Determining the memory dump to use

The virgin form (see section 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:

1. If the first non-option command-line argument begins with `&', the program uses the remainder of that argument as the memory dump name. For example, running `tex \&super' reads `super.fmt'. (The backslash protects the `&' against interpretation by the shell.)
2. If the `-fmt' resp. `-base' resp. `-mem' option is specified, its value is used.
3. If the `-progname' option is specified, its value is used.
4. If the first line of the main input file (which must be specified on the command line, not in response to `**') is %&dump, and dump is an existing memory dump of the appropriate type, dump is used. As a special case, %&ini means the initial form of the program (see section Initial and virgin).
5. Otherwise, the program uses the program invocation name, most commonly `tex' resp. `mf' resp. `mpost'. For example, if `latex' is a link to `tex', and the user runs `latex foo', `latex.fmt' will be used.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.