SYNOPSIS
tex [options] [& format ] [ file | \ commands ]
DESCRIPTION
Run the TeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.dvi. If the file
argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a
filename, a set of TeX commands can be given, the first of which must
start with a backslash. With a &format argument TeX uses a different
set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually
better to use the -fmt format option instead.
TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named
files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI, which is
short for DeVice Independent). TeX's capabilities and language are
described in The TeX for nroffbook. TeX is normally used with a large
body of precompiled macros, and there are several specific formatting
systems, such as LaTeX, which require the support of several macro
files.
This version of TeX looks at its command line to see what name it was
called under. If they exist, then both initex and virtex are symbolic
links to the tex executable. When called as initex (or when the -ini
option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a .fmt file.
When called as virtex it will use the plain format. When called under
any other name, TeX will use that name as the name of the format to
use. For example, when called as tex the tex format is used, which is
identical to the plain format. The commands defined by the plain for-
mat are documented in The TeX for nroffbook. Other formats that are
often available include latex and amstex.
The non-option command line arguments to the TeX 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 TeX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you
quote them.) As described in The TeX for nroffbook, that first line
should begin with a filename, a \controlsequence, or a &formatname.
The normal usage is to say
tex paper
to start processing paper.tex. The name paper will be the ``jobname'',
and is used in forming output filenames. If TeX doesn't get a filename
in the first line, the jobname is texput. When looking for a file, TeX
looks for the name with and without the default extension (.tex)
appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If paper is
the ``jobname'', a log of error messages, with rather more detail than
normally appears on the screen, will appear in paper.log, and the out-
put file will be in paper.dvi.
This version of TeX can look in the first line of the file paper.tex to
see if it begins with the magic sequence %&. If the first line begins
with %&format -translate-file tcxname then TeX will use the named for-
mat and transation table tcxname to process the source file. Either
A convenient file in the library is null.tex, containing nothing. When
TeX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you
for another filename; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you
don't want to input anything. You can also type your EOF character
(usually control-D).
OPTIONS
This version of TeX understands the following command line options.
-enc Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX exten-
sions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
-file-line-error
Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi-
lar to the way many compilers 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.
-fmt format
Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
name by which TeX was called or a %& line.
-halt-on-error
Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro-
cessing.
-help Print help message and exit.
-ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
can be used for typesetting, 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 corresponding \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
-output-comment string
Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
-output-directory directory
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 secu-
rity 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 places 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-mapping 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
PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
if you say tex paper and the current directory is not writable,
if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, TeX attempts to create
/tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)
TEXINPUTS
Search path for \input and \openin files. This should probably
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/usr/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 tex internal strings.
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
vi, is set when 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.
texmf.cnf
Configuration file. This contains definitions of search paths
as well as other configuration parameters like parse_first_line.
tex.pool
Text file containing TeX's internal strings.
texfonts.map
Filename mapping definitions.
*.tfm Metric files for TeX's fonts.
*.fmt Predigested TeX format (.fmt) files.
$TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex
The basic macro package described in the TeX for nroffbook.
NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen-
tation for this version of TeX can be found in the info manual Web2C: A
TeX implementation.
Leslie Lamport, LaTeX - A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley,
1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X.
K. Berry, Eplain: Expanded plain TeX,
ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc.
Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX for nroff, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley,
1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
TRIVIA
TeX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper
spelling in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or
``tex.''
AUTHORS
TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
system for Pascal programs. 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 system (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.
Web2C 7.5.4 21 August 2004 TEX(1)
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