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TEX(1) General Commands Manual TEX(1)
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 bet-
ter 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 La-
TeX, 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 in-
put 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 back-
slashes, unless you quote them.) As described in The TeXbook, that first line should be-
gin 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 ex-
tension (.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 tcx-
name 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/enc-
tex.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-sepa-
rated 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 de-
tails 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 file-
name. 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 envi-
ronment 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 TEXM-
FOUTPUT has the value /tmp, TeX attempts to create /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/pa-
per.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 suf-
fixes (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 ver-
sion 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 in-
stead of TeX.
This version of TeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are added or sub-
tracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it does the generated DVI file will
be invalid.
SEE ALSO
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
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 2022/dev 6 August 2019 TEX(1)
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