pdftex, pdfinitex, pdfvirtex - PDF output from TeX
SYNOPSIS
pdftex
[options]
[commands]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete
documentation for this version of TeX can be found in the info file
or manual
Web2C: A TeX implementation.
pdfTeX is a version of TeX that can create
PDF
files as well as
DVI
files.
The typical use of pdfTeX is with a pregenerated formats for which
PDF output has been enabled. The
pdftex
command uses the equivalent of the plain TeX format, and the
pdflatex
command uses the equivalent of the LaTeX format.
The
pdfinitex
and
pdfvirtex
commands are pdfTeX's analogues to the
initex
and
virtex
commands. In this installation, they are symlinks to the
pdftex
executable.
pdfTeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of
TeX.
pdfTeX is beta software.
OPTIONS
This version of pdfTeX understands the following command line options.
--file-line-error-style
Print error messages in the form
file:line:error
which is similar to the way many compilers format them.
--fmt format
Use
format
as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which
pdfTeX was called or a
%&
line.
--help
Print help message and exit.
--ini
Be
pdfinitex,
for dumping formats; this is implicitly true if the program is called
as
pdfinitex.
--interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
batchmode,
nonstopmode,
scrollmode,
and
errorstopmode.
The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding
\commands.
--ipc
Send DVI or PDF 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.
--kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the
Kpathsea
manual for details.
--maketex fmt
Enable
mktexfmt,
where
fmt
must be one of
tex
or
tfm.
--no-maketex fmt
Disable
mktexfmt,
where
fmt
must be one of
tex
or
tfm.
--output-comment string
Use
string
for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
--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 Bourne shell command. This construct is normally
disallowed for security reasons.
--translate-file tcxname
Use the
tcxname
translation table.
--version
Print version information and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
The
kpsewhich
utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
One caveat: In most pdfTeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
give directly to pdfTeX, 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, pdfTeX 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 environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
There is no default value for that variable. For example, if you say
pdftex paper
and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has
the value
/tmp,
pdfTeX attempts to create
/tmp/paper.log
(and
/tmp/paper.pdf,
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.
TEXFONTS
Search path for font metric
(.tfm)
files.
TEXFORMATS
Search path for format files.
TEXPOOL
search path for
pdfinitex
internal strings.
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
vi,
is set when pdfTeX is compiled.
FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to
system. Use the
kpsewhich
utility to find their locations.
pdftex.pool
Encoded text of pdfTeX's messages.
texfonts.map
Filename mapping definitions.
*.tfm
Metric files for pdfTeX's fonts.
*.fmt
Predigested pdfTeX format (.fmt) files.
BUGS
This version of pdfTeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when
dimensions are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare,
but when it does the generated
DVI
file will be invalid. Whether a generated
PDF
file would be usable is unknown.
pdfTeX is beta software. Subscribe to the pdftex mailing list
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