This document describes how to install and use the programs in the Web2c implementation of the TeX system, especially for Unix systems. It corresponds to Web2c version 7.5.7, released in July 2008.
This manual corresponds to version 7.5.7 of Web2c, released in July 2008.
Web2c is the name of a TeX implementation, originally for Unix, but now also running under DOS, Amiga, and other operating systems. By TeX implementation, we mean all of the standard programs developed by the Stanford TeX project directed by Donald E. Knuth: Metafont, DVItype, GFtoDVI, BibTeX, Tangle, etc., as well as TeX itself. Other programs are also included: DVIcopy, written by Peter Breitenlohner, MetaPost and its utilities (derived from Metafont), by John Hobby, etc.
General strategy: Web2c works, as its name implies, by translating the WEB source in which TeX is written into C source code. Its output is not self-contained, however; it makes extensive use of many macros and functions in a library (the web2c/lib directory in the sources). Therefore, it will not work without change on an arbitrary WEB program.
Availability: All of Web2c is freely available—“free” both in the sense of no cost (free ice cream) and of having the source code to modify and/or redistribute (free speech). See unixtex.ftp, for the practical details of how to obtain Web2c.
Different parts of the Web2c distribution have different licensing
terms, however, reflecting the different circumstances of their
creation; consult each source file for exact details. The main
practical implication for redistributors of Web2c is that the executables
are covered by the GNU General Public License, and therefore anyone
who gets a binary distribution must also get the sources, as explained
by the terms of the GPL (see Copying). The
GPL covers the Web2c executables, including tex, because the Free
Software Foundation sponsored the initial development of the Kpathsea
library that Web2c uses. The basic source files from Stanford, however,
have their own copyright terms or are in the public domain, and are not
covered by the GPL.
History: Tomas Rokicki originated the TeX-to-C system in 1987, working from the first change files for TeX under Unix, which were done primarily by Howard Trickey and Pavel Curtis. Tim Morgan then took over development and maintenance for a number of years; the name changed to Web-to-C somewhere in there. In 1990, Karl Berry became the maintainer. He made many changes to the original sources, and started using the shorter name Web2c. In 1997, Olaf Weber took over. Dozens of other people have contributed; their names are listed in the ChangeLog files.
Other acknowledgements: The University of Massachusetts at Boston (particularly Rick Martin and Bob Morris) has provided computers and ftp access to me for many years. Richard Stallman at the Free Software Foundation employed me while I wrote the original path searching library (for the GNU font utilities). (rms also gave us Emacs, GDB, and GCC, without which I cannot imagine developing Web2c.) And, of course, TeX would not exist in the first place without Donald E. Knuth.
Further reading: See References.
(A copy of this chapter is in the distribution file web2c/INSTALL.)
Installing Web2c is mostly the same as installing any other Kpathsea-using program. Therefore, for the basic steps involved, see Installation. (A copy is in the file kpathsea/INSTALL.)
One peculiarity to Web2c is that the source distribution comes in two files: web.tar.gz and web2c.tar.gz. You must retrieve and unpack them both. (We have two because the former archive contains the very large and seldom-changing original WEB source files.) See unixtex.ftp.
Another peculiarity is the MetaPost program. Although it has been
installed previously as mp, as of Web2c 7.0 the installed name is
now mpost, to avoid conflict with the mp program that does
prettyprinting. This approach was recommended by the MetaPost author,
John Hobby. If you as the TeX administrator wish to make it
available under its shorter name as well, you will have to set up a link
or some such yourself. And of course individual users can do the same.
For solutions to common installation problems and information on how to report a bug, see the file kpathsea/BUGS (see Bugs). See also the Web2c home page, http://www.tug.org/web2c.
Points worth repeating:
configure time,
as described in the first section below.
configure optionsThis section gives pointers to descriptions of the ‘--with’ and
‘--enable’ configure arguments that Web2c accepts. Some are
specific to Web2c, others are generic to all Kpathsea-using programs.
For a list of all the options configure accepts, run
‘configure --help’. The generic options are listed first, and the
package-specific options come last.
For a description of the generic options (which mainly allow you to
specify installation directories) and basic configure usage,
see Running configure scripts, a copy is in the file kpathsea/CONFIGURE.
mktextex.
configure does its best to guess). See Optional Features. A copy is in kpathsea/CONFIGURE.
In addition to the configure options listed in the previous
section, there are a few things that can be affected at compile-time
with C definitions, rather than with configure. Using any of
these is unusual.
To specify extra compiler flags (‘-Dname’ in this case), the simplest thing to do is:
make XCFLAGS="ccoptions"
You can also set the CFLAGS environment variable before
running configure. See configure environment.
Anyway, here are the possibilities:
Web2c has several Make targets besides the standard ones. You can invoke these either in the top level directory of the source distribution (the one containing kpathsea/ and web2c/), or in the web2c/ directory.
fmts, bases, and
mems variables. See the top of web2c/Makefile for the
possibilities.
To validate your TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost executables, run ‘make triptrap’. This runs the trip, trap, and mptrap “torture tests”. See the files triptrap/tripman.tex, triptrap/trapman.tex, and triptrap/mptrap.readme for detailed information and background on the tests.
The differences between your executables' behavior and the standard values will show up on your terminal. The usual differences (these are all acceptable) are:
Any other differences are trouble. The most common culprit in the past has been compiler bugs, especially when optimizing. See TeX or Metafont failing.
The files trip.diffs, mftrap.diffs, and mptrap.diffs in the triptrap directory show the standard diffs against the original output. If you diff your diffs against these files, you should come up clean. For example
make trip >&mytrip.diffs
diff triptrap/trip.diffs mytrip.diffs
To run the tests separately, use the targets trip, trap,
and mptrap.
To run simple tests for all the programs as well as the torture tests, run ‘make check’. You can compare the output to the distributed file tests/check.log if you like.
Besides the configure- and compile-time options described in the previous sections, you can control a number of parameters (in particular, array sizes) in the texmf.cnf runtime file read by Kpathsea (see Config files).
Rather than exhaustively listing them here, please see the last section of the distributed kpathsea/texmf.cnf. Some of the more interesting values:
hash_extra.
Of course, ideally all arrays would be dynamically expanded as necessary, so the only limiting factor would be the amount of swap space available. Unfortunately, implementing this is extremely difficult, as the fixed size of arrays is assumed in many places throughout the source code. These runtime limits are a practical compromise between the compile-time limits in previous versions, and truly dynamic arrays. (On the other hand, the Web2c BibTeX implementation does do dynamic reallocation of some arrays.)
Many aspects of the TeX system are the same among more than one program, so we describe all those pieces together, here.
To provide a clean and consistent behavior, we chose to have all these
programs use the GNU function getopt_long_only to parse command
lines. However, we do use in a restricted mode, where all the options
have to come before the rest of the arguments.
By convention, non-option arguments, if specified, generally define the name of an input file, as documented for each program.
If a particular option with a value is given more than once, it is the last value that counts.
For example, the following command line specifies the options ‘foo’, ‘bar’, and ‘verbose’; gives the value ‘baz’ to the ‘abc’ option, and the value ‘xyz’ to the ‘quux’ option; and specifies the filename -myfile-.
-foo --bar -verb -abc=baz -quux karl --quux xyz -- -myfile-
All of these programs accept the standard GNU ‘--help’ and ‘--version’ options, and several programs accept ‘--verbose’. Rather than writing identical descriptions for every program, they are described here.
TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost have a number of additional options in common:
initex
resp. inimf resp. inimpost, although these variants
are no longer typically installed.
KPATHSEA_DEBUG environment variable (for all Web2c programs).
(The command line value overrides.) The most useful value is ‘-1’,
to get all available output.
All of the Web2c programs, including TeX, which do path searching use
the Kpathsea routines to do so. The precise names of the environment
and configuration file variables which get searched for particular file
formatted are therefore documented in the Kpathsea manual
(see Supported file formats). Reading
texmf.cnf (see Config files), invoking
mktex... scripts (see mktex scripts), and so on are all handled by Kpathsea.
The programs which read fonts make use of another Kpathsea feature: texfonts.map, which allows arbitrary aliases for the actual names of font files; for example, ‘Times-Roman’ for ‘ptmr8r.tfm’. The distributed (and installed by default) texfonts.map includes aliases for many widely available PostScript fonts by their PostScript names.
All the programs generally follow the usual convention for output files. Namely, they are placed in the directory current when the program is run, regardless of any input file location; or, in a few cases, output is to standard output.
For example, if you run ‘tex /tmp/foo’, for example, the output will be in ./foo.dvi and ./foo.log, not /tmp/foo.dvi and /tmp/foo.log.
You can use the ‘-output-directory’ option to cause all output files that would normally be written in the current directory to be written in the specified directory instead. See Common options.
If the current directory is not writable, and ‘-output-directory’
is not specified, the main programs (TeX, Metafont, MetaPost, and
BibTeX) make an exception: if the config file value
TEXMFOUTPUT is set (it is not by default), output files are
written to the directory specified.
TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost have a number of features in common. Besides the ones here, the common command-line options are described in the previous section. The configuration file options that let you control some array sizes and other features are described in Runtime options.
The TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost programs each have two main
variants, called initial and virgin. As of Web2c 7, one
executable suffices for both variants, and in fact, the ini...
executables are no longer created.
The initial form is enabled if:
The virgin form is the one generally invoked for production use. The first thing it does is read a memory dump (see Determining the memory dump to use), and then proceeds on with the main job.
The initial form is generally used only to create memory dumps (see the next section). It starts up more slowly than the virgin form, because it must do lengthy initializations that are encapsulated in the memory dump file.
In typical use, TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost require a large number of macros to be predefined; therefore, they support memory dump files, which can be read much more efficiently than ordinary source code.
The programs all create memory dumps in slightly idiosyncratic (thought
substantially similar) way, so we describe the details in separate
sections (references below). The basic idea is to run the initial
version of the program (see Initial and virgin), read the source
file to define the macros, and then execute the \dump primitive.
Also, each program uses a different filename extension for its memory dumps, since although they are completely analogous they are not interchangeable (TeX cannot read a Metafont memory dump, for example).
Here is a list of filename extensions with references to examples of creating memory dumps:
When making memory dumps, the programs read environment variables and configuration files for path searching and other values as usual. If you are making a new installation and have environment variables pointing to an old one, for example, you will probably run into difficulties.
The virgin form (see Initial and virgin) of each program always reads a memory dump before processing normal source input. All three programs determine the memory dump to use in the same way:
%&dump, and
dump is an existing memory dump of the appropriate type,
dump is used.
The first line of the main input file can also specify which character
translation file is to be used: %&-translate-file=tcxfile
(see TCX files).
These two roles can be combined: %&dump
-translate-file=tcxfile. If this is done, the name of the dump
must be given first.
By default, memory dump files are generally sharable between
architectures of different types; specifically, on machines of different
endianness (see Byte order). (This is a
feature of the Web2c implementation, and is not true of all TeX
implementations.) If you specify ‘--disable-dump-share’ to
configure, however, memory dumps will be endian-dependent.
The reason to do this is speed. To achieve endian-independence, the reading of memory dumps on LittleEndian architectures, such as PC's and DEC architectures, is somewhat slowed (all the multibyte values have to be swapped). Usually, this is not noticeable, and the advantage of being able to share memory dumps across all platforms at a site far outweighs the speed loss. But if you're installing Web2c for use on LittleEndian machines only, perhaps on a PC being used only by you, you may wish to get maximum speed.
TeXnically, even without ‘--disable-dump-share’, sharing of .fmt files cannot be guaranteed to work. Floating-point values are always written in native format, and hence will generally not be readable across platforms. Fortunately, TeX uses floating point only to represent glue ratios, and all common formats (plain, LaTeX, AMSTeX, ...) do not do any glue setting at .fmt-creation time. Metafont and MetaPost do not use floating point in any dumped value at all.
Incidentally, different memory dump files will never compare equal byte-for-byte, because the program always dumps the current date and time. So don't be alarmed by just a few bytes difference.
If you don't know what endianness your machine is, and you're curious,
here is a little C program to tell you. (The configure script
contains a similar program.) This is from the book C: A Reference
Manual, by Samuel P. Harbison and Guy L. Steele
Jr. (see References).
main ()
{
/* Are we little or big endian? From Harbison&Steele. */
union
{
long l;
char c[sizeof (long)];
} u;
u.l = 1;
if (u.c[0] == 1)
printf ("LittleEndian\n");
else if (u.c[sizeof (long) - 1] == 1)
printf ("BigEndian\n");
else
printf ("unknownEndian");
exit (u.c[sizeof (long) - 1] == 1);
}
TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost all (by default) stop and ask for user intervention at an error. If the user responds with e or E, the program invokes an editor.
Specifying ‘--with-editor=cmd’ to configure sets the
default editor command string to cmd. The environment
variables/configuration values TEXEDIT, MFEDIT, and
MPEDIT (respectively) override this. If ‘--with-editor’ is
not specified, the default is vi +%d %s.
In this string, ‘%d’ is replaced by the line number of the error, and ‘%s’ is replaced by the name of the current input file.
\input filenames
TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost source programs can all read other source
files with the \input (TeX) and input (MF and MP)
primitives:
\input name % in TeX
The file name can always be terminated with whitespace; for
Metafont and MetaPost, the statement terminator ‘;’ also works.
(LaTeX and other macro packages provide other interfaces to
\input that allow different notation; here we are concerned only
with the primitive operation.)
As of Web2c version 7.5.3, double-quote characters can be used to include spaces or other special cases. In typical use, the ‘"’ characters surround the entire filename:
\input "filename with spaces"
Technically, the quote characters can be used inside the name, and can enclose any characters, as in:
\input filename" "with" "spaces
One more point. In LaTeX, the quotes are needed inside the braces, thus
\input{a b} % fails
\input{"a b"} % ok
This quoting mechanism comes into play after TeX has tokenized and expanded the input. So, multiple spaces and tabs may be seen as a single space, active characters such as ‘~’ are expanded first, and so on. (See below.)
On the other hand, various C library routines and Unix itself use the null byte (character code zero, ASCII NUL) to terminate strings. So filenames in Web2c cannot contain nulls, even though TeX itself does not treat NUL specially. In addition, some older Unix variants do not allow eight-bit characters (codes 128–255) in filenames.
For maximal portability of your document across systems, use only the characters ‘a’–‘z’, ‘0’–‘9’, and ‘.’, and restrict your filenames to at most eight characters (not including the extension), and at most a three-character extension. Do not use anything but simple filenames, since directory separators vary among systems; instead, add the necessary directories to the appropriate search path.
Finally, the present Web2c implementation does ‘~’ and ‘$’ expansion on name, unlike Knuth's original implementation and older versions of Web2c. Thus:
\input ~jsmith/$foo.bar
will dereference the environment variable or Kpathsea config file value ‘foo’ and read that file extended with ‘.bar’ in user ‘jsmith’'s home directory. You can also use braces, as in ‘${foo}bar’, if you want to follow the variable name with a letter, numeral, or ‘_’.
(So another way to get a program to read a filename containing whitespace is to define an environment variable and dereference it.)
In all the common TeX formats (plain TeX, LaTeX, AMSTeX),
the characters ‘~’ and ‘$’ have special category codes, so to
actually use these in a document you have to change their catcodes or
use \string. (The result is unportable anyway, see the
suggestions above.) The place where they are most likely to be useful
is when typing interactively.
TeX is a typesetting system: it was especially designed to handle complex mathematics, as well as most ordinary text typesetting.
TeX is a batch language, like C or Pascal, and not an interactive “word processor”: you compile a TeX input file into a corresponding device-independent (DVI) file (and then translate the DVI file to the commands for a particular output device). This approach has both considerable disadvantages and considerable advantages. For a complete description of the TeX language, see The TeXbook (see References). Many other books on TeX, introductory and otherwise, are available.
tex invocation
TeX (usually invoked as tex) formats the given text and
commands, and outputs a corresponding device-independent representation
of the typeset document. This section merely describes the options
available in the Web2c implementation. For a complete description of
the TeX typesetting language, see The TeXbook
(see References).
TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost process the command line (described here) and determine their memory dump (fmt) file in the same way (see Memory dumps). Synopses:
tex [option]... [texname[.tex]] [tex-commands]
tex [option]... \first-line
tex [option]... &fmt args
TeX searches the usual places for the main input file texname
(see Supported file formats), extending
texname with .tex if necessary. To see all the
relevant paths, set the environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to
‘-1’ before running the program.
After texname is read, TeX processes any remaining
tex-commands on the command line as regular TeX input. Also,
if the first non-option argument begins with a TeX escape character
(usually \), TeX processes all non-option command-line
arguments as a line of regular TeX input.
If no arguments or options are specified, TeX prompts for an input file name with ‘**’.
TeX writes the main DVI output to the file basetexname.dvi, where basetexname is the basename of texname, or ‘texput’ if no input file was specified. A DVI file is a device-independent binary representation of your TeX document. The idea is that after running TeX, you translate the DVI file using a separate program to the commands for a particular output device, such as a PostScript printer (see Introduction) or an X Window System display (see xdvi(1)).
TeX also reads TFM files for any fonts you load in your document with
the \font primitive. By default, it runs an external program
named mktextfm to create any nonexistent TFM files. You can
disable this at configure-time or runtime (see mktex configuration). This is enabled mostly for the
sake of the EC fonts, which can be generated at any size.
TeX can write output files, via the \openout primitive; this
opens a security hole vulnerable to Trojan horse attack: an unwitting
user could run a TeX program that overwrites, say, ~/.rhosts.
(MetaPost has a write primitive with similar implications). To
alleviate this, there is a configuration variable openout_any,
which selects one of three levels of security. When it is set to
‘a’ (for “any”), no restrictions are imposed. When it is set to
‘r’ (for “restricted”), filenames beginning with ‘.’ are
disallowed (except .tex because LaTeX needs it). When it is set
to ‘p’ (for “paranoid”) additional restrictions are imposed: an
absolute filename must refer to a file in (a subdirectory) of
TEXMFOUTPUT, and any attempt to go up a directory level is
forbidden (that is, paths may not contain a ‘..’ component). The
paranoid setting is the default. (For backwards compatibility, ‘y’
and ‘1’ are synonyms of ‘a’, while ‘n’ and ‘0’ are
synonyms for ‘r’.)
In any case, all \openout filenames are recorded in the log file,
except those opened on the first line of input, which is processed when
the log file has not yet been opened. (If you as a TeX administrator
wish to implement more stringent rules on \openout, modifying the
function openoutnameok in web2c/lib/texmfmp.c is intended
to suffice.)
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
\mubyte. This can be used
to support Unicode UTF-8 input encoding. See
http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
These options are available only if the ‘--enable-ipc’ option was
specified to configure during installation of Web2c.
INITEX (see Initial and virgin), enable MLTeX
extensions such as \charsubdef. Implicitly set if the program
name is mltex. See MLTeX.
\write. (If you as a TeX administrator wish to implement
more stringent rules on what can be executed, you will need to modify
tex.ch.)
Using the first form of this option, the ‘\special’ commands are inserted automatically.
In the second form of the option, string is a comma separated list of the following values: ‘cr’, ‘display’, ‘hbox’, ‘math’, ‘par’, ‘parend’, ‘vbox’. You can use this list to specify where you want TeX to output such commands. For example, ‘-src-specials=cr,math’ will output source information every line and every math formula.
These commands can be used with the appropriate DVI viewer and text editor to switch from the current position in the editor to the same position in the viewer and back from the viewer to the editor.
This option works by inserting ‘\special’ commands into the token stream, and thus in principle these additional tokens can be recovered or seen by the tricky-enough macros. If you run across a case, let us know, because this counts as a bug. However, such bugs are very hard to fix, requiring significant changes to TeX, so please don't count on it.
Redefining ‘\special’ will not affect the functioning of this option. The commands inserted into the token stream are hard-coded to always use the ‘\special’ primitive.
TeX does not pass the trip test when this option is enabled.
The initial form of TeX is invoked by ‘tex -ini’. It
does lengthy initializations avoided by the “virgin” (vir)
form, so as to be capable of dumping ‘.fmt’ files (see Memory dumps). For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms,
see Initial and virgin. In past releases, a separate program
initex was installed to invoke the initial form, but this is
no longer the case.
For a list of options and other information, see tex invocation.
Unlike Metafont and MetaPost, many format files are commonly used with TeX. The standard one implementing the features described in the TeXbook is ‘plain.fmt’, also known as ‘tex.fmt’ (again, see Memory dumps). It is created by default during installation, but you can also do so by hand if necessary (e.g., if an update to plain.tex is issued):
tex -ini '\input plain \dump'
(The quotes prevent interpretation of the backslashes from the shell.) Then install the resulting plain.fmt in ‘$(fmtdir)’ (/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c by default), and link tex.fmt to it.
The necessary invocation for generating a format file differs for each format, so instructions that come with the format should explain. The top-level web2c Makefile has targets for making most common formats: plain latex amstex texinfo eplain. See Formats, for more details on TeX formats.
TeX formats are large collections of macros, often dumped
into a .fmt file (see Memory dumps) by tex -ini
(see Initial TeX). A number of formats are in reasonably
widespread use, and the Web2c Makefile has targets to make the versions
current at the time of release. You can change which formats are
automatically built by setting the fmts Make variable; by default,
only the ‘plain’ and ‘latex’ formats are made.
You can get the latest versions of most of these formats from the CTAN archives in subdirectories of CTAN:/macros (for CTAN info, see unixtex.ftp). The archive ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/lib.tar.gz (also available from CTAN) contains most of these formats (although perhaps not the absolute latest version), among other things.
TeX supports most natural languages. See also TeX extensions.
Multi-lingual TeX (mltex) is an extension of TeX originally
written by Michael Ferguson and now updated and maintained by Bernd
Raichle. It allows the use of non-existing glyphs in a font by
declaring glyph substitutions. These are restricted to substitutions of
an accented character glyph, which need not be defined in the current
font, by its appropriate \accent construction using a base and
accent character glyph, which do have to exist in the current font.
This substitution is automatically done behind the scenes, if necessary,
and thus MLTeX additionally supports hyphenation of words containing
an accented character glyph for fonts missing this glyph (e.g., Computer
Modern). Standard TeX suppresses hyphenation in this case.
MLTeX works at .fmt-creation time: the basic idea is to
specify the ‘-mltex’ option to TeX when you \dump a
format. Then, when you subsequently invoke TeX and read that
.fmt file, the MLTeX features described below will be enabled.
Generally, you use special macro files to create an MLTeX .fmt
file.
The sections below describe the two new primitives that MLTeX defines. Aside from these, MLTeX is completely compatible with standard TeX.
\charsubdef: Character substitutions
The most important primitive MLTeX adds is \charsubdef, used
in a way reminiscent of \chardef:
\charsubdef composite [=] accent base
Each of composite, accent, and base are font glyph numbers, expressed in the usual TeX syntax: `\e symbolically, '145 for octal, "65 for hex, 101 for decimal.
MLTeX's \charsubdef declares how to construct an accented
character glyph (not necessarily existing in the current font) using two
character glyphs (that do exist). Thus it defines whether a character
glyph code, either typed as a single character or using the \char
primitive, will be mapped to a font glyph or to an \accent glyph
construction.
For example, if you assume glyph code 138
(decimal) for an e-circumflex
and you are using the Computer Modern fonts, which have the circumflex
accent in position 18 and lowercase `e' in the usual ASCII position 101
decimal, you would use \charsubdef as follows:
\charsubdef 138 = 18 101
For the plain TeX format to make use of this substitution, you have
to redefine the circumflex accent macro \^ in such a way that if
its argument is character `e' the expansion \char138 is used
instead of \accent18 e. Similar \charsubdef declaration
and macro redefinitions have to be done for all other accented
characters.
To disable a previous \charsubdef c, redefine c
as a pair of zeros. For example:
\charsubdef '321 = 0 0 % disable N tilde
(Octal '321 is the ISO Latin-1 value for the Spanish N tilde.)
\charsubdef commands should only be given once. Although in
principle you can use \charsubdef at any time, the result is
unspecified. If \charsubdef declarations are changed, usually
either incorrect character dimensions will be used or MLTeX will
output missing character warnings. (The substitution of a
\charsubdef is used by TeX when appending the character node
to the current horizontal list, to compute the width of a horizontal box
when the box gets packed, and when building the \accent
construction at \shipout-time. In summary, the substitution is
accessed often, so changing it is not desirable, nor generally useful.)
\tracingcharsubdef: Substitution diagnosticsTo help diagnose problems with ‘\charsubdef’, MLTeX provides a
new primitive parameter, \tracingcharsubdef. If positive, every
use of \charsubdef will be reported. This can help track down
when a character is redefined.
In addition, if the TeX parameter \tracinglostchars is 100 or
more, the character substitutions actually performed at
\shipout-time will be recorded.
TCX (TeX character translation) files help TeX support direct input of 8-bit international characters if fonts containing those characters are being used. Specifically, they map an input (keyboard) character code to the internal TeX character code (a superset of ASCII).
Of the various proposals for handling more than one input encoding, TCX files were chosen because they follow Knuth's original ideas for the use of the ‘xchr’ and ‘xord’ tables. He ventured that these would be changed in the WEB source in order to adjust the actual version to a given environment. It turns out, however, that recompiling the WEB sources is not as simple a task as Knuth may have imagined; therefore, TCX files, providing the possibility of changing of the conversion tables on on-the-fly, have been implemented instead.
This approach limits the portability of TeX documents, as some implementations do not support it (or use a different method for input-internal reencoding). It may also be problematic to determine the encoding to use for a TeX document of unknown provenance; in the worst case, failure to do so correctly may result in subtle errors in the typeset output. But we feel the benefits outweigh these disadvantages.
This is entirely independent of the MLTeX extension (see MLTeX):
whereas a TCX file defines how an input keyboard character is mapped to
TeX's internal code, MLTeX defines substitutions for a
non-existing character glyph in a font with a \accent
construction made out of two separate character glyphs. TCX files
involve no new primitives; it is not possible to specify
that an input (keyboard) character maps to more than one character.
Information on specifying TCX files:
%& -translate-file=tcxfile
WEB2C path.
The Web2c distribution comes with a number of TCX files. Two important ones are il1-t1.tcx and il2-t1.tcx, which support ISO Latin 1 and ISO Latin 2, respectively, with Cork-encoded fonts (a.k.a. the LaTeX T1 encoding). TCX files for Czech, Polish, and Slovak are also provided.
One other notable TCX file is empty.tcx, which is, well, empty. Its purpose is to reset Web2C's behavior to the default (only visible ASCII being printable, as described below) when a format was dumped with another TCX being active—which is in fact the case for everything but plain TeX in the TeX Live and other distributions. Thus:
latex somefile8.tex
⇒ terminal etc. output with 8-bit chars
latex --translate-file=empty.tcx somefile8.tex
⇒ terminal etc. output with ^^ notation
src [dest [prnt]]
Finally, here's what happens: when TeX sees an input character with code src, it 1) changes src to dest; and 2) makes the dest code “printable”, i.e., printed as-is in diagnostics and the log file rather than in ‘^^’ notation.
By default, no characters are translated, and character codes between 32 and 126 inclusive (decimal) are printable.
Specifying translations for the printable ASCII characters (codes
32–127) will yield unpredictable results. Additionally you shouldn't
make the following characters printable: ^^I (TAB), ^^J
(line feed), ^^M (carriage return), and ^^? (delete),
since TeX uses them in various ways.
Thus, the idea is to specify the input (keyboard) character code for src, and the output (font) character code for dest.
By default, only the printable ASCII characters are considered printable by TeX. If you specify the ‘-8bit’ option, all characters are considered printable by default. If you specify both the ‘-8bit’ option and a TCX file, then the TCX can set specific characters to be non-printable.
Both the specified TCX encoding and whether characters are printable are saved in the dump files (like tex.fmt). So by giving these options in combination with ‘-ini’, you control the defaults seen by anyone who uses the resulting dump file.
When loading a dump, if the ‘-8bit’ option was given, then all characters become printable by default.
When loading a dump, if a TCX file was specified, then the TCX data from the dump is ignored and the data from the file used instead.
Patgen creates hyphenation patterns from dictionary files for use with TeX. Synopsis:
patgen dictionary patterns output translate
Each argument is a filename. No path searching is done. The output is written to the file output.
In addition, Patgen prompts interactively for other values.
For more information, see Word hy-phen-a-tion by com-puter by Frank Liang (see References), and also the patgen.web source file.
The only options are ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options).
(Sorry, but I'm not going to write this unless someone actually uses this feature. Let me know.)
This functionality is available only if the ‘--enable-ipc’ option
was specified to configure during installation of Web2c
(see Installation).
If you define IPC_DEBUG before compilation (e.g., with ‘make
XCFLAGS=-DIPC_DEBUG’), TeX will print messages to standard error
about its socket operations. This may be helpful if you are, well,
debugging.
The base TeX program has been extended in many ways. Here's a partial list. Please send information on extensions not listed here to the address in Reporting bugs.
Metafont is a system for producing shapes; it was designed for producing complete typeface families, but it can also produce geometric designs, dingbats, etc. And it has considerable mathematical and equation-solving capabilities which can be useful entirely on their own.
Metafont is a batch language, like C or Pascal: you compile a Metafont program into a corresponding font, rather than interactively drawing lines or curves. This approach has both considerable disadvantages (people unfamiliar with conventional programming languages will be unlikely to find it usable) and considerable advantages (you can make your design intentions specific and parameterizable). For a complete description of the Metafont language, see The METAFONTbook (see References).
mf invocation
Metafont (usually invoked as mf) reads character definitions
specified in the Metafont programming language, and outputs the
corresponding font. This section merely describes the options available
in the Web2c implementation. For a complete description of the Metafont
language, see The Metafontbook (see References).
Metafont processes its command line and determines its memory dump (base) file in a way exactly analogous to MetaPost and TeX (see tex invocation, and see Memory dumps). Synopses:
mf [option]... [mfname[.mf]] [mf-commands]
mf [option]... \first-line
mf [option]... &base args
Most commonly, a Metafont invocation looks like this:
mf '\mode:=mode; mag:=magnification; input mfname'
(The single quotes avoid unwanted interpretation by the shell.)
Metafont searches the usual places for the main input file mfname
(see Supported file formats), extending
mfname with .mf if necessary. To see all the relevant
paths, set the environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’
before running the program. By default, Metafont runs an external
program named mktexmf to create any nonexistent Metafont source
files you input. You can disable this at configure-time or runtime
(see mktex configuration). This is mostly
for the sake of the EC fonts, which can be generated at any size.
Metafont writes the main GF output to the file basemfname.nnngf, where nnn is the font resolution in pixels per inch, and basemfname is the basename of mfname, or ‘mfput’ if no input file was specified. A GF file contains bitmaps of the actual character shapes. Usually GF files are converted immediately to PK files with GFtoPK (see gftopk invocation), since PK files contain equivalent information, but are more compact. (Metafont output in GF format rather than PK for only historical reasons.)
Metafont also usually writes a metric file in TFM format to basemfname.tfm. A TFM file contains character dimensions, kerns, and ligatures, and spacing parameters. TeX reads only this .tfm file, not the GF file.
The mode in the example command above is a name referring to a
device definition (see Modes); for example, localfont or
ljfour. These device definitions must generally be precompiled
into the base file. If you leave this out, the default is proof
mode, as stated in The Metafontbook, in which Metafont outputs at
a resolution of 2602dpi; this is usually not what you want. The
remedy is simply to assign a different mode—localfont, for
example.
The magnification assignment in the example command above is a
magnification factor; for example, if the device is 600dpi and you
specify mag:=2, Metafont will produce output at 1200dpi.
Very often, the magnification is an expression such as
magstep(.5), corresponding to a TeX “magstep”, which are
factors of
After running Metafont, you can use the font in a TeX document as usual. For example:
\font\myfont = newfont
\myfont Now I am typesetting in my new font (minimum hamburgers).
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
inimf is the “initial” form of Metafont, which does lengthy
initializations avoided by the “virgin” (vir) form, so as to
be capable of dumping ‘.base’ files (see Memory dumps). For
a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see Initial and virgin. In past releases, a separate program inimf was
installed to invoke the initial form, but this is no longer the case.
For a list of options and other information, see mf invocation.
The only memory dump file commonly used with Metafont is the default ‘plain.base’, also known as ‘mf.base’ (again, see Memory dumps). It is created by default during installation, but you can also do so by hand if necessary (e.g., if a Metafont update is issued):
mf -ini '\input plain; input modes; dump'
(The quotes prevent interpretation of the backslashes from the shell.) Then install the resulting plain.base in ‘$(basedir)’ (/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c by default), and link mf.base to it.
For an explanation of the additional modes.mf file, see Modes. This file has no counterpart in TeX or MetaPost.
In the past, it was sometimes useful to create a base file cmmf.base (a.k.a. cm.base), with the Computer Modern macros also included in the base file. Nowadays, however, the additional time required to read cmbase.mf is exceedingly small, usually not enough to be worth the administrative hassle of updating the cmmf.base file when you install a new version of modes.mf. People actually working on a typeface may still find it worthwhile to create their own base file, of course.
Running Metafont and creating Metafont base files requires information that TeX and MetaPost do not: mode definitions which specify device characteristics, so Metafont can properly rasterize the shapes.
When making a base file, a file containing modes for locally-available devices should be input after plain.mf. One commonly used file is ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/modes.mf; it includes all known definitions.
If, however, for some reason you have decreased the memory available in
your Metafont, you may need to copy modes.mf and remove the
definitions irrelevant to you (probably most of them) instead of using
it directly. (Or, if you're a Metafont hacker, maybe you can suggest a
way to redefine mode_def and/or mode_setup; right now, the
amount of memory used is approximately four times the total length of
the mode_def names, and that's a lot.)
If you have a device not included in modes.mf, please see comments in that file for how to create the new definition, and please send the definition to tex-fonts@mail.tug.org to get it included in the next release of modes.mf.
Usually, when you run Metafont you must supply the name of a mode that
was dumped in the base file. But you can also define the mode
characteristics dynamically, by invoking Metafont with an assignment to
smode instead of mode, like this:
mf '\smode:="newmode.mf"; mag:=magnification; input mfname'
This is most useful when you are working on the definition of a new mode.
The magnification and mfname arguments are explained in
mf invocation. In the file newmode.mf, you should have the
following (with no mode_def or enddef), if you are using
modes.mf conventions:
mode_param (pixels_per_inch, dpi);
mode_param (blacker, b);
mode_param (fillin, f);
mode_param (o_correction, o);
mode_common_setup_;
(Of course, you should use real numbers for dpi, b, f, and o.)
For more information on the use of smode, or if you are not using
modes.mf, see page 269 of The Metafontbook.
The Web2c implementation of Metafont can do online graphics with a number of devices. (See the Metafont manual for more information about how to draw on your screen.) By default, no graphics support is enabled.
Metafont examines the MFTERM environment variable or config file
value at runtime, or the TERM environment variable if
MFTERM is not set, to determine the device support to use.
Naturally, only the devices for which support has been compiled in can
be selected.
Here is a table of the possibilities, showing the MFTERM value
and the corresponding configure option(s) in parentheses.
epsfhp2627mftalknextDrawingServant, available separately. See the
web2c/window/next.c.
regissungfx system
by using sun-gfx.c.)
tekunitermxtermThere are two variants of the X11 support, one that works with the Xt toolkit, and another that works directly with Xlib. The Xt support is more efficient and has more functionality, so it is the default. If you must use the Xlib support, use ‘configure --with-x --with-x-toolkit=no’.
You cannot specify any of the usual X options (e.g., ‘-geometry’)
on the Metafont command line, but you can specify X resources in your
~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources file. The class name is
Metafont. If you're using the Xt support, all the usual X toolkit
resources are supported. If you're using the Xlib support, only the
geometry resource is supported.
You specify the X display to which Metafont connects in the
DISPLAY environment variable, as usual.
Writing support for a new device is straightforward. Aside from defining the basic drawing routines that Metafont uses (see mf.web), you only have to add another entry to the tables on the last page of web2c/lib/texmfmp.c. Or you can write an independent program and use MFtalk (see web2c/window/mftalk.c).
GFtoDVI makes proof sheets from a GF bitmap file as output by, for example, Metafont (see Metafont). This is an indispensable aid for font designers or Metafont hackers. Synopsis:
gftodvi [option]... gfname[gf]
The font gfname is searched for in the usual places (see Glyph lookup). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
The suffix ‘gf’ is supplied if not already present. This suffix is not an extension, no ‘.’ precedes it; for instance, cmr10.600gf.
The output filename is the basename of gfname extended with .dvi, e.g., ‘gftodvi /wherever/foo.600gf’ creates ./foo.dvi.
The characters from gfname appear one per page in the DVI output, with labels, titles, and annotations, as specified in Appendix H (Hardcopy Proofs) of The Metafontbook.
GFtoDVI uses several fonts besides gfname itself:
To change the default fonts, you must use special commands in
your Metafont source file, typically via commands like slantfont
slantlj4. There is no default slant font since no one printer is
suitable as a default. You can make your own by copying one of the
existing files, such as
.../fonts/source/public/misc/slantlj4.mf and then running
mf on it.
For testing purposes, you may it useful to run mf rtest (hit
RETURN when it stops) to get a gf file of a thorn glyph. Or
use mfw instead of mf to have the glyph(s)
displayed on the screen. After that, gftodvi rtest.2602gf
should produce rtest.dvi, which you process as usual.
The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’, and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
MFT translates a Metafont program into a TeX document suitable for typesetting, with the aid of TeX macros defined in the file mftmac.tex. Synopsis:
mft [option]... mfname[.mf]
MFT searches the usual places for mfname (see Supported file formats). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program. The output goes to the basename of mfname extended
with .tex, e.g., ‘mft /wherever/foo.mf’ creates
./foo.tex.
Line breaks in the input are carried over into the output; moreover, blank spaces at the beginning of a line are converted to quads of indentation in the output. Thus, you have full control over the indentation and line breaks. Each line of input is translated independently of the others.
Further control is allowed via Metafont comments:
%%% addto fill draw filldraw
says to format the ‘fill’, ‘draw’, and ‘filldraw’ operations of plain Metafont just like the primitive token ‘addto’, i.e., in boldface type. Without such reformatting commands, MFT would treat ‘fill’ like an ordinary tag or variable name. In fact, you need a ‘%%%’ command even to get parentheses to act like delimiters.
(The above description was edited from mft.web, written by D.E. Knuth.)
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
MFTINPUTS path; see Supported file formats.
Other examples of MFT style files are cmbase.mft, which defines formatting rules for the macros defined in cm.base, and e.mft, which was used in the production of Knuth's Volume E, Computer Modern Typefaces.
Using an appropriate MFT style file, it is also possible to configure MFT for typesetting MetaPost sources. However, MFT does not search the usual places for MetaPost input files.
If you use eight-bit characters in the input file, they are passed on verbatim to the TeX output file; it is up to you to configure TeX to print these properly.
MetaPost is a picture-drawing language similar to Metafont (see Metafont), but instead of outputting bitmaps in a “font”, it outputs PostScript commands. It's primarily intended for creating technical illustrations.
MetaPost also provides for arbitrary integration of text and graphics in a natural way, using any typesetter (TeX and Troff are both supported) and a number of other subsidiary programs, described below.
mpost invocation
MetaPost (installed as mpost) reads a series of pictures
specified in the MetaPost programming language, and outputs
corresponding PostScript code. This section merely describes the
options available in the Web2c implementation. For a complete
description of the MetaPost language, see AT&T technical report
CSTR-162, generally available in texmf/doc/metapost/,
where texmf is the root of TeX directory structure. See
also:
Also, a standard MetaPost package for drawing graphs is documented in AT&T technical report CSTR-164, available as the file mpgraph.ps, generally stored alongside mpman.ps.
MetaPost processes its command line and determines its memory dump (mem)
file in a way exactly analogous to Metafont and TeX (see tex invocation, and see Memory dumps).
Synopses:
mpost [option]... [mpname[.mp]] [mp-commands]
mpost [option]... \first-line
mpost [option]... &mem args
MetaPost searches the usual places for the main input file mpname
(see Supported file formats), extending
mpname with .mp if necessary. To see all the relevant
paths, set the environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’
before running the program.
MetaPost writes its PostScript output to a series of files
basempname.nnn (or perhaps
basempname.ps, very occasionally
basempname.tfm), where nnn are the figure numbers
specified in the input, typically to the beginfig macro, and
basempname is the basename of mpname, or ‘mpout’ if no
input file was specified. MetaPost uses the ‘.ps’ extension when
the figure number is out of range, e.g., if you say beginfig(-1).
You can use the output files as figures in a TeX document just as with any other PostScript figures. For example, with this TeX command:
\special{psfile="filename"}
or by using epsf.tex (see EPSF macros).
btex ... tex-input ... etex
calls MakeMPX to generate a MPX file containing a MetaPost picture expression corresponding to tex-input (see makempx invocation).
The construct
verbatimtex ... tex-input ... etex
simply passes the tex-input through to MakeMPX and thus to
TeX. For example, if you are using LaTeX, your MetaPost input file
must start with a verbatimtex block that gives the necessary
\documentclass (or \documentstyle)
\begin{document} command. You will also need to set the
enviroment variable TEX to ‘latex’ (see makempx invocation).
tex-input need not be specifically TeX input; it could also be Troff. In that case, you will need the ‘-m pictures’ Troff macro package (unfortunately absent from many Troff implementations), or an equivalent such as the ‘-m pspic’ macros from GNU groff described in grops(1).
Other typesetters can be supported with no change to MetaPost itself; only MakeMPX needs to be updated.
Naturally, you must use fonts that are supported by the typesetter; specifically, you'll probably want to use standard PostScript fonts with Troff. And only the TeX system understands Computer Modern or other Metafont fonts; you can also use PostScript fonts with TeX, of course.
MetaPost-generated PostScript figures which do use Computer Modern fonts for labels cannot be directly previewed or printed. Instead, you must include them in a TeX document and run the resulting DVI file through Dvips to arrange for the downloading of the required fonts (see Fonts in figures). To help with this, the MetaPost distribution provides a small TeX file mproof.tex which is typically called as:
tex mproof mp-output-files... ; dvips mproof -o
The resulting file mproof.ps can then be printed or previewed.
To generate EPSF files, set the internal MetaPost variable
prologues positive. To make the output files self-contained, use
only standard PostScript fonts. MetaPost reads the same
psfonts.map file as Dvips, to determine PostScript fonts that
need to be downloaded (see psfonts.map).
MetaPost can write output files, via the write primitive; this
opens a security hole. See tex invocation.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
prologues internal variable to 1, and use
makempx -troff to generate MPX files.
inimpost is the “initial” form of MetaPost, which does
lengthy initializations avoided by the “virgin” (vir) form,
so as to be capable of dumping .mem files (see Memory dumps). For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see
Initial and virgin. In past releases, a separate program
inimpost was installed for the initial form, but this is no
longer the case.
For a list of options and other information, see mpost invocation.
The principal memory dump file used with MetaPost is the default, plain.mem, also known as mpost.mem (again, see Memory dumps). It is created by default during installation, but you can also do so by hand if necessary (e.g., if a plain.mp update is issued):
mpost -ini '\input plain dump'
(The quotes prevent interpretation of the backslashes from the shell.) Then install the resulting plain.mem in ‘$(memdir)’ (/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c by default), and link mpost.mem to it.
MetaPost also provides a mem file with all the features of plain Metafont, called mfplain.mem. You can create that in the same way; just replace ‘plain’ in the above command with ‘mfplain’. mfplain.mem file lets you directly process Metafont source files with MetaPost, producing character proofs (one file for each character) similar to those produced with Metafont in proof mode and GFtoDVI (see gftodvi invocation).
Another MetaPost mem file, named MetaFun, provides many advanced features. It was developed and maintained by Pragma ADE. The home page for MetaFun, other MetaPost-related things, and lots more from Pragma: http://www.pragma-ade.com/.
In MetaPost, labels can be typeset using any document processor; the Web2c implementation supports TeX and Troff. MakeMPX translates the labels from the typesetting language back into low-level MetaPost commands in a so-called mpx file, so text can be manipulated like other graphic objects. It is invoked automatically by MetaPost. Synopsis:
makempx [-troff] mpfile mpxfile
The input comes from mpfile (no path searching is done), and the output goes to mpxfile. However, if the file mpxfile already exists, and is newer than mpfile, then nothing is done (presumably the file is up-to-date).
Otherwise:
MPTEXPRE
environment variable exists (mptexpre.tex by default), that file
is prepended to the input from the MetaPost file.
If any of the above steps fail, for example if there was a typesetting mistake in the original mpfile, output may be left in files named mpxerr.{log,tex,dvi} (TeX) or mpxerr{,.t} (Troff), so you can diagnose the problem.
The ‘-troff’ option to MPto selects the Troff commands, rather than TeX. MetaPost supplies this automatically if the ‘-T’ or ‘-troff’ option was specified to MetaPost.
The MPX file created by MakeMPX is a sequence of MetaPost picture expressions, one for every label in the original MetaPost input file.
The names of the commands run by MakeMPX, and the directory
added to the shell search PATH for the commands' location, are
overridden by environment variables. Here is a list:
MAKEMPX_BINDIRPATH. Default is the ‘$(bindir)’
Make directory, which in turn is set from the configure-time
‘--bindir’, ‘--exec-prefix’ and ‘--prefix’ options; if
nothing else is specified, the default is file ‘/usr/local’.
NEWERMPTOTEXMPTOTRDVITOMPDMPTEXlatex, and supply an appropriate verbatimtex header in
the MP source (see mpost invocation). Or put ‘%&latex’ as
the first line of your LaTeX source.
TROFFIf you change this, you will also need to set the TRFONTS
environment variable or configuration value to point to the appropriate
font directory, traditionally /usr/lib/font/devterm.
One more complication is whether the troff programs have a ‘g’ prefix. On Windows, TeX Live supports both ways: makempx.exe is built to use gsoelim.exe, geqn.exe, and gtroff.exe, while makempx-without-g-prefix.exe is built to use soelim.exe, eqn.exe, and troff.exe. MetaPost users on Windows using troff for their labels should arrange to run the proper binary.
DVItoMP converts DVI files into low-level MetaPost commands in a so-called MPX file. This program is generally invoked only by MakeMPX (see makempx invocation). Synopsis:
dvitomp dvifile[.dvi] [mpxfile[.mpx]]
If mpxfile is not specified, the output goes to the basename of dvifile extended with .mpx, e.g., ‘dvitomp /wherever/foo.dvi’ creates ./foo.mpx.
DVItoMP supports Dvips-style color specials, such as ‘color push
name’ and ‘color pop’, outputting them as withcolor
MetaPost commands.
The only options are ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options).
DMP converts device-independent Troff (ditroff) output files into low-level MetaPost commands in a so-called MPX file. This program is generally invoked by MakeMPX (see makempx invocation). Synopsis:
dmp [ditroff-file [mpxfile]]
If ditroff-file is not specified, input comes from standard input; and if mpxfile is not specified, output goes to standard output.
DMP was written to process the output of a Troff pipeline fed the output
of mpto -troff (see mpto invocation). DMP understands all
the ‘Dc’ graphics functions that dpost does, but it
ignores ‘x X’ device control functions such as ‘x X
SetColor:...’, ‘x X BeginPath:’, and ‘x X
DrawPath:...’.
The available font names are defined in the support file
trfonts.map, which DMP looks for along the MPSUPPORT path.
Another support file trchars.adj, also looked for along the
MPSUPPORT path, contains a character adjustment table which
should reflect the shift amounts found in the standard PostScript
prologue for Troff and dpost found in the TRFONTS directory.
Such an adjustment table is unnecessary for some Troff implementations,
in which case trchars.adj should be replaced by an empty
file—but it must still exist.
DMP was written for one particular Troff implementation, and it unfortunately has many built-in assumptions about the output and fonts file formats used by Troff, which may not be satisfied in other environments. In particular, GNU groff uses some extensions in its file formats described in groff_font(5) and groff_out(5) which make its output completely unusable for DMP. On the other hand, the Troff version found in Sun Solaris 2.x, and perhaps other systems derived from System V R4, works fine with the default settings.
If you run into trouble and want to adapt DMP to other systems, you might have to try the following (this is primarily for hackers):
Check troff(1) for the devices supported by your Troff and set the
TROFF environment variable appropriately (see above). Also,
locate the appropriate font directory and set the TRFONTS
variable as needed.
In this case, you may have to adapt trfonts.map and perhaps also trchars.adj in the MetaPost support directory (texmf/metapost/support by default).
Such problems may be caused by subtle differences in the file formats, such as use of tabs vs. spaces as field separators or decimal vs. octal vs. hex format for font metric data.
A reasonably good description of the expected Troff file formats can be found in AT&T technical report CSTR-54 (Troff User's Manual, Revised 1992). Documentation on the subtle differences in other Troff implementation is harder to find except for GNU groff, where it's all documented in the above-mentioned groff_font(5) and groff_out(5).
Any contributions to improve the portability of DMP or to make it work with GNU groff are welcome, of course.
(Some of the above description was edited from the dmp.c source file, written by John Hobby.)
The only options are ‘--help’ and ‘--version’ (see Common options).
MPto extracts the labels from a MetaPost input file; this is the
contents of any btex...etex and verbatimtex...etex
sections. This program is generally invoked by MakeMPX (see makempx invocation). Synopsis:
mpto [option]... mpfile
The input comes from mpfile; no path searching is done. The output goes to standard output. Leading and trailing spaces and tabs are removed, and various predefined typesetter commands are included at the beginning of and end of the file and of each section.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
Newer compares file modification times. Synopsis:
newer src1 [ src2 ... srcN ] target
Newer exits successfully if the files src1 ... srcN exist and at least one of them is not older than dependent, i.e., the modification time (mtime) of at least one of the source files is greater than or the same as that of dependent. Newer also exits successfully if the file dependent doesn't exist. See Attribute Meanings.
The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard ‘--help’ and ‘--version’ (see Common options):
This is used by MakeMPX (see makempx invocation).
BibTeX automates much of the job of typesetting bibliographies, and makes bibliography entries reusable in many different contexts.
BibTeX creates a printable bibliography (.bbl) file from references in a .aux file, generally written by TeX or LaTeX. The .bbl file is then incorporated on a subsequent run. The basic bibliographic information comes from .bib files, and a BibTeX style (.bst) file controls the precise contents of the .bbl file. Synopsis:
bibtex [option]... auxfile[.aux]
The output goes to the basename of auxfile extended with .bbl; for example, ‘bibtex /wherever/foo.aux’ creates ./foo.bbl. BibTeX also writes a log file to the basename of auxfile extended with ‘.blg’.
The names of the .bib and .bst files are specified in the
.aux file as well, via the \bibliography and
\bibliographystyle (La)TeX macros. BibTeX searches for
.bib files using the BIBINPUTS and TEXBIB paths,
and for .bst files using BSTINPUTS (see Supported file formats). It does no path searching for
.aux files.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
crossref field, include e in the
.bbl file, even if it was not explicitly referenced in the .aux
file. For example, e might be a conference proceedings as a whole,
with the cross-referencing entries being individual articles published
in the proceedings. In some circumstances, you may want to avoid these
automatic inclusions altogether; to do this, make n a sufficiently
large number.
See also:
Here are descriptions of the four standard and four semi-standard basic BibTeX styles. CTAN:/biblio/bibtex contains these and many more (for CTAN info, see unixtex.ftp).
plainplain.
abbrvacmalphaapalikeieeetrsiamunsrtbtxbst.docWEB languages allow you to write a single source file that can produce both a compilable program and a well-formatted document describing the program in as much detail as you wish to prepare. Writing in this kind of dual-purpose language is called literate programming. (The Usenet newsgroup comp.programming.literate and the mailing list litprog@shsu.edu are devoted to this subject; they are gatewayed to each other.)
WEB-like languages have been implemented with many pairs of base languages: Cweb provides C and Troff (see References); CWEB provides C and TeX (CTAN:/web/c_cpp/cweb); Spiderweb provides C, C++, Awk, Ada, many others, and TeX (CTAN:/web/spiderweb); and, of course, the original WEB provides Pascal and TeX, the implementation languages for the original TeX, Metafont, MetaPost, and related programs to come from the TeX project at Stanford.
The original WEB language is documented in the file webman.tex, which is included in the ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/lib.tar.gz archive (and available in many other places, of course).
Tangle creates a compilable Pascal program from a WEB source file (see WEB). Synopsis:
tangle [option]... webfile[.web] [changefile[.ch]]
The Pascal output is written to the basename of webfile extended with ‘.p’; for example, ‘tangle /wherever/foo.web’ creates ./foo.p. Tangle applies changefile to webfile before writing the output; by default, there is no change file.
If the program makes use of the WEB string facility, Tangle writes the string pool to the basename of webfile extended with ‘.pool’.
The Pascal output is packed into lines of 72 characters or less, with the only concession to readability being the termination of lines at semicolons when this can be done conveniently.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘--help’ and ‘--version’ (see Common options):
Weave creates a TeX document from a WEB source file (see WEB), assuming various macros defined in webmac.tex. It takes care of typographic details such as page layout, indentation, and italicizing identifiers. It also automatically gathers and outputs extensive cross-reference information. Synopsis:
weave [option]... webfile[.web] [changefile[.ch]]
The output is to the basename of webfile extended with ‘.tex’; for example, ‘weave /wherever/foo.web’ creates ./foo.tex. Weave applies changefile to webfile before writing the output; by default, there is no change file.
The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
Conventionally, WEB programmers should define the TeX \title
macro at the beginning of the source file. Also, to get output of only
changed modules, one can say \let\maybe=\iffalse (usually as the
first change in the change file).
Pooltype shows the so-called string number of each string in a WEB pool file (see WEB), as output by Tangle (see tangle invocation), including the first 256 strings corresponding to the possible input characters. Pooltype primarily serves as an example of WEB conventions to implementors of the TeX system. Synopsis:
pooltype [option]... poolfile[.pool]
No path searching is done for poolfile. Output is to standard output.
The only options are ‘--help’ and ‘--version’ (see Common options).
As an example of the output, here is the (edited) output for tex.pool:
0: "^^@"
1: "^^A"
...
255: "^^ff"
256: "pool size"
...
1314: "Using character substitution: "
(23617 characters in all.)
In Metafont and MetaPost, the first 256 characters are actually represented as single bytes (i.e., themselves), not in the ‘^^’ notation. Consider Pooltype as showing the results after conversion for output.
TeX outputs a file in DVI (DeVice Independent) format as a compact representation of the original document. DVI files can be translated to meet the requirements of a real physical device, such as PostScript printers (see Introduction), PCL printers (see dvilj(1)), and X displays (see xdvi(1)). In fact, DVI translators are available for virtually all common devices: see CTAN:/dviware (for CTAN info, see unixtex.ftp).
For the precise definition of the DVI file format, see (for example) the source file web2c/dvitype.web.
The DVI-processing programs in the Web2c distribution are not device drivers; they perform generic utility functions.
DVIcopy reads a DVI file, expands any references to virtual fonts (see Virtual fonts) to base fonts, and writes the resulting DVI file. Thus you can use virtual fonts even if your DVI processor does not support them, by passing the documents through DVIcopy first. Synopsis:
dvicopy [option]... [indvi[.dvi] [outdvi[.dvi]]]
DVIcopy reads standard input if indvi is not specified, and writes standard output if outdvi is not specified.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
\mag parameter.
\count0...9 parameters at \shipout time; ‘*’
matches anything. Examples: ‘3’, ‘1.*.-4’.
DVItype translates a DeVice Independent (DVI) file (as output by TeX, for example) to a plain text file that humans can read. It also serves as a DVI-validating program, i.e., if DVItype can read a file, it's correct. Synopsis:
dvitype [option]... dvifile[.dvi]
DVItype does not read any bitmap files, but it does read TFM files for
fonts referenced in dvifile. The usual places are searched
(see Supported file formats). To see all the
relevant paths, set the environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to
‘-1’ before running the program.
Output goes to standard output.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
\mag parameter.
\count0...9 parameters at \shipout time; ‘*’
matches anything. Examples: ‘1’, ‘5.*.-9’.
As an example of the output from DVItype (see section above), here is its (abridged) translation of the story.dvi resulting from running the example in The TeXbook, with ‘-output-level=4’ and ‘-show-opcodes’ on.
...
Options selected:
Starting page = *
Maximum number of pages = 1000000
Output level = 4 (the works)
Resolution = 300.00000000 pixels per inch
numerator/denominator=25400000/473628672
magnification=1000; 0.00006334 pixels per DVI unit
' TeX output 1992.05.17:0844'
Postamble starts at byte 564.
maxv=43725786, maxh=30785863, maxstackdepth=3, totalpages=1
Font 33: cmsl10---loaded at size 655360 DVI units
Font 23: cmbx10---loaded at size 655360 DVI units
Font 0: cmr10---loaded at size 655360 DVI units
42: beginning of page 1
87: push {141}
level 0:(h=0,v=0,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=0)
88: down3 -917504 {159} v:=0-917504=-917504, vv:=-58
92: pop {142}
...
104: putrule {137} height 26214, width 30785863 (2x1950 pixels)
113: down3 5185936 {159} v:=655360+5185936=5841296, vv:=370
117: push {141}
level 1:(h=0,v=5841296,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=370)
118: right4 12265425 {146} h:=0+12265425=12265425, hh:=777
[ ]
123: fntdef1 23 {243}: cmbx10
145: fntnum23 {194} current font is cmbx10
146: setchar65 h:=12265425+569796=12835221, hh:=813
147: w3 251220 {150} h:=12835221+251220=13086441, hh:=829
151: setchar83 h:=13086441+418700=13505141, hh:=856
...
164: setchar82 h:=17448202+565245=18013447, hh:=1142
165: x0 -62805 {152} h:=18013447-62805=17950642, hh:=1138
166: setchar89 h:=17950642+569796=18520438, hh:=1174
[A SHORT STORY]
167: pop {142}
level 1:(h=0,v=5841296,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=370)
...
550: pop {142}
level 0:(h=0,v=42152922,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=2670)
551: down3 1572864 {159} v:=42152922+1572864=43725786, vv:=2770
555: push {141}
level 0:(h=0,v=43725786,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=2770)
556: right4 15229091 {146} h:=0+15229091=15229091, hh:=965
561: setchar49 h:=15229091+327681=15556772, hh:=986
[ 1]
562: pop {142}
level 0:(h=0,v=43725786,w=0,x=0,y=0,z=0,hh=0,vv=2770)
563: eop {140}
Explanation:
The Web2c programs described here convert between various TeX-related font formats; the first section below briefly describes the formats. GFtoPK is the only one that is routinely used, as Metafont outputs GF format, but it's most efficient for device drivers to use PK.
The precise definitions of the PK, GF, TFM, PL, VF, and VPL formats mentioned below are in the source files that read them; pktype.web, gftype.web, tftopl.web, etc.
(For another perspective on this, see Font concepts).
Font files come in several varieties, with suffixes like:
.tfm .*pk .*gf .*pxl (obsolete) .pl .mf .vf .vpl
Each represents a file format.
A TFM (TeX font metric) file is a compact binary file that contains information about each character in a font, about combinations of characters within that font, and about the font as a whole. The font metric information contained in TFM files is device-independent units is used by TeX to do typesetting. Unlike the bitmap (raster) fonts described below, TFM font files contain no information about the shapes of characters. They describe rectangular areas and combinations thereof, but not what will eventually be printed in those areas.
Since TeX does scaling calculations, one TFM file serves for all magnifications of a given typeface. On the other hand, the best printed results are obtained when magnified (or reduced fonts) are not produced geometrically (as done by PostScript, for example) but rather optically, with each size a separate design (as done with Computer Modern and the EC fonts, for example); then a separate TFM file is needed for each size.
At any rate, TeX produces a DVI (DeVice Independent) file from your source document. In order to print DVI files on real devices, you need font files defining digitized character shapes and other data. Then previewers and printer-driver programs can translate your DVI files into something usable by your monitor or printer. Bitmap fonts come with suffixes such as ‘.600pk’ or ‘.600gf’ or ‘.3000pxl’, where the ‘600’ is the horizontal dots-per-inch resolution at which the font was produced, and the ‘pk’ or ‘gf’ or ‘pxl’ indicates the font format. Outline fonts in PostScript Type 1 format have suffixes such as ‘.pfa’ or ‘.pfb’.
Fonts in pk (packed) format are in the tightly packed raster format that is pretty much the standard today. They take up less space than fonts in the gf (generic font) format that Metafont generates, and far less space than fonts in pxl format. Fonts in pxl format take up gross amounts of disk space and permit only 128 characters. They are obsolete.
Font files with the ‘.pl’ (property list) suffix are the plain text (human-readable) analog of the binary ‘.tfm’ files. The TFtoPL and PLtoTF programs convert between the two formats (see tftopl invocation and pltotf invocation).
Font files with the ‘.mf’ suffix are in Metafont source format. These are the files used by Metafont to generate rastered fonts for specific typefaces at specific magnifications for the specific resolution and type of mapping used by your device.
The suffix ‘.vf’ identifies “virtual font” files, for which ‘.vpl’ is the human-readable analog. See See vftovp invocation, and vptovf invocation. For further discussion of virtual fonts, see CTAN:/doc/virtual-fonts.knuth, CTAN:/help/virtualfonts.txt, and Virtual fonts.
(This section is based on documentation in the original Unix TeX distribution by Pierre MacKay and Elizabeth Tachikawa.)
GFtoPK converts a generic font (GF) file output by, for example, Metafont (see mf invocation) to a packed font (PK) file. PK files are considerably smaller than the corresponding gf files, so they are generally the bitmap font format of choice. Some DVI-processing programs, notably Dvips, only support PK files and not GF files. Synopsis:
gftopk [option]... gfname.dpi[gf] [pkfile]
The font gfname is searched for in the usual places (see Glyph lookup). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
The suffix ‘gf’ is supplied if not already present. This suffix is not an extension; no ‘.’ precedes it: for instance, cmr10.600gf.
If pkfile is not specified, the output is written to the basename of ‘gfname.dpipk’, e.g., ‘gftopk /wherever/cmr10.600gf’ creates ./cmr10.600pk.
The only options are ‘--verbose’, ‘--help’, and ‘--version’ (see Common options).
PKtoGF converts a packed font (PK) file to a generic font (GF) file. Since PK format is much more compact than GF format, the most likely reason to do this is to run GFtype (see gftype invocation) on the result, so you can see the bitmap images. Also, a few old utility programs do not support PK format. Synopsis:
pktogf [option]... pkname.dpi[pk] [gffile]
The font pkname is searched for in the usual places (see Glyph lookup). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
The suffix ‘pk’ is supplied if not already present. This suffix is not an extension; no ‘.’ precedes it: for instance, cmr10.600pk.
If gffile is not specified, the output is written to the basename of ‘pkname.dpigf’, e.g., ‘pktogf /wherever/cmr10.600pk’ creates ./cmr10.600gf.
The only options are ‘--verbose’, ‘--help’, and ‘--version’ (see Common options).
PKtype translates a packed font (PK) bitmap file (as output by GFtoPK, for example) to a plain text file that humans can read. It also serves as a PK-validating program, i.e., if PKtype can read a file, it's correct. Synopsis:
pktype pkname.dpi[pk]
The font pkname is searched for in the usual places (see Glyph lookup). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
The suffix ‘pk’ is supplied if not already present. This suffix is not an extension; no ‘.’ precedes it: for instance, cmr10.600pk.
The translation is written to standard output.
The only options are ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options).
As an example of the output, here is the (abridged) translation of the letter `K' in ‘cmr10’, as rendered at 600dpi with the mode ‘ljfour’ from modes.mf (available from ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/modes.mf).
955: Flag byte = 184 Character = 75 Packet length = 174
Dynamic packing variable = 11
TFM width = 815562 dx = 4259840
Height = 57 Width = 57 X-offset = -3 Y-offset = 56
[2]23(16)17(8)9(25)11(13)7(27)7(16)7(28)4(18)7(28)2(20)7(27)...
...
(14)9(24)12(5)[2]23(13)21
Explanation:
GFtype translates a generic font (GF) bitmap file (as output by Metafont, for example) to a plain text file that humans can read. It also serves as a GF-validating program, i.e., if GFtype can read a file, it's correct. Synopsis:
gftype [option]... gfname.dpi[gf]
The font gfname is searched for in the usual places (see Glyph lookup). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
The suffix ‘gf’ is supplied if not already present. This suffix is not an extension; no ‘.’ precedes it: for instance, cmr10.600gf.
The translation is written to standard output.
The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
As an example of the output, here is the (abrdiged) translation of the letter `K' in ‘cmr10’, as rendered at 600dpi with the mode ‘ljfour’ from modes.mf (available from ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/modes.mf), with both ‘-mnemonics’ and ‘-images’ enabled.
GFtype outputs the information about a character in two places: a main definition and a one-line summary at the end. We show both. Here is the main definition:
2033: beginning of char 75: 3<=m<=60 0<=n<=56
(initially n=56) paint (0)24(12)20
2043: newrow 0 (n=55) paint 24(12)20
2047: newrow 0 (n=54) paint 24(12)20
2051: newrow 0 (n=53) paint 24(12)20
2055: newrow 7 (n=52) paint 10(21)13
2059: newrow 8 (n=51) paint 8(23)9
...
2249: newrow 8 (n=5) paint 8(23)11
2253: newrow 7 (n=4) paint 10(22)12
2257: newrow 0 (n=3) paint 24(11)22
2261: newrow 0 (n=2) paint 24(11)22
2265: newrow 0 (n=1) paint 24(11)22
2269: newrow 0 (n=0) paint 24(11)22
2273: eoc
.<--This pixel's lower left corner is at (3,57) in METAFONT coordinates
************************ ********************
************************ ********************
************************ ********************
************************ ********************
********** *************
******** *********
...
******** ***********
********** ************
************************ **********************
************************ **********************
************************ **********************
************************ **********************
.<--This pixel's upper left corner is at (3,0) in METAFONT coordinates
Explanation:
Here is the GF postamble information that GFtype outputs at the end:
Character 75: dx 4259840 (65), width 815562 (64.57289), loc 2033
Explanation:
TFtoPL translates a TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files) file (as output by Metafont, for example) to property list format (a list of parenthesized items describing the font) that humans can edit or read. This program is mostly used by people debugging TeX implementations, writing font utilities, etc. Synopsis:
tftopl [option]... tfmname[.tfm] [plfile[.pl]]
The font tfmname (extended with ‘.tfm’ if necessary) is
searched for in the usual places (see Supported file formats). To see all the relevant paths, set the
environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to ‘-1’ before running
the program.
If plfile (which is extended with ‘.pl’ if necessary) is not specified, the property list file is written to standard output. The property list file can be converted back to TFM format by the companion program TFtoPL (see the next section).
The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
In ‘ascii’ format, character codes that correspond to graphic characters, except for left and right parentheses, are output as a ‘C’ followed by the single character: ‘C K’, for example. In octal format, character codes are output as the letter ‘O’ followed by octal digits, as in ‘O 113’ for ‘K’.
‘octal’ format is useful for symbol and other non-alphabetic fonts, where using ASCII characters for the character codes is merely confusing.
As an example of the output, here is the (abridged) property list translation of cmr10.tfm:
(FAMILY CMR)
(FACE O 352)
(CODINGSCHEME TEX TEXT)
(DESIGNSIZE R 10.0)
(COMMENT DESIGNSIZE IS IN POINTS)
(COMMENT OTHER SIZES ARE MULTIPLES OF DESIGNSIZE)
(CHECKSUM O 11374260171)
(FONTDIMEN
(SLANT R 0.0)
(SPACE R 0.333334)
(STRETCH R 0.166667)
(SHRINK R 0.111112)
(XHEIGHT R 0.430555)
(QUAD R 1.000003)
(EXTRASPACE R 0.111112)
)
(LIGTABLE
...
(LABEL C f)
(LIG C i O 14)
(LIG C f O 13)
(LIG C l O 15)
(KRN O 47 R 0.077779)
(KRN O 77 R 0.077779)
(KRN O 41 R 0.077779)
(KRN O 51 R 0.077779)
(KRN O 135 R 0.077779)
(STOP)
...
)
...
(CHARACTER C f
(CHARWD R 0.305557)
(CHARHT R 0.694445)
(CHARIC R 0.077779)
(COMMENT
(LIG C i O 14)
(LIG C f O 13)
(LIG C l O 15)
(KRN O 47 R 0.077779)
(KRN O 77 R 0.077779)
...
)
)
...
As you can see, the general format is a list of parenthesized properties, nested where necessary.
FAMILY, FACE, and so on) are
the so-called headerbyte information from Metafont, giving general
information about the font.
FONTDIMEN property defines the TeX \fontdimen
values.
LIGTABLE property defines the ligature and kerning table.
LIG properties define ligatures: in the example above, an
‘f’ (in the ‘LABEL’) followed by an ‘i’ is a ligature,
i.e., a typesetting program like TeX replaces those two consecutive
characters by the character at position octal '014 in the current
font—presumably the `fi' ligature. KRN properties define
kerns: if an ‘f’ is followed by character octal '047 (an
apostrophe), TeX inserts a small amount of space between them:
0.077779 times the design size the font was loaded at (about
three-quarters of a printer's point by default in this case, or .001
inches).
CHARACTER property defines the dimensions of a character: its
width, height, depth, and italic correction, also in design-size units,
as explained in the previous item. For our example `f', the depth is
zero, so that property is omitted. TFtoPL also inserts any kerns and
ligatures for this character as a comment.
PLtoTF translates a property list file (as output by TFtoPL, for example) to TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files) format. It's much easier for both programs and humans to create the (plain text) property list files and let PLtoTF take care of creating the binary TFM equivalent than to output TFM files directly. Synopsis:
pltotf [option]... plfile[.pl] [tfmfile[.tfm]]
If tfmfile (extended with ‘.tfm’ if necessary) is not specified, the TFM file is written to the basename of ‘plfile.tfm’, e.g., ‘pltotf /wherever/cmr10.pl’ creates ./cmr10.tfm. (Since TFM files are binary, writing to standard output by default is undesirable.)
The only options are ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’, and ‘-version’ (see Common options).
For an example of property list format, see the previous section.
VFtoVP translates a virtual font metric (VF, see Virtual fonts) file and its accompanying TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files) file (as output by VPtoVF, for example) to virtual property list format (a list of parenthesized items describing the virtual font) that humans can edit or read. This program is mostly used by people debugging virtual font utilities. Synopsis:
vftovp [option]... vfname[.vf] [tfmname[.tfm] [vplfile[.vpl]]]
The fonts vfname and tfmname (extended with ‘.vf’ and
‘.tfm’ if necessary) are searched for in the usual places
(see Supported file formats). To see all the
relevant paths, set the environment variable KPATHSEA_DEBUG to
‘-1’ before running the program. If tfmname is not
specified, vfname (without a trailing ‘.vf’) is used.
If vplfile (extended with ‘.vpl’ if necessary) is not specified, the property list file is written to standard output. The property list file can be converted back to VF and TFM format by the companion program VFtoVP (see the next section).
The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’ and ‘-version’ (see Common options):
In ‘ascii’ format, character codes that correspond to graphic characters, except for left and right parentheses, are output as a ‘C’ followed by the single character: ‘C K’, for example. In octal format, character codes are output as the letter ‘O’ followed by octal digits, as in ‘O 113’ for ‘K’.
‘octal’ format is useful for symbol and other non-alphabetic fonts, where using ASCII characters for the character codes is merely confusing.
VPtoVF translates a virtual property list file (as output by VFtoVP, for example) to virtual font (VF, see Virtual fonts) and TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files) files. It's much easier for both programs and humans to create the (plain text) property list files and let VPtoVF take care of creating the binary VF and TFM equivalents than to output them directly. Synopsis:
vptovf [option]... vplfile[.vpl] [vffile[.vf] [tfmfile[.tfm]]]
If vffile (extended with ‘.vf’ if necessary) is not specified, the VF output is written to the basename of ‘vplfile.vf’; similarly for tfmfile. For example, ‘vptovf /wherever/ptmr.vpl’ creates ./ptmr.vf and ./ptmr.tfm.
The only options are ‘-verbose’, ‘-help’, and ‘-version’ (see Common options).
The Web2c complement of font utilities merely implements a few basic conversions. Many other more sophisticated font utilities exist; most are in CTAN:/fonts/utilities (for CTAN info, see unixtex.ftp). Here are some of the most commonly-requested items:
gftopxl,
pxtoch, and chtopx programs from
ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web.
ps2pk, from
CTAN:/fonts/utilities/ps2pk.
mftrace
(http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen/mftrace) or textrace
(http://textrace.sourceforge.net) make the job easier.
In general, each file has its own copyright notice stating the copying permissions for that file. Following is a summary.
The Web2c system itself and most of the original WEB source files are public domain.
tex.web, the MLTeX code, mf.web, and bibtex.web, are copyrighted by their authors. They may be copied verbatim, but may be modified only through a .ch file.
MetaPost-related files, including mp.web itself, are copyrighted under X-like terms; the precise notice is included below.
Finally, the Kpathsea library is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License (see Introduction). Therefore, the binaries resulting from a standard Web2c compilation are also covered by the LGPL; so if you (re)distribute the binaries, you must also (offer to) distribute the complete source that went into those binaries. See the file LGPL for complete details on the LGPL.
The following notice must be included by the terms of the MetaPost copyright.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that the copyright notice and this permission notice and warranty disclaimer appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of AT&T Bell Laboratories or any of its entities not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission.AT&T disclaims all warranties with regard to this software, including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall AT&T be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this software.
$ expansion in filenames: \input filenames%& magic number: Determining the memory dump to use- starting a filename: Option conventions- starts option names: Option conventions-- starts option names: Option conventions--disable-dump-share configure option: Hardware and memory dumps--enable-ipc configure option: tex invocation--help common option: Common options--quiet (newer): newer invocation--verbose (newer): newer invocation--verbose common option: Common options--version common option: Common options--with-editor=cmd: Editor invocation--with-epsfwin: Online Metafont graphics--with-hp2627win: Online Metafont graphics--with-mftalkwin: Online Metafont graphics--with-next: Online Metafont graphics--with-regiswin: Online Metafont graphics--with-suntoolswin: Online Metafont graphics--with-tektronixwin: Online Metafont graphics--with-unitermwin: Online Metafont graphics--with-x: Online Metafont graphics--with-x-toolkit=kit: Online Metafont graphics--with-x11: Online Metafont graphics--with-x11win: Online Metafont graphics-8bit: Common options-base=base: Determining the memory dump to use-base=dumpname: Common options-change=chfile: mft invocation-charcode-format=type: vftovp invocation-charcode-format=type: tftopl invocation-D compiler options: Compile-time options-dpi=real: dvitype invocation-enc: tex invocation-file-line-error: Common options-file-line-error-style: Common options-fmt=dumpname: Common options-fmt=fmt: Determining the memory dump to use-geometry, supported with Xt: Online Metafont graphics-halt-on-error: Common options-images: gftype invocation-ini: Initial and virgin-ini: Common options-interaction=string: Common options-ipc: tex invocation-ipc-start: tex invocation-jobname=string: Common options-kpathsea-debug=number: Common options-length=number: tangle invocation-loose: tangle invocation-lowercase: tangle invocation-magnification=integer: dvitype invocation-magnification=integer: dvicopy invocation-max-pages=n: dvitype invocation-max-pages=n: dvicopy invocation-mem=dumpname: Common options-mem=mem: Determining the memory dump to use-min-crossrefs=n: bibtex invocation-mixedcase: tangle invocation-mktex=filetype: mf invocation-mktex=filetype: tex invocation-mltex: tex invocation-mnemonics: gftype invocation-no-file-line-error: Common options-no-mktex=filetype: mf invocation-no-mktex=filetype: tex invocation-no-parse-first-line: Common options-no-shell-escape: tex invocation-oem: Common options-output-comment=string: tex invocation-output-directory: Output file location-output-directory: Common options-output-level=n: dvitype invocation-overflow-label-offset=points: gftodvi invocation-page-start=page-spec: dvitype invocation-page-start=page-spec: dvicopy invocation-parse-first-line: Common options-progname=string: Determining the memory dump to use-progname=string: Common options-recorder: Common options-shell-escape: tex invocation-show-opcodes: dvitype invocation-strict: tangle invocation-style=mftfile: mft invocation-T: mpost invocation-terse: bibtex invocation-tex: mpto invocation-tex=texprogram: mpost invocation-translate-file=tcxfile: Common options-troff: mpto invocation-troff: makempx invocation-troff: mpost invocation-underline: tangle invocation-uppercase: tangle invocation-x: weave invocation., used for output: Output file location.2602gf: mf invocation.aux cross-reference files: bibtex invocation.base: Initial Metafont.bbl bibliography files: bibtex invocation.bib bibliography databases: bibtex invocation.blg BibTeX log file: bibtex invocation.fmt: Initial TeX.mem: Initial MetaPost.mf: mf invocation.mp: mpost invocation.nnn PostScript figures: mpost invocation.nnngf generic fonts: mf invocation.tcx character translation files: TCX files.tcx character translation files: Common options.tex: tex invocation.tfm output: mpost invocation.tfm output: mf invocation.Xdefaults: Online Metafont graphics.Xresources: Online Metafont graphics2602gf: mf invocation8 bit clean output, specifying: Common options\bibliography: bibtex invocation\bibliographystyle: bibtex invocation\charsubdef and MLTeX: \charsubdef\countn: dvitype invocation\countn: dvicopy invocation\font and dynamic generation: tex invocation\fontdimen: tftopl invocation\immediate\write18: tex invocation\input filenames: \input filenames\mag: dvitype invocation\mag: dvicopy invocation\openout and security: tex invocation\string: \input filenames\tracingcharsubdef and MLTeX: \tracingcharsubdef\tracinglostchars and MLTeX: \tracingcharsubdef\write18 shell escape extension: tex invocation^^ notation, avoiding: TCX filesabbrv.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesacm.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesafm2tfm: Font utilities available elsewhereafmtopl: Font utilities available elsewherealpha.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesapalike.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesautotrace: Font utilities available elsewherebases Make target: Additional targetsbeginfig: mpost invocationBeginPath ditroff command: dmp invocationBIBINPUTS, search path for bib files: bibtex invocationbibtex: bibtex invocationBSTINPUTS, search path for bst files: bibtex invocationbtex and label extraction: mpto invocationbtex for MetaPost labels: mpost invocationbtxdoc.bib: bibtex invocationbtxdoc.tex: bibtex invocationbtxhak.tex: bibtex invocationc-sources Makefile target: Additional targetsCHARACTER property: tftopl invocationCHARDP property: tftopl invocationCHARHT property: tftopl invocationCHARIC property: tftopl invocationCHARWD property: tftopl invocationchtopx: Font utilities available elsewherecm.base: Initial Metafontcmbase.mf: Initial Metafontcmbase.mft: mft invocationcmmf.base not recommended: Initial Metafontconfigure --with/--enable options: configure optionsCONTENTS.tex: weave invocationD c ditroff graphics: dmp invocationDISPLAY: Online Metafont graphicsDMP: dmp invocationDMP: makempx invocationdmp.c: dmp invocationdpost: dmp invocationDrawingServant: Online Metafont graphicsDrawPath ditroff command: dmp invocationdvicopy: dvicopy invocationdvitomp: dvitomp invocationDVITOMP: makempx invocationdvitype DVI validation: dvitype invocationdvitype.web: DVI utilitiessmode: Modese response at error prompt: Editor invocatione.mft: mft invocationempty.tcx: TCX fileseoc GF command: gftype invocationepsf: Online Metafont graphicsetex and label extraction: mpto invocationetex for MetaPost labels: mpost invocationextra_mem_bot: Runtime optionsFACE property: tftopl invocationFAMILY property: tftopl invocationFIXPT: Compile-time optionsfmts Make target: Additional targetsfont_mem_size: Runtime optionsfontforge: Font utilities available elsewherefontinst, for creating virtual fonts: Font utilities available elsewherefontutils: Font utilities available elsewhereformats Make target: Additional targetsftp.math.utah.edu: bibtex invocationgetopt_long_only: Option conventionsgftodvi: gftodvi invocationgftopk: gftopk invocationgftopxl: Font utilities available elsewheregftype GF validation: gftype invocationgftype.web: Font utilitiesgsftopk: Font utilities available elsewherehash_extra: Runtime optionsheaderbyte information: tftopl invocationhp2627: Online Metafont graphicsieeetr.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesil1-t1.tcx: TCX filesil2-t1.tcx: TCX filesinstall-bases Make target: Additional targetsinstall-fmts Make target: Additional targetsinstall-formats Make target: Additional targetsinstall-mems Make target: Additional targetsIPC_DEBUG: IPC and TeXIPC_DEBUG: Compile-time optionsKPATHSEA_DEBUG: Common optionsKRN property: tftopl invocationLABEL property: tftopl invocationLIG property: tftopl invocationLIGTABLE property: tftopl invocationlitprog@shsu.edu: WEBmain_memory: Runtime optionsmakempx: makempx invocationMAKEMPX_BINDIR: makempx invocationmems Make target: Additional targetsmetafun.mp: Initial MetaPostmetatype1: Font utilities available elsewheremf: mf invocationmf.base: Initial MetafontMFEDIT: Editor invocationmfplain.mem: Initial MetaPostmfput: mf invocationmft: mft invocationmftalk: Online Metafont graphicsMFTERM: Online Metafont graphicsmftmac.tex: mft invocationmktexmf, disabling: mf invocationmktextfM, disabling: tex invocationmltex: MLTeXmode_def: Modesmode_setup: Modesmodes.mf recommended modes file: ModesMPEDIT: Editor invocationmpgraph.ps: mpost invocationmpman.ps: mpost invocationmpost: mpost invocationmpost, reason for name change: Installationmpost.mem: Initial MetaPostmpout: mpost invocationmproof.tex: mpost invocationMPSUPPORT: dmp invocationMPto: mpto invocationMPTOTEX: makempx invocationMPTOTR: makempx invocationmptrap Make target: Additional targetsmptrap.readme: Triptrapmpxerr: makempx invocationmpxerr.dvi: makempx invocationmpxerr.log: makempx invocationmpxerr.t: makempx invocationmpxerr.tex: makempx invocationNEWER: makempx invocationnewer file comparison: newer invocationnewrow GF command: gftype invocationnext: Online Metafont graphicsNO_X11WIN: Online Metafont graphicsoutput_comment for DVI files: tex invocationpatgen: patgen invocationpfaedit: Font utilities available elsewherepktogf: pktogf invocationpktype PK validation: pktype invocationpktype.web: Font utilitiesplain.base: Initial Metafontplain.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesplain.fmt: Initial TeXplain.mem: Initial MetaPostplain.mft: mft invocationpltotf: pltotf invocationpooltype: pooltype invocationpotrace: Font utilities available elsewhereprologues: mpost invocationprologues and Troff in MetaPost: makempx invocationprologues, and EPSF output: mpost invocationproof mode: mf invocationps2pk: Font utilities available elsewherepsfonts.map, read by MetaPost: mpost invocationpxtoch: Font utilities available elsewhereregis: Online Metafont graphics\openout: tex invocationSetColor ditroff command: dmp invocationshell_escape enabling in TeX: tex invocationsiam.bst: Basic BibTeX style filessmode and dynamic Metafont mode definition: Modessun: Online Metafont graphicssun-gfx.c: Online Metafont graphicssystem C library function: tex invocationtangle: tangle invocationTCX character translation files: TCX filestek: Online Metafont graphicsTERM: Online Metafont graphicsTEX: makempx invocationtex: tex invocationTeX--XeT: TeX extensionstex.fmt: Initial TeXTEXBIB, search path for bib files: bibtex invocationTEXEDIT: Editor invocationtexfonts.map: Path searchingtexmf.cnf: Path searchingtexmfmp.c: Online Metafont graphicstexmfmp.c and openoutnameok: tex invocationTEXMFOUTPUT, used if ‘.’ unwritable: Output file locationtexput: tex invocationtftopl: tftopl invocationtrap Make target: Additional targetstrapman.tex: Triptraptrchars.adj: dmp invocationtrip Make target: Additional targetstripman.tex: Triptraptriptrap Make target: Additional targetsTROFF: makempx invocationuniterm: Online Metafont graphicsunsrt.bst: Basic BibTeX style filesverbatimtex MetaPost command: mpto invocationvftovp: vftovp invocationvirtual-fonts.knuth: Font file formatsvirtualfonts.txt: Font file formatsvptovf: vptovf invocationweave: weave invocationWEB2C, search path for TCX files: TCX fileswebmac.tex: weave invocationwebman.tex: WEBx X ditroff device control: dmp invocationxampl.bib: bibtex invocationxbfe, bitmap font editor: Font utilities available elsewherexfed, bitmap font editor: Font utilities available elsewherexfedor, bitmap font editor: Font utilities available elsewhereXlib: Online Metafont graphicsXt: Online Metafont graphicsxterm: Online Metafont graphics~ expansion in filenames: \input filenames