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ETEX(1) General Commands Manual ETEX(1)

NAME
etex - extended (plain) TeX

SYNOPSIS
etex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]

DESCRIPTION
Run the e-TeX typesetter on file, by default creating file.dvi. If the file argument has no
extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a filename, a set of e-TeX commands can
be given, the first of which must start with a backslash. With a &format argument e-TeX uses
a different set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually better to use
the -fmt format option instead.

e-TeX is the first concrete result of an international research & development project, the
NTS Project, which was established under the aegis of DANTE e.V. during 1992. The aims of the
project are to perpetuate and develop the spirit and philosophy of TeX, whilst respecting
Knuth's wish that TeX should remain frozen.

e-TeX can be used in two different modes: in compatibility mode it is supposed to be com‐
pletely interchangable with standard TeX. In extended mode several new primitives are added
that facilitate (among other things) bidirectional typesetting.

An extended mode format is generated by prefixing the name of the source file for the format
with an asterisk (*).

e-TeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of the other TeX programs
in the web2c implementation.

OPTIONS
This version of e-TeX understands the following command line options.

-fmt format
Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which e-TeX
was called or a %& line.

-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.

-etex Enable the e-TeX extensions. This option is only effective in combination with -ini.

-file-line-error
Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is similar to the way many com‐
pilers 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.

-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 type‐
setting, 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 correspond‐
ing \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, the along the normal search path.

-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 placed 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-map‐
ping 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 e-TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to e-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, e-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 environ‐
ment variable TEXMFOUTPUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
if you say etex paper and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has
the value /tmp, e-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 gener‐
ates 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 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 direcory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the
standard search path.

TEXFORMATS
Search path for format files.

TEXPOOL
search path for etex internal strings.

TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually vi, is set when e-TeX
is compiled.

TFMFONTS
Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.

FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system. Use the kpsewhich
utility to find their locations.

etex.pool
Text file containing e-TeX's internal strings.

texfonts.map
Filename mapping definitions.

*.tfm Metric files for e-TeX's fonts.

*.fmt Predigested e-TeX format (.fmt) files.

NOTES
Starting with version 1.40, pdfTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions, so in this installation
eTeX may be just a symbolic link to pdfTeX. See pdftex(1). This manual page is not meant to
be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version of e-TeX can be found in the info
manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.

BUGS
This version of e-TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In fact, many of these ex‐
tensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent with the definition of e-TeX. When such ex‐
tensions are enabled, the banner printed when e-TeX starts is changed to print e-TeXk instead
of e-TeX.

This version of e-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.