PDFTEX(1)PDFTEX(1)NAME
pdftex, pdfinitex, pdfvirtex - PDF output from TeX
SYNOPSISpdftex [options] [commands]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The com-
plete 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 ana-
logues to the initex and virtex commands. In this instal-
lation, 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 implic-
itly true if the program is called as pdfinitex.
--interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstop-
mode. 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 avail-
able 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 com-
mand can be any Bourne shell command. This con-
struct 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 spec-
ifications' node) for precise details of how the environ-
ment 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 cur-
rent 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 com-
piled.
FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from sys-
tem 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 implements a number of optional
extensions. In fact, many of these extensions conflict to
a greater or lesser extent with the definition of pdfTeX.
When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed when
pdfTeX starts is changed to print pdfTeXk instead of pdf-
TeX.
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 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.
SEE ALSOtex(1), mf(1).
AUTHORS
The primary authors of pdfTeX are Han The Thanh, Petr
Sojka, and Jiri Zlatuska.
Web2C 7.4.5 10 November 2001 PDFTEX(1)
