man > luatex(1)

LUATEX(1)                              General Commands Manual                             LUATEX(1)

NAME
       luatex,  dviluatex,  luahbtex,  luajittex, texlua, texluac - An extended version of TeX using
       Lua as an embedded scripting language

SYNOPSIS
       luatex [--lua=FILE] [OPTION]...  [TEXNAME[.tex]] [COMMANDS]
       luatex [--lua=FILE] [OPTION]...  \FIRST-LINE
       luatex [--lua=FILE] [OPTION]...  &FMT [ARGS]

DESCRIPTION
       Run the luaTeX typesetter on TEXNAME, usually creating TEXNAME.pdf.  Any  remaining  COMMANDS
       are processed as luaTeX input, after TEXNAME is read.

       Alternatively,  if  the  first  non-option  argument  begins  with a backslash, interpret all
       non-option arguments as a line of luaTeX input.

       Alternatively, if the first non-option argument begins with a &, the next word  is  taken  as
       the FMT to read, overriding all else.  Any remaining arguments are processed as above.

       If no arguments or options are specified, prompt for input.

       If  called  as  texlua  it  acts as a Lua interpreter.  If called as texluac it acts as a Lua
       bytecode compiler.

       LuaTeX began as an extended version of pdfTeX with Unicode and OpenType font support,  embed‐
       ded Lua scripting language, the e-TeX and Omega extensions, as well as an integrated MetaPost
       engine,  that  can create PDF files as well as DVI files.  For more information about luatex,
       see http://www.luatex.org; and you can read the LuaTeX manual using the texdoc utility  (tex‐
       doc luatex).

       All  LuaTeX  text input and output is considered to be Unicode text, although various filters
       make it possible to support any encoding.

       In DVI mode, LuaTeX can be used as a complete replacement for the TeX engine.

       In PDF mode, LuaTeX can natively handle the PDF, JPG, JBIG2, and PNG graphics formats.   Lua‐
       TeX  cannot include PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) graphics files; first convert
       them to PDF using epstopdf(1).

       The luajittex variant includes the Lua just-in-time compiler.

       The luahbtex variant can use the HarfBuzz engine  for  glyph  shaping,  instead  of  LuaTeX's
       built-in shaper.


OPTIONS
       When  the  LuaTeX executable starts, it looks for the --lua command-line option.  If there is
       no --lua option, the command line is interpreted in a similar fashion as in traditional  pdf‐
       TeX  and  Aleph.  But if the option is present, LuaTeX will enter an alternative mode of com‐
       mand-line parsing in comparison to the standard web2c programs.  The presence of --lua  makes
       most  of  other  options unreliable, because the lua initialization file can disable kpathsea
       and/or hook functions into various callbacks.

       --lua=FILE
              The lua initialization file.

       The following two options alter the executable behaviour:

       --luaonly
              Start LuaTeX as a Lua interpreter.  In this mode, it will  set  Lua's  arg[0]  to  the
              found  script  name,  pushing preceding options in negative values and the rest of the
              command line in the positive values, just like the Lua interpreter.  LuaTeX will  exit
              immediately after executing the specified Lua script.

       --luaconly
              Start  LuaTeX  as a Lua byte compiler.  In this mode, LuaTeX is exactly like luac from
              the standalone Lua distribution, except that it does not have the -l switch, and  that
              it accepts (but ignores) the --luaconly switch.

       Then the regular web2c options:

       --debug-format
              Debug format loading.

       --draftmode
              Sets \pdfdraftmode so luaTeX doesn't write a PDF and doesn't read any included images,
              thus speeding up execution.

       --enable-write18
              Synonym for --shell-escape.

       --disable-write18
              Synonym for --no-shell-escape.

       --shell-escape
              Enable  the  \write18{command}  construct,  and Lua functions os.execute(), os.exec(),
              os.spawn(), and io.popen().  The command can be any shell command.  This construct  is
              normally disallowed for security reasons.

       --no-shell-escape
              Disable the \write18{command} construct and the other Lua functions, even if it is en‐
              abled in the texmf.cnf file.

       --shell-restricted
              Enable  restricted  version  of  \write18,  os.execute(),  os.exec(),  os.spawn(), and
              io.popen(), only commands listed in texmf.cnf file are allowed.

       --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.

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

       --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.

       --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 generation, where FMT must be either tex or tfm.

       --nosocket
              Disable the luasocket (network) library.

       --output-comment=STRING
              In DVI mode, use STRING for the DVI file comment instead of the date.  This option  is
              ignored inPDF mode.

       --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.

       --output-format=FORMAT
              Set  the output format mode, where FORMAT must be either pdf or dvi.  This also influ‐
              ences the set of graphics formats understood by luaTeX.

       --progname=NAME
              Pretend to be program NAME (only for kpathsea).

       --recorder
              Enable the filename recorder.  This leaves a trace of the files opened for  input  and
              output in a file with extension .fls.

       --safer
              Disable some Lua commands that can easily be abused by a malicious document.

       --synctex=NUMBER
              Enable/disable SyncTeX extension.

       --version
              Print version information and exit.

       --credits
              Print credits and version details.

       The following options are ignored:

       --8bit, --etex, --parse-first-line, --no-parse-first-line
              These are always on.

       --default-translate-file=TCXNAME, --translate-file=TCXNAME
              These are always off.


SEE ALSO
       pdftex(1), etex(1), aleph(1), lua(1).

AUTHORS
       The  primary  authors  of  LuaTeX  are  Taco Hoekwater, Hartmut Henkel, Hans Hagen, and Luigi
       Scarso, with help from Martin Schröder, Karel Skoupy, and Han The Thanh.

       TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web system for Pascal  pro‐
       grams.   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 sys‐
       tem (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.

       The LuaTeX home page is http://luatex.org.

Web2C 2023                                17 November 2019                                 LUATEX(1)