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MPOST(1)                               General Commands Manual                              MPOST(1)



NAME
       mpost,  pmpost,  upmpost - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics r-mpost, r-pmpost, r-upm‐
       post - restricted MetaPost

SYNOPSIS
       mpost [options] [commands]

       mpost --dvitomp dvifile[.dvi] [mpxfile[.mpx]]


DESCRIPTION
       MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript (EPS)  or  Scalable  Vector
       Graphics  (SVG)  pictures.   The  MetaPost language is similar to Knuth's Metafont with addi‐
       tional features for including tex(1) or troff(1) commands and  accessing  features  of  Post‐
       Script not found in Metafont.

       MetaPost  is normally used with a set of basic macros, and it will use its executable name as
       the name of the preload file to use.   For example, when called as mpost the mpost.mp file is
       used,  which simply reads plain.mp.  When the --ini option is given, preloading does not hap‐
       pen.

       The commands given on the command line to the MetaPost program are passed to it as the  first
       input  line.   (But  it  is  often easier to type extended arguments as the first input line,
       since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret MetaPost's favorite symbols,  like  semi‐
       colons,  unless  you  quote  them.) The normal usage is to say mpost figs to process the file
       figs.mp.  The basename of figs becomes the ``jobname'', and is used in  forming  output  file
       names.   If  no file is named, the jobname becomes mpout.  The default extension, .mp, can be
       overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.

       When the --dvitomp option is given, MetaPost acts as DVI-to-MPX converter only.  See  dvitomp
       (1) for details.

       The  pmpost program is a variant with Japanese support, and upmpost has Unicode-enabled Japa‐
       nese support, analogous to ptex and uptex.

       All three variants are also installed with an `r-' prefix, that is, r-mpost, r-pmpost, r-upm‐‐
       post,  which  implicitly  specify the --restricted option to make MetaPost safe to run on un‐
       known input; the tex, makempx, and editor commands are disabled.

       This manual page is a mere skeleton.  For a list of all command line options, run --help.

       The main documentation for this version of MetaPost can be found  in  the  User  Manual  that
       should   have   been   installed   along   with  the  program  and  is  also  available  from
       https://tug.org/metapost.

       The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual assumes no  knowledge  of  Meta‐
       font.  MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or Metafont's online display mechanism.

FILES
       plain.mp
              The standard preload file.

       mfplain.mp
              The Metafont-compatible preload file.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
              The standard MetaPost macros included in the original distribution.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/*
              Various tables for handling included tex and troff.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map
              Table of corresponding font names for troff and PostScript.

       psfonts.map
              Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.

       $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/*
              The MetaPost manual and tutorial source, also including sample figures

SUGGESTED READING
       Donald  E.  Knuth,  The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typesetting), Addison-Wesley,
       1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
       TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).

SEE ALSO
       dvitomp(1), epstopdf(1), mf(1), mptopdf(1), tex(1),
       MetaPost home page ⟨https://tug.org/metapost/⟩.

AUTHORS
       MetaPost was created by John D. Hobby, incorporating algorithms from Metafont  by  Donald  E.
       Knuth.   It  was originally implemented on Unix, incorporating system-dependent routines from
       web2c, while not relying on it except for the actual Web-to-C translator.

       Ulrik Vieth adapted MetaPost to take advantage of the advanced  path  searching  features  in
       more  recent versions of web2c and worked towards fully integrating MetaPost into the canoni‐
       cal Unix TeX distribution.

       The primary author of the current MetaPost was Taco Hoekwater, with assistance from Hans  Ha‐
       gen and many others.  It is currently maintained by Luigi Scarso.

BUGS
       The MetaPost home page is https://tug.org/metapost.



Web2C 2022/dev                            31 December 2018                                  MPOST(1)