Command line options

flag	value	description
basic

--run		process (one or more) files (default action)
--make		create context formats

--ctx=name		use ctx file (process management specification)
--noctx		ignore ctx directives and flags
--interface		use specified user interface (default: en)

--autopdf		close pdf file in viewer and start pdf viewer afterwards
--purge		purge files either or not after a run (--pattern=...)
--purgeall		purge all files either or not after a run (--pattern=...)

--usemodule	list	load the given module or style, normally part of the distribution
--environment	list	load the given environment file first (document styles)
--mode	list	enable given the modes (conditional processing in styles)
--path	list	also consult the given paths when files are looked for
--arguments	list	set variables that can be consulted during a run (key/value pairs)
--randomseed	number	set the randomseed
--result	name	rename the resulting output to the given name
--trackers	list	set tracker variables (show list with --showtrackers)
--directives	list	set directive variables (show list with --showdirectives)
--silent	list	disable logcatgories (show list with --showlogcategories)
--strip		strip Lua code (only meant for production where no errors are expected)
--errors	list	show errors at the end of a run, quit when in list (also when --silent)
--htmlerrorpage		generate html error page instead (optional: =scite)
--noconsole		disable logging to the console (logfile only)
--nodummy		don't create a dummy file (can confuse pdf viewers that keep file in view)
--purgeresult		purge result file before run

--forcexml		force xml stub
--forcecld		force cld (context lua document) stub
--forcelua		force lua stub (like texlua)
--forcemp		force mp stub

--arrange		run extra imposition pass, given that the style sets up imposition
--noarrange		ignore imposition specifications in the style

--pages		report pagenumbers of names pages and list references (--page=... or --page=...)

--jit		use luajittex with jit turned off (only use the faster virtual machine)
--jiton		use luajittex with jit turned on (in most cases not faster, even slower)

--once		only run once (no multipass data file is produced)
--runs		process at most this many times
--forcedruns		process this many times (permits for optimization trial runs)

--batchmode		run without stopping and do not show messages on the console
--nonstopmode		run without stopping

--nosynctex		never initializes synctex (for production runs)
--synctex		run with synctex enabled (better use \setupsynctex[state=start]

--nodates		omit runtime dates in pdf file (optional value: a number (this 1970 offset time) or string "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM")
--nocompression		forcefully turns off compression in the backend
--trailerid		alternative trailer id (or constant one)

--generate		generate file database etc. (as luatools does)
--paranoid		do not descend to .. and ../..
--version		report installed context version

--global		assume given file present elsewhere
--nofile		use dummy file as jobname
expert

--touch		update context version number (also provide --expert, optionally provide --basepath)
--nostatistics		omit runtime statistics at the end of the run
--profile		profile job (use: mtxrun --script profile --analyze)
--timing		generate timing and statistics overview
--keeptuc		keep previous tuc files (jobname-tuc-[run].tmp)
--keeplog		keep previous log files (jobname-log-[run].tmp)
--lmtx		force lmtx mode (when available)
--overloadmode=error\|warning\|0--6\|255		enable csname overload checking

--extra=name		process extra (mtx-context-... in distribution)
--extras		show extras
special

--pdftex		process file with texexec using pdftex
--xetex		process file with texexec using xetex
--mkii		process file with texexec

--pipe		do not check for file and enter scroll mode (--dummyfile=whatever.tmp)

--sandbox		process file in a limited environment

--addbinarypath		prepend the (found) binarypath to runners