File: eplain.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: Invoking Eplain,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

Installation
************

  The simplest way to install Eplain is simply to install the file
`eplain.tex' in a directory where TeX will find it.  What that
directory is obviously depends on your operating system and TeX
installation.  I install `eplain.tex' in
`/usr/local/lib/tex/macros/plain'.

  If you want, you can also create a format (`.fmt') file for Eplain,
which will eliminate the time spent reading the macro source file with
`\input'.  You do this by issuing a sequence of commands something like
this:

     initex
     This is TeX, ...
     **&plain eplain
     (eplain.tex)
     *\dump
     ... messages ...

You must make sure that `eplain.aux' exists *before* you run `initex';
otherwise, warning messages about undefined labels will never be issued.

  You then have to install the resulting `eplain.fmt' in some system
directory or set an environment variable to tell TeX how to find it. I
install the format files in `/usr/local/lib/tex/formats'; the
environment variable for the Web2C port of TeX to Unix is `TEXFORMATS'.

  Some implementations of TeX (including Web2C) use the name by which
TeX is invoked to determine what format to read.  For them, you should
make a link to the `virtex' program named `etex', and then install the
format file with the name `etex.fmt'.  This lets users invoke TeX as
`etex' and get the format file read automatically.

  For convenience, the file `etex.tex' in the distribution directory
does `\input eplain' and then `\dump', so that if you replace `eplain'
with `etex' in the example above, the format file will end up with the
right name.

  The `install' target in the `Makefile' does all this properly for
Unix systems and Web2C.  You may have to change the pathnames.
