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pdftex, pdfinitex, pdfvirtex - PDF output from TeX
pdftex
[options] [commands]
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.
The complete documentation for this version of can be found in the info
file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
pdf is a version of that can
create PDF files as well as DVI files.
The typical use of pdf is with a
pregenerated formats for which PDF output has been enabled. The pdftex
command uses the equivalent of the plain format, and the pdflatex command
uses the equivalent of the X format.
The pdfinitex and pdfvirtex commands
are pdf's analogues to the initex and virtex commands. In this installation,
they are symlinks to the pdftex executable.
pdf's handling of its command-line
arguments is similar to that of .
pdf is beta software.
This version
of pdf understands the following command line options.
- --default-translate-file tcxname
- Use the default tcxname translation table. The --translate-file can overwrite
this setting.
- --enc
- Enable enc extension by Petr Olsak, see the file encdoc-e.pdf.
- --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 pdf
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.
- --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.
- --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.
- --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.
- --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.
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 pdf formats,
you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to pdf, because ~ is an
active character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part of the filename.
Other programs, such as , do not have this problem.
- TEXMFOUTPUT
- Normally,
pdf 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, pdf 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 pdf is compiled.
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
pdf's messages.
- texfonts.map
- Filename mapping definitions.
- *.tfm
- Metric files
for pdf's fonts.
- *.fmt
- Predigested pdf format (.fmt) files.
This version of pdf implements a number of optional extensions. In
fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent with
the definition of pdf. When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed
when pdf starts is changed to print pdfTeXk instead of pdfTeX.
This version
of pdf 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.
pdf is beta software. Subscribe to the pdftex mailing list pdftex@tug.org
if you intend to use it. This is a majordomo list, to subscribe send a
message containing subscribe pdftex to majordomo@tug.org.
tex(1)
,
mf(1)
.
The primary authors of pdf are Han The Thanh, Petr Sojka,
and Jiri Zlatuska.
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