equally well in forward and backward direction to enable fast forward
       or backward navigation in the file.

       The ASCII based HINT file format - also called `long' format - is optimized for  readability.
       It can be edited using a text editor. Hence it allows simple modifications that would be dif‐
       ficult to achieve when using the binary format. It is also convenient when debugging.

       The  binary  HINT  file  format is designed for on-screen reading of documents.  Using a HINT
       viewer to display a HINT file, its content will dynamically adapt to  the  available  display
       area.  For  complete information on the HINT file format and programs to view HINT files, see
       https://hint.userweb.mwn.de.

OPTIONS
       This version of histretch understands the following command line options:

       -a     Write auxiliar files to disk using the localized path names as explained in the  FILES
              section below.

              Use  this  option if you are stretching a HINT file that you later want to shrink back
              to its binary format unless you know that you have already  all  the  auxiliary  files
              contained in it.

       -d bitmask
              Sets  HINT  file  debugging flags according to the bitmask.  See the --help option for
              details.

       -f     Force the replacement of existing auxiliary files.  Use this option together with  the
              -g  or -a option to make sure that already exiting auxiliary files are replaced by the
              auxiliary files contained in the HINT file.

              WARNING: This is a dangerous option especially together with the -g option. Never  use
              it on a HINT file of unknown origin. It will possibly replace any file on your machine
              you have write access to.  If in doubt, don't use the -f option.

       -g     Write  auxiliar  files  to disk using the path names as stored in the HINT file.  This
              option is an alternative to the -a option and takes precedence if given.  If in doubt,
              don't use the -g option.  If you just want to stretch the HINT file, then edit it, and
              then shrink it back to the binary format, you should use the -a option.

              You may use this option if you are stretching a HINT file on the same machine  and  in
              the same directory where you have created the HINT file. Then all files will be copied
              to the location they came from in case they were deleted in the meantime.

              If you are stretching a HINT file on one machine and the file was created on a differ‐
              ent machine, histretch will try to copy an auxiliary file into the same directory that
              was  used when the HINT file was created, provided that you have the necessary writing
              rights.  This is probably where you want the auxiliary file  assuming  that  both  ma‐
              chines have the same directory structure.

              WARNING:  This is a dangerous option especially together with the -f option. Never use
              it on a HINT file of unknown origin. It can possibly write (and replace) any  file  on
              your machine where you have write access.

       --help Print help message and exit.

       -l     Redirect  standard  error  to a log file. The name of the log file is derived from the
              name of the input file replacing the extension .hnt by the extension .log.

       -o name
              Use name for the output file instead of deriving it from the name of the  input  file.
              Append the extension .hint if the name does not already has that extension.

       -u     Enable  the  use  of  UTF8 character codes.  Without this option, the output file is a
              pure ASCII file, because character codes outside the ASCII  range  are  written  using
              their numeric representation.  With this option, the file will always represent print‐
              able characters using their UTF8 character codes. This might make the output file more
              readable  if displayed using an UTF8 enabled program; but it might be less readable if
              displayed by a program that does not handle UTF8 characters properly. See also the  -x
              option.

       --version
              Print version information and exit.

       -x     Enable  the  use of hexadecimal character codes.  Without this option, characters that
              are not represented using their character codes are represented using a decimal repre‐
              sentation of the character code. With this  option  a  hexadecimal  representation  is
              used.   The  range  of character codes that have a numeric representation includes the
              non printable characters (character codes smaller than 32) and unless the -u option is
              given, the character codes with a value of 127 and above.

FILES
       Binary HINT files must contain all resources necessary to display the file, for example  font
       and  image files.  These files are called auxiliary files.  ASCII HINT files contain only the
       path names of these files.

       When creating a binary HINT file from an ASCII HINT file,  it  is  necessary  to  find  these
       files,  read  them,  and include them in the binary output file.  When creating an ASCII HINT
       file from a binary HINT file, it is convenient if these files can be extracted and written to
       the file system.  To avoid clobbering arbitrary directories with files when extracting auxil‐
       iary files, it is possible to map the path names as stored in the HINT file to localized path
       names before writing or reading auxiliar files.

       When computing a localized path name from a given path name, a distinction  is  made  between
       global  resources,  like  fonts,  that are referenced by an absolute path name, and local re‐
       sources, for example an image, that are referenced by a relative  path  name.  The  directory
       that  starts  the localized path name of the former has the extension .abs and for the latter
       the extension .rel is used.  To keep auxiliary files in these subdirectories  even  if  their
       path  contains  links to a parent directory, parent links `..'  are replaced by `__' links to
       subdirectories.

       For example, given an input file paper.hint, the global resources are stored in the paper.abs
       directory  and  local  resources  are  stored  in   paper.rel.    An   absolute   path   like
       /usr/share/fonts/  will then map to the localized path paper.abs/usr/share/fonts/ and a rela‐
       tive path like ../image/img1.jpg  will  then  map  to  the  localized  path  paper.rel/__/im‐
       age/img1.jpg.

NOTES
       This  manual  page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The complete documentation can be found in
       HINT: The file format.  This document is available as a book or in electronic form  from  the
       HINT  project  home page at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de.  There you find additional software,
       most importantly viewers for HINT files, and further information.

AVAILABILITY
       histretch should compile on a large variety of machine architectures and  operating  systems.
       It is part of the TeX Live distribution.

SEE ALSO
       hishrink(1), hitex(1),

AUTHORS
       Martin Ruckert

Version 1.3                               11 November 2021                              HISTRETCH(1)