man > mpost(1)

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 Japan‐
       ese 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 2023                                31 December 2018                                  MPOST(1)