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MPOST(1)							      MPOST(1)

NAME
       mpost, inimpost, virmpost - MetaPost, a system for drawing pictures

SYNOPSIS
       mpost [options] [commands]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.	 The complete documen‐
       tation for this version of TeX can be found in the info file or	manual
       Web2C: A TeX implementation.

       MetaPost	 interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript pic‐
       tures.  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 PostScript not found in Metafont.

       Like TeX and Metafont, MetaPost is normally used with a large  body  of
       precompiled macros.  This version of MetaPost looks at its command line
       to see what name it was called under.  Both inimpost and	 virmpost  are
       symlinks to the mpost executable.  When called as inimpost (or when the
       --ini option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a  .mem
       file.   When called as virmpost it will use the plain mem.  When called
       under any other name, MetaPost will use that name as the	 name  of  the
       mem  to use.   For example, when called as mpost the mpost mem is used,
       which is identical to the plain mem.  Other mems than plain are	rarely
       used.

       The commands given on the command line to the  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  semicolons,	unless
       you  quote them.)  The first line should begin with a filename, a \con‐
       trolsequence, or a &memname.

       The normal usage is to say mp 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.

       There is normally one output file for each picture generated,  and  the
       output files are named jobname.nnn, where nnn is a number passed to the
       beginfig macro.	The output file name can also be  jobname.ps  if  this
       number is negative.

       The output files can be used as figures in a TeX document by including
			    \special{psfile=jobname.nnn}
       in  the	TeX document.  Alternatively, one can \input epsf.tex and then
       use the macro
				\epsfbox{jobname.nnn}
       to produce a box of the appropriate size containing the figure.

       btex TeX commands etex
	      This causes mp to generate a MetaPost  picture  expression  that
	      corresponds  to  the TeX commands.  If the TeX commands generate
	      more than one line of text, it must be in a \vbox or a  minipage
	      environment.

       verbatimtex TeX commands etex
	      This is ignored by mp except that the TeX commands are passed on
	      to TeX.  When using LaTeX instead of TeX	the  input  file  must
	      start with a verbatimtex block that gives the \documentstyle and
	      \begin{document} commands.  You can use the  `%&'	 construct  in
	      the  first verbatimtex block to ensure that the correct TeX for‐
	      mat is used to process the commands.

       Since most TeX fonts have to be downloaded as bitmaps, the btex feature
       works best when the output of mp is to be included in a TeX document so
       that dvips(1) can download the fonts.   For  self-contained  PostScript
       output that can be used directly or included in a troff document, start
       your MetaPost input file with the command  prologues:=1	and  stick  to
       standard PostScript fonts.  TeX and MetaPost use the names in the third
       column of the file trfonts.map, which can be found in  the  directories
       with support files for MetaPost.

       MetaPost output can be included in a troff document via the -m pictures
       macro package.  In this case mp should be invoked with the -T  flag  so
       that the commands between btex and etex or between verbatimtex and etex
       are interpreted as troff instead of TeX.	 (This automatically sets pro‐
       logues:=1 ).

OPTIONS
       This  version  of  MetaPost  understands	 the  following	 command  line
       options.

       --mem mem
	      Use mem as the name of the mem to be used, instead of  the  name
	      by which MetaPost was called or a %& line.

       --help Print help message and exit.

       --ini  Be  inimpost,  for dumping bases; this is implicitly true if the
	      program is called as inimpost.

       --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.

       --kpathsea-debug bitmask
	      Sets path searching debugging flags according  to	 the  bitmask.
	      See the Kpathsea manual for details.

       --progname name
	      Pretend  to  be program name.  This affects both the format used
	      and the search paths.

       -T     Produce TROFF output.

       --translate-file tcxname
	      Use the tcxname translation table.

       --troff
	      As -T.

       --version
	      Print version information and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       See the Kpathsearch library documentation  (the	`Path  specifications'
       node)  for  the	details	 of how the environment variables are use when
       searching.  The kpsewhich utility can be used to query  the  values  of
       the variables.

       If  the	environment  variable TEXMFOUTPUT is set, MetaPost attempts to
       put its output files in it, if they cannot be put in the current direc‐
       tory.

       Here is a list of the environment variables affect the behavior of mp:

       MPINPUTS
	      Search path for input files.

       MFINPUTS
	      Auxiliary	 search	 path  for  input files with .mf exten‐
	      sions.

       MPSUPPORT
	      Directory for various tables for	handling  included  tex
	      and troff.

       MPXCOMMAND
	      The  name	 of a shell script that converts embedded type‐
	      setting commands to a  form  that	 MetaPost  understands.
	      Defaults: makempx for tex and troffmpx for troff.

       TEX    The  version  of	TeX - or LaTeX - to use when processing
	      btex and verbatimtex commands.  Default tex.   This  ver‐
	      sion  of	MetaPost  allows  you  to use a `%&format' line
	      instead.

       TROFF  The troff pipeline for  btex  and	 verbatimtex  commands.
	      Default eqn -d\$\$ | troff

       MPEDIT A command template for invoking an editor.

       A  .mem file is a binary file that permits fast loading of macro
       packages.  mpost reads the default plain.mem unless another .mem
       file  is specified at the start of the first line with an & just
       before it.  There is also an that simulates  plain  Metafont  so
       that  mpost can read .mf fonts.	(Plain Metafont is described in
       The Metafontbook).

       Experts can create .mem files be invoking  inimpost  and	 giving
       macro definitions followed by a dump command.

       The  MetaPost  language is similar to Metafont, but the manual A
       User's Manual for MetaPost assumes  no  knowledge  of  Metafont.
       MetaPost	 does  not  have  bitmap  output commands or Metafont's
       online display mechanism.

FILES
       mpost.pool
	      Encoded text of MetaPost's messages.

       *.mem  Predigested MetaPost mem files.

       plain.mp
	      The standard mem file.

       mfplain.mp
	      The Metafont-compatible mem file.	 This  is  loaded  when
	      virmp is invoked via a symbolic link as mfmp.

       $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  Post‐
	      Script.

       psfonts.map
	      Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.

       $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/examples.mp
	      The source file for a few sample figures that are part of
	      a LaTeX document $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/mpintro.tex that
	      describes the MetaPost system in a little more detail.

SUGGESTED READING
       Donald  E.  Knuth,  The	Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and
       Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
       John D. Hobby, A User's Manual for MetaPost, CSTR 162, AT&T Bell
       Labs,
       John D. Hobby, Drawing Graphs with MetaPost, CSTR 164, AT&T Bell
       Labs,
       TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).

SEE ALSO
       tex(1), mf(1), dvips(1).

AUTHORS
       MetaPost was designed 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 exccept for the actual Web-to-C transla‐
       tor.

       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  canonical
       Unix TeX distribution.  He also updated and extended this manual
       page.

TRIVIA
       Unlike TeX and Metafont,	 MetaPost  originally  didn't  use  any
       fancy  logo.   John  Hobby  says he prefers the spelling ``Meta‐
       Post'', yet Don Knuth has updated the Metafont logo.mf  font  to
       be  able	 to typeset a proper MetaPost logo similar to the Meta‐
       font logo.  Feel free to use whatever you think is more appropo‐
       riate!

Web2C 7.3.1			 29 March 1999			      MPOST(1)
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