LaCheck(1)                 Unix Programmer's Manual                 LaCheck(1)


NAME
     lacheck - A consistency checker for LaTeX documents.

SYNOPSIS
     lacheck filename [ .tex ]
             --------    ---

DESCRIPTION
     lacheck is a general purpose consistency checker for LaTeX documents.  It
     reads  a  LaTeX  document  and displays warning messages, if it finds bad
     sequences. It should be noted, that the badness is very subjective.
                                                        ----

     The things checked are:

     Mismatched groups (braces), environments and math mode delimiters.   When
     a  mismatch is found, line numbers for both start and end of the mismatch
                                            ----
     is given. The error messages comes in pairs, one for the  end  match  and
     one for the beginning, marked with `<-' and `->' respectively.

     Bad spacing. This is: missing a `\ ' after an  abbreviation,  missing  an
     `\@' before a punctuation mark in a paragraph that is ended by an capital
     letter, double spaces like ` \~', bad usage of ellipsis (like  using  ...
     instead of \ldots, or using \ldots where \cdots should be used)

     lacheck will read files that are input using \input or  \include.   Files
     with suffix `.sty' are omitted, as they probably will cause errors.

     lacheck may be invoked from within Emacs(1) using compile:

     To run: M-x compile <ret> , and then C-x ` to parse the messages


OUTPUT
     The output is UNIX-error like, and may be parsed using  Emacs(1)  compile
     mode. Here is a sample:

     lacheck compiler
     "/usr/mef/compiler.tex", line 34: missing `\\\\ ' after "etc."
     "/usr/mef/compiler.tex", line 179: double space at " ~"
     "/usr/mef/compiler.tex", line 186: <- unmatched "}"
     "/usr/mef/compiler.tex", line 181: -> unmatched "$$"

     A control space `\ ' should be inserted at line 34, to prevent an end-of-
     sentence  space.  Also, at line 179, the first space of the sequence " ~"
     should probably be deleted.  The last two lines is an example, where  the
     user mistyped, and probably inserted an extra "}" somewhere.


DIAGNOSTICS
     Some special cases should be explained. In cases where  a  sentence  ends
     with  something  that  lacheck  thinks is an abbreviation an missing `\ '
     error may also occur, if the following sentence  begins  with  a  capital
     letter.

     A mismatch error may cause more to follow, due to the  chosen  algorithm.
     In such cases just correct the first error and run lacheck again
                                    -----



                                May 23, 1991                                 1




LaCheck(1)                 Unix Programmer's Manual                 LaCheck(1)


     Braces, environments and math mode must be balanced within a file.

SEE ALSO
     tex(1), Emacs(1), latex(1)

BUGS
     Lots... Ideas for improvements and bug reports  are  very  welcome.  Such
     should be directed to the author.

AUTHOR
     Kresten Krab Thorup,  Email <krab@iesd.auc.dk>















































                                May 23, 1991                                 2