dviselect(1) - man - phpMan

DVISELECT(1)                           General Commands Manual                          DVISELECT(1)



NAME
       dviselect - extract pages from DVI files

SYNOPSIS
       dviselect [ -s ] [ -i infile ] [ -o outfile ] list of pages [ infile [ outfile ] ]

DESCRIPTION
       Dviselect  selects  pages  from a DVI file produced by TeX, creating a new DVI file usable by
       any of the TeX conversion programs, or even by dviselect itself.

       A range is a string of the form even, odd, or first:last where both first and  last  are  op‐
       tional  numeric  strings,  with  negative numbers indicated by a leading underscore character
       ``_''.  If both first and last are omitted, the colon may also be omitted, or may be replaced
       with  an  asterisk  ``*''.  A page range is a list of ranges separated by periods.  A list of
       pages is described by a set of page ranges separated by commas and/or white space.

       Dviselect actually looks at the ten count variables that  TeX  writes;  the  first  of  these
       (\count0)  is  the  page number, with \count1 through \count9 having varied uses depending on
       which macro packages are in use.  (Typically \count1 might be a chapter or  section  number.)
       A page is included in dviselect's output if all its \count values match any one of the ranges
       listed on the command line.  For example, the command ``dviselect *.1,35:'' might select  ev‐
       erything in chapter 1, as well as pages 35 and up.  ``dviselect 10:30'' would select pages 10
       through 30 (inclusive).  ``:43'' means everything up to and including page 43 (including neg‐
       ative-numbered pages).  To get all even-numbered pages, use ``even''; to get all odd-numbered
       pages, use ``odd''.  If a Table of Contents has negative page numbers,  ``:_1''  will  select
       it.   Note  that  ``*'' must be quoted from the shell; the empty string is more convenient to
       use, if harder to read.

       Instead of \count values, dviselect can also select by ``absolute page  number'',  where  the
       first  page  is page 1, the second page 2, and so forth.  Absolute page numbers are indicated
       by a leading equal sign ``=''.  Ranges of absolute pages are also allowed: ``dviselect =3:7''
       will  extract  the  third  through  seventh  pages.  Dot separators are not legal in absolute
       ranges, and there are no negative absolute page numbers.  Even/odd specifiers,  however,  are
       legal; ``dviselect =even'' selects every other page, starting with the second.

       More precisely, an asterisk or an empty string implies no limit; an equal sign means absolute
       page number rather than \counts; a leading colon means everything up  to  and  including  the
       given page; a trailing colon means everything from the given page on; the word ``even'' means
       only even values shall be accepted; the word ``odd'' means only odd values shall be accepted;
       and  a period indicates that the next \count should be examined.  If fewer than 10 ranges are
       specified, the remaining \counts are left unrestricted (that is, ``1:5''  and  ``1:5.*''  are
       equivalent).   A single number n is treated as if it were the range n:n.  An arbitrary number
       of page selectors may be given, separated by commas or whitespace; a page is selected if  any
       of the selectors matches its \counts or absolute page number.

       Dviselect  normally  prints  the page numbers of the pages selected; the -s option suppresses
       this.

AUTHOR
       Chris Torek, University of Maryland

SEE ALSO
       dviconcat(1), latex(1), tex(1)
       MC-TeX User's Guide
       The TeXbook

BUGS
       A leading ``-'' ought to be allowed for negative numbers, but it is currently used as a  syn‐
       onym for ``:'', for backwards compatibility.

       Section  or  subsection selection will sometimes fail, for the DVI file lists only the \count
       values that were active when the page ended.  Clever macro packages  can  alleviate  this  by
       making  use of other ``free'' \count registers.  Chapters normally begin on new pages, and do
       not suffer from this particular problem.

       The heuristic that decides which arguments are page selectors and which are file names is of‐
       ten wrong.  Using shell redirection or the -i and -o options is safest.

       Dviselect  does  not  adjust the parameters in the postamble; however, since these values are
       normally used only to size certain structures in the output conversion programs, and the  pa‐
       rameters never need to be adjusted upward, this has not proven to be a problem.



                                                                                        DVISELECT(1)