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pdftex, pdfinitex, pdfvirtex - PDF output from TeX
pdftex [options] [commands]
This manual page is
not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version
of can be found in the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
pdf is a version of that can create PDF files as well as DVI files.
The
typical use of pdf is with a pregenerated formats for which PDF output
has been enabled. The pdftex command uses the equivalent of the plain
format, and the pdflatex command uses the equivalent of the X format.
The pdfinitex and pdfvirtex commands are pdf's analogues to the initex
and virtex commands. In this installation, they are symlinks to the pdftex
executable.
pdf's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that
of .
pdf is beta software.
This version of pdf understands the
following command line options.
- --fmt format
- Use format as the name of the
format to be used, instead of the name by which pdf was called or a %&
line.
- --help
- Print help message and exit.
- --ini
- Be pdfinitex, for dumping
formats; this is implicitly true if the program is called as pdfinitex.
- --interaction mode
- Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of batchmode,
nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of these modes
is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
- --ipc
- Send DVI or PDF
output to a socket as well as the usual output file. Whether this option
is available is the choice of the installer.
- --ipc-start
- As --ipc, and starts
the server at the other end as well. Whether this option is available
is the choice of the installer.
- --kpathsea-debug bitmask
- Sets path searching
debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for
details.
- --maketex fmt
- Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or
tfm.
- --no-maketex fmt
- Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or tfm.
- --output-comment string
- Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the
date.
- --progname name
- Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format
used and the search paths.
- --shell-escape
- Enable the \write18{command} construct.
The command can be any Bourne shell command. This construct is normally
disallowed for security reasons.
- --translate-file tcxname
- Use the tcxname
translation table.
- --version
- Print version information and exit.
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications' node)
for precise details of how the environment variables are used. The kpsewhich
utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
One caveat: In
most pdf formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to
pdf, because ~ is an active character, and hence is expanded, not taken
as part of the filename. Other programs, such as , do not have this problem.
- TEXMFOUTPUT
- Normally, pdf puts its output files in the current directory.
If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it in the
directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT. There is no
default value for that variable. For example, if you say tex paper and
the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp,
pdf attempts to create /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.pdf, if any output
is produced.)
- TEXINPUTS
- Search path for \input and \openin files. This should
probably start with ``.'', so that user files are found before system files.
An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined in the
texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend
the current direcory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
- TEXFONTS
- Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
- TEXFORMATS
- Search path for format
files.
- TEXPOOL
- search path for pdfinitex internal strings.
- TEXEDIT
- Command
template for switching to editor. The default, usually vi, is set when
pdf is compiled.
The location of the files mentioned below varies
from system to system. Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
- pdftex.pool
- Encoded text of pdf's messages.
- texfonts.map
- Filename mapping
definitions.
- *.tfm
- Metric files for pdf's fonts.
- *.fmt
- Predigested pdf format
(.fmt) files.
This version of pdf fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions
are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it
does the generated DVI file will be invalid. Whether a generated PDF file
would be usable is unknown.
pdf is beta software. Subscribe to the pdftex
mailing list pdftex@tug.org if you intend to use it. This is a majordomo
list, to subscribe send a message containing subscribe pdftex to majordomo@tug.org.
tex(1)
, mf(1)
,
The primary authors of pdf are Han
The Thanh, Petr Sojka, and Jiri Zlatuska.
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