This file documents the installation and use of the programs in Web2c, an implementation of Donald Knuth's TeX system.

Copyright (C) 1996, 97 K. Berry.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation

Web2c
*****

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 7.0, released in February 1997.

Introduction
************

This manual corresponds to version 7.0 of Web2c, released in February 1997.

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 (Kpathsea), 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 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 (Kpathsea)). 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, I became the maintainer and have unfortunately inflicted much pain and suffering on the original sources, and started using the shorter name Web2c.  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.

     [file install.texi not included]

Commonalities
*************

Many aspects of the TeX system are the same among more than one program, so we describe all those pieces together, here.

Option conventions
==================

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.

As a result, you can:

  * give the options in any order, interspersed as you wish with non-option arguments;

  * use - or -- to start an option name;

  * use any unambiguous abbreviation for an option name;

  * separate option names and values with either = or one or more spaces;

  * use filenames that would otherwise look like options by putting them after an option --.

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-

Common options
==============

All of these programs accept the standard GNU --help and --version options, and several programs accept --verbose. Rather than writing identical descriptions in every node, they are described here.

--help
     Print a usage message listing basic usage and all available options to standard output, then exit successfully.

--verbose
     Print progress reports to standard output.

--version
     Print the version number to standard output, then exit successfully.

TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost have additional options in common:

-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER
     Set path searching debugging flags according to the bits of NUMBER (see Debugging (Kpathsea)).  You can also specify this in KPATHSEA_DEBUG environment variable (for all Web2c programs). (The command line value overrides.)  The most useful value is -1, to get all available output.

-ini
     Enable the ``initial'' form of the program (see Initial and virgin).  This is implicitly set if the program name is initex resp. inimf resp. inimpost.

-fmt=DUMPNAME
-base=DUMPNAME
-mem=DUMPNAME
     Use DUMPNAME instead of the program name or a %& line to determine the name of the memory dump file read (fmt for TeX, base for Metafont, mem for MetaPost).  See Memory dumps. Also set the program name to DUMPNAME.

-progname=STRING
     Set program (and memory dump) name to STRING.  This may affect the search paths and other values used (see Config files (Kpathsea)).  Using this option is equivalent to making a link named STRING to the binary and then invoking the binary under that name.  See Memory dumps.

Path searching
==============

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 (Kpathsea)).  Reading texmf.cnf (see Config files (Kpathsea)), invoking MakeTeX... scripts (see MakeTeX scripts (Kpathsea)), 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.

Output file location
====================

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.

However, if the current directory is not writable, the main programs (TeX, Metafont, MetaPost, and BibTeX) make an exception: if the environment variable or config file value TEXMFOUTPUT is set (it is not by default), output files are written to the directory specified. This is useful when you are in some read-only distribution directory, perhaps on a CD-ROM, and want to TeX some documentation, for example.

Three programs: Metafont, MetaPost, and TeX
===========================================

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.

Initial and virgin
------------------

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.

The initial form is enabled if:

 1. the -ini option was specified; or

 2. the program name is initex resp. inimf resp. inimpost; or

 3. the first line of the main input file is %&ini;

otherwise, the virgin form is used.

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 the past, there was a third form, preloaded executables.  This is no longer recommended or widely used; but see the section below if you're interested anyway.  In this case, the memory dump file was read in to the virgin form, a core dump of the running executable was done, and the undump program run to create a new binary.  Nowadays, reading memory dumps is fast enough that this is generally no longer worth the cost in disk space and unshared executables.

Preloaded executables
.....................

Specifying --enable-auto-core to configure tells TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost to suicide with a SIGQUIT on an input filename of HackyInputFileNameForCoreDump.tex (all three programs use the .tex suffix). This produces a memory dump of the running executable in a file core.  (This is unrelated to the standard memory dump feature in these programs; see Memory dumps).

You don't actually need to do this to produce a core dump.  Just typing your quit character (usually CTRL-\) when the program is waiting for input (at **) will have the same result.  But a few sites want to reliably generate a core dump without human intervention; that's what --enable-auto-core is for.

With the program undump, you can use core to reconstitute a preloaded executable, which does not need to read a .fmt file to get started.  Although preloaded executables save startup time, they have a big disadvantage: neither the disk space to store them nor their code segments (at runtime) can be shared.  Therefore, if both tex and latex are running, twice as much memory will be consumed, to the general detriment of performance.

The undump program is not part of the Web2c distribution, but you can get it from the CTAN archives as CTAN:/support/undump, and it is included in several TeX distributions (see unixtex.ftp (Kpathsea)).

Memory dumps
------------

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.

Creating memory dumps
.....................

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:

TeX
     (.fmt) see initex invocation.

Metafont
     (.base) see inimf invocation.

MetaPost
     (.mem) see inimpost invocation.

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.

Determining the memory dump to use
..................................

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:

 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 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.

Hardware and memory dumps
.........................

By default, memory dump files are generally sharable between architectures of different types; specifically, on machines of different endianness (see Byte order (GNU C Library)).  (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);
     }

Editor invocation
-----------------

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.)  This means that \input filenames cannot directly contain whitespace, even though Unix has no trouble.  Sorry.

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.

Furthermore, 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 you could define an environment variable value including whitespace and get the program to read such a filename that way, if you need to.)

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: Typesetting
****************

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 (Kpathsea)), 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 (Dvips)) 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 MakeTeXTFM to create any nonexistent TFM files.  You can disable this at configure-time or runtime (see MakeTeX configuration (Kpathsea)).  This is enabled mostly for the sake of the DC 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 implication).  To alleviate this, there is a configuration variable openout_any; by default, this is set to 0, which disallows writing to any filename beginning with . except .tex (for the sake of the LaTeX distribution).  If set to 1, any file can be written. 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):

-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER
-ini
-fmt=FMTNAME
-progname=STRING
     These options are common to TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost. See Common options.

-extend-jobname=WORD
     Determine how TeX constructs the name of its output files (.dvi, .log, .fmt).  WORD is one of never, maybe (the default), or always:

     maybe
          (default) If the input filename ends in one of these extensions:

               .drv .dtx .ins .ltx .tex .texi .texinfo .txi

          then TeX strips the extension; thus, foo.tex produces foo.dvi, but foo.bar.tex produces foo.bar.dvi.

     never
          Never strip the extension: foo.tex produces foo.tex.dvi.

     always
          Always strip the extension: foo.bar produces foo.dvi. (This is the behavior of the original TeX program.)

-ipc
-ipc-start
     With either option, TeX writes its DVI output to a socket as well as to the usual .dvi file.  With -ipc-start, TeX also opens a server program at the other end to read the output.  See IPC and TeX.

     These options are available only if the --enable-ipc option was specified to configure during installation of Web2c.

-maketex=FILETYPE
-no-maketex=FILETYPE
     Turn on or off the MakeTeX script associated with FILETYPE. The only values that make sense for FILETYPE are tex and tfm,

-mltex
     If INITEX (see Initial and virgin), enable MLTeX extensions such as \charsubdef.  Implicitly set if the program name is mltex.  See MLTeX.

-output-comment=STRING
     Use STRING as the DVI file comment.  Ordinarily, this comment records the date and time of the TeX run, but if you are doing regression testing, you may not want the DVI file to have this spurious difference.  This is also taken from the environment variable and config file value output_comment.

-shell-escape
     Enable the \write18{SHELL-COMMAND} feature.  This is also enabled if the environment variable or config file value shell_escape is set to anything non-null that does not start with n or 0.  It is disabled by default to avoid security problems.  When enabled, the SHELL-COMMAND string (which first undergoes the usual TeX expansions, just as in \special) is passed to the command shell (via the C library function system). The output of SHELL-COMMAND is not diverted anywhere, so it will not appear in the log file.  The system call either happens at \output time or right away, according to the absence or presence of the \immediate prefix, as usual for \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.)

initex invocation
=================

initex is the ``initial'' form of TeX, which 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.

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):

     initex '\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.

virtex invocation
=================

virtex is the ``virgin'' form of TeX, which avoids the lengthy initializations done by the ``initial'' (ini) form, and is thus what is generally used for production work.  For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see Initial and virgin.

For a list of options and other information, see tex invocation.

Formats
=======

TeX formats are large collections of macros, possibly dumped into a .fmt file (see Memory dumps) by initex (see initex invocation).  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 (Kpathsea)).  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.

latex
     The most widely used format.  The current release is named `LaTeX 2e'; new versions are released approximately every six months, with patches issued as needed.  The old release was called `LaTeX 2.09', and is no longer maintained or supported.  LaTeX attempts to provide generic markup instructions, such as ``emphasize'', instead of specific typesetting instructions, such as ``use the 10pt Computer Modern italic font''.

amstex
     The official typesetting system of the American Mathematical Society, used to produce nearly all of its publications, e.g., Mathematical Reviews.  Like LaTeX, it encourages generic markup commands.  The AMS also provides a LaTeX package for authors who prefer LaTeX (see the amslatex item below).

texinfo
     The documentation system developed and maintained by the Free Software Foundation for their software manuals.  It can be automatically converted into plain text, a machine-readable on-line format called `info', HTML, etc.

eplain
     The ``expanded plain'' format provides various common features (e.g., symbolic cross-referencing, tables of contents, indexing, citations using BibTeX), for those authors who prefer to handle their own high-level formatting.

lamstex
     Augments AMSTeX with LaTeX-like features.

amslatex
     An LaTeX package (see latex item above), that augments LaTeX with AMSTeX-like features.

slitex
     An obsolete LaTeX 2.09 format for making slides.  It is replaced by the slides document class.

Languages and hyphenation
=========================

TeX supports most natural languages.  See also TeX extensions.

MLTeX: Multi-lingual TeX
------------------------

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.  See:

     CTAN:/systems/generic/mltex
     ftp://ftp.univ-rennes1.fr/pub/GUTenberg/french/

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 diagnostics
............................................

To 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.

Patgen: Creating hyphenation patterns
-------------------------------------

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).

IPC and TeX
===========

(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.

TeX extensions
==============

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 (Kpathsea).

e-TeX
     Adds many new primitives, including right-to-left typesetting. Available from http://www.vms.rhbnc.ac.uk/e-TeX/ and CTAN:/systems/e-tex.

Omega
     Adds Unicode support.  Available from http://www.ens.fr/omega and CTAN:/systems/omega.

TeX--XeT
     Adds primitives and DVI opcodes for right-to-left typesetting (as used in Arabic, for example).  An old version for TeX 3.1415 is available from CTAN:/systems/knuth/tex--xet.  A newer version is included in e-TeX.

File-handling TeX
     Adds primitives for creating multiple DVI files in a single run; and appending to output files as well as overwriting.  Web2c implementation available in the distribution file web2c/contrib/file-handling-tex.

Metafont: Creating typeface families
************************************

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 (Kpathsea)), 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 MakeTeXMF to create any nonexistent Metafont source files you input.  You can disable this at configure-time or runtime (see MakeTeX configuration (Kpathsea)).  This is mostly for the sake of the DC 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 1.2 * sqrt(2).

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):

-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER
-ini
-base=BASENAME
-progname=STRING
     These options are common to TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost. See Common options.

-maketex=FILETYPE
-no-maketex=FILETYPE
     Turn on or off the MakeTeX script associated with FILETYPE. The only value that makes sense for FILETYPE is mf.

inimf invocation
================

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.

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):

     inimf '\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.

virmf invocation
================

virmf is the ``virgin'' form of Metafont, which avoids the lengthy initializations done by the ``initial'' (ini) form, and is thus what is generally used for production work.  Usually it is invoked under the name mf.  For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see Initial and virgin.

For a list of options and other information, see mf invocation.

Modes: Device definitions for Metafont
======================================

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.

Online Metafont graphics
========================

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.

hp2627
     (--with-hp2627win) HP2627a color graphics terminals.

mftalk
     (--with-mftalkwin) Generic window server (see web2c/window/mftalk.c).

next
     (--with-next) NeXT window system. This requires a separate program, called DrawingServant, available separately. See the web2c/window/next.c.

regis
     (--with-regiswin) Regis terminals.

sun
     (--with-suntoolswin) The old Suntools (not any flavor of X) window system. (You can get the even older SunWindows gfx system by using sun-gfx.c.)

tek
     (--with-tektronixwin) Tektronix terminals.

uniterm
     (--with-unitermwin) Uniterm, Simon Poole's emulator of a smart Tektronix 4014 terminal.  This may work with regular Tektronix terminals as well; it's faster than the driver --with-tek selects.

xterm
     (--with-x11win, --with-x, --with-x11) The X window system (version 11).

     There 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: Character proofs of fonts
==================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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:

  * gray font (default gray): for the pixels that actually make up the character.  Simply using black is not right, since then labels, key points, and other information could not be shown.

  * title font (default cmr8): for the header information at the top of each output page.

  * label font (default cmtt10): for the labels on key points of the figure.

  * slant font (no default): for diagonal lines, which are otherwise simulated using horizontal and vertical rules.

To change the default fonts, you must use special commands in your Metafont source file.

The program accepts the following option, as well as the standard -verbose, -help, and -version (see Common options):

-overflow-label-offset=POINTS
     Typeset the so-called overflow labels, if any, POINTS TeX points from the right edge of the character bounding box.  The default is a little over two inches (ten million scaled points, to be precise). Overflow equations are used to locate coordinates when their actual position is too crowded with other information.

MFT: Prettyprinting Metafont source
===================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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:

  * Metafont comments following a single % should be valid TeX input.  But Metafont material can be included within vertical bars in a comment; this will be translated by MFT as if it were regular Metafont code.  For example, a comment like % |x2r| is the tip of the bowl will be translated into the TeX % $x_{2r}$ is the ..., i.e., the x2r is treated as an identifier.

  * %% indicates that the remainder of an input line should be copied verbatim to the output.  This is typically used to introduce additional TeX material at the beginning or an MFT job, e.g. code to modify the standard layout or the formatting macros defined in mftmac.tex, or to add a line saying %%\bye at the end of the job.  (MFT doesn't add this automatically in order to allow processing several files produces by MFT in the same TeX job.)

  * %%% TOKEN1 OTHER-TOKENS introduces a change in MFT's formatting rules; all the OTHER-TOKENS will henceforth be translated according to the current conventions for TOKEN1. The tokens must be symbolic (i.e., not numeric or string tokens). For example, the input line

          %%% 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.

  * %%%% introduces an MFT comment, i.e., MFT ignores the remainder of such a line.

  * Five or more % signs should not be used.

(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):

-change=CHFILE[.ch]
     Apply the change file CHFILE as with Tangle and Weave (see WEB).

-style=MFTFILE[.mft]
     Read MFTFILE before anything else; a MFT style file typically contains only MFT directives as described above.  The default style file is named plain.mft, which defines this properly for programs using plain Metafont.  The MFT files is searched along the MFTINPUTS path; see Supported file formats (Kpathsea).

     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: Creating technical illustrations
******************************************

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 as the file TEXMF/doc/metapost/mpman.ps, where TEXMF is the root of TeX directory structure.  See also http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/MetaPost.html.

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 (Kpathsea)), 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 (Dvips)).

The MetaPost construct

     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 (Dvips)).  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 (Dvips)).

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):

-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER
-ini
-mem=MEMNAME
-progname=STRING
     These options are common to TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost. See Common options.

-T
-troff
     Set the prologues internal variable to 1, and use makempx -troff to generate MPX files.

inimpost invocation
===================

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.

For a list of options and other information, see mpost invocation.

The only memory dump file commonly 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 MetaPost update is issued):

     inimpost '\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).

virmpost invocation
===================

virmpost is the ``virgin'' form of MetaPost, which avoids the lengthy initializations done by the ``initial'' (ini) form, and is thus what is generally used for production work.  For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see Initial and virgin.

For a list of options and other information, see mpost invocation.

MakeMPX: Support MetaPost labels
================================

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:

 1. MPto is run to extract the label text from the MetaPost source file MPFILE (see mpto invocation).

 2. The typesetting program itself is run, either TeX or Troff (see below).  If TeX, and the file named by the MPTEXPRE environment variable exists (mptexpre.tex by default), that file is prepended to the input from the MetaPost file.

 3. The typesetter output (a DVI file in the case of TeX, Ditroff output for Troff) is translated back to MetaPost, by DVItoMP (see dvitomp invocation) or DMP (see dmp invocation) respectively.

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_BINDIR
     The directory added to the PATH.  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.

NEWER
     The command run to determine if MPXFILE is out of date with respect to MPFILE; default is newer.

MPTOTEX
     The command run to extract MetaPost labels in TeX format; default is mpto -tex.

MPTOTR
     Likewise, for Troff; default is mpto -troff.

DVITOMP
     The command run to convert TeX output back to MetaPost; default is dvitomp.

DMP
     Likewise, for Troff; default is dmp.

TEX
     The command run to typeset the labels in TeX; default is tex. If you use LaTeX, set this to latex, and supply an appropriate verbatimtex header in the MP source (see mpost invocation).

TROFF
     Likewise, for Troff; default is 'eqn -d\$\$ | troff -Tpost'.  You may need to replace -Tpost by -TTERM, where TERM is the PostScript device name for your Troff implementation, e.g., ps or psc; see troff(1).

     If 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.

DVItoMP: DVI to MPX conversion
==============================

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.

The only options are -help and -version (see Common options).

DMP: Ditroff to MPX conversion
==============================

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):

  * If DMP complains about a missing font table (e.g., Cannot find TR), your Troff may not support the device post.

     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.

  * If DMP complains about a missing font description file (e.g., Font TR was not in map file), your version of Troff may be using internal font names different from those in the distributed trfonts.map; e.g., TR and TI instead of R and I for Times-Roman and Times-Italic.

     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).

  * If DMP still complains that it cannot parse the font description files or the Troff output (e.g., TR has a bad line in its description file, you are probably out of luck and have to hack the DMP program (in web2c/mpware/dmp.c).

     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: Extract labels from MetaPost input
========================================

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):

-troff
     Surround the MetaPost sections with Troff commands.

-tex
     Surround the MetaPost sections with TeX commands. This is the default.

Newer: Compare file modification times
======================================

Newer compares file modification times.  Synopsis:

     newer SRC DEPENDENT

Newer exits successfully if the file SRC exists and is older as DEPENDENT, i.e., the modification time (mtime) of SRC is greater than that of DEPENDENT.  See Attribute Meanings (GNU C Library).

Although this could be written as a Perl script (see File Operations (Perl)) or using the --full-time option supported by ls (see ls invocation (GNU file utilities)), it seems undesirable to depend on such independent, and sadly non-universal, programs.

This is used by MakeMPX (see makempx invocation).

BibTeX: Bibliographies
**********************

BibTeX automates much of the job of typesetting bibliographies, and makes bibliography entries reusable in many different contexts.

BibTeX invocation
=================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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):

-terse
     Suppress the program banner and progress reports normally output.

-min-crossrefs=N
     If at least N (2 by default) bibliography entries refer to another entry E via their 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:

btxdoc.tex
     Basic LaTeXable documentation for general BibTeX users.

btxhak.tex
     LaTeXable documentation for style designers.

btxdoc.bib
     BibTeX database file for the two above documents.

xampl.bib
     Example database file with all the standard entry types.

ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/
     A very large .bib and .bst collection, including references for all the standard TeX books and a complete bibliography for TUGboat.

Basic BibTeX style files
========================

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 (Kpathsea)).

plain
     Sorts entries alphabetically, with numeric labels.  Generally formatted according to van Leunen's A Handbook for Scholars.  The other style files listed here are based on plain.

abbrv
     First names, month names, and journal names are abbreviated.

acm
     Names are printed in small caps.

alpha
     Alphanumeric labels, e.g., Knu66.

apalike
     No labels at all; instead, the year appears in parentheses after the author. Should be used in conjunction with apalike.tex (plain TeX) or apalike.sty (LaTeX), which also changes the citations in the text to be (AUTHOR, YEAR).

ieeetr
     Numeric labels, entries in citation order, IEEE abbreviations, article titles in quotes.

siam
     Numeric labels, alphabetic order, Math. Reviews abbreviations, names in small caps.

unsrt
     Lists entries in citation order, i.e., unsorted.

btxbst.doc
     The template file and documentation for the standard styles.

WEB: Literate programming
*************************

WEB 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: Translate WEB to Pascal
===============================

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 only options are --help and --version (see Common options).

Weave: Translate WEB to TeX
===========================

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):

-x
     Omit the cross-reference information: the index, the list of WEB module names, and the table of contents (an empty CONTENTS.tex file will still be written when the Weave output file is processed by TeX using the default webmac.tex, though).

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: Display WEB pool files
================================

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.

DVI utilities
*************

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 (Dvips)), 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 (Kpathsea)).

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: Canonicalize virtual font references
=============================================

DVIcopy reads a DVI file, expands any references to virtual fonts (see Virtual fonts (Dvips)) 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):

-magnification=INTEGER
     Override existing magnification in INDVI with INTEGER; 1000 specifies no magnification.  This is equivalent to setting TeX's \mag parameter.

-max-pages=N
     Process N pages; default is one million.

-page-start=PAGE-SPEC
     Start at the first page matching PAGE-SPEC, which is one or more (signed) integers separated by periods, corresponding to TeX's \count0...9 parameters at \shipout time; * matches anything.  Examples: 3, 1.*.-4.

DVItype: Plain text transliteration of DVI files
================================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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):

-dpi=REAL
     Do pixel movement calculations at REAL pixels per inch; default 300.0.

-magnification=INTEGER
     Override existing magnification in INDVI with INTEGER; 1000 specifies no magnification.  This is equivalent to setting TeX's \mag parameter.

-max-pages=N
     Process N pages; default is one million.

-output-level=N
     Verbosity level of output, from 0 to 4 (default 4):

       * 0: Global document information only.

       * 1: Most DVI commands included, and typeset characters summarized.

       * 2: Character and movement commands explicitly included.

       * 3: DVI stack and current position calculations included.

       * 4: Same information as level 3, but DVItype does random positioning in the file, reading the DVI postamble first.

-page-start=PAGE-SPEC
     Start at the first page matching PAGE-SPEC, which is one or more (signed) integers separated by periods, corresponding to TeX's \count0...9 parameters at \shipout time; * matches anything.  Examples: 1, 5.*.-9.

-show-opcodes
     Show numeric opcode values (in decimal) for DVI commands, in braces after the command name. This can help in debugging DVI utilities.  We use decimal because in the DVI format documentation (in dvitype.web, among others) the opcodes are shown in decimal.

DVItype output example
----------------------

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 DVItype options are recorded at the beginning, followed by global information about the document, including fonts used.

  * Each DVI command is preceded by its byte position in the file (42:, 87:, ...), and (because of the -show-opcodes) followed by its decimal opcode value in braces ({141}, {142}, ...).

  * The level lines record information about the DVI stack; h and v define the current position in DVI units, while hh and vv are the same in pixels.

  * Text sequences are summarized in brackets, as in [A SHORT STORY] and the [ 1].

Font utilities
**************

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.

Font file formats
=================

(For another perspective on this, see Font concepts (Dvips)).

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 DC 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 vftovp invocation and vptovf invocation.  For further discussion of virtual fonts, see CTAN:/doc/virtual-fonts.knuth, CTAN:/help/virtualfonts.txt, and Virtual fonts (Dvips).

(This section is based on documentation in the original Unix TeX distribution by Pierre MacKay and Elizabeth Tachikawa.)

GFtoPK: Generic to packed font conversion
=========================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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: Packed to generic font conversion
=========================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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: Plain text transliteration of packed fonts
==================================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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)2(21)7(26)2(22)7
       (25)2(23)7(24)2(24)7(23)2(25)7(22)2(26)7(21)2(27)7(20)2(28)7(19)2(29)7(18)2
       ...
       (23)7(20)7(23)8(19)7(24)7(19)7(25)7(18)7(25)8(17)7(26)7(17)7(26)8(16)7(26)9
       (14)9(24)12(5)[2]23(13)21

Explanation:

955
     The byte position in the file where this character starts.

Flag byte
Dynamic packing variable
     Related to the packing for this character; see the source code.

Character
     The character code, in decimal.

Packet length
     The total length of this character definition, in bytes.

TFM width
     The device-independent (TFM) width of this character.  It is 2^24 times the ratio of the true width to the font's design size.

dx
     The device-dependent width, in scaled pixels, i.e., units of horizontal pixels times 2^16.

Height
Width
     The bitmap height and width, in pixels.

X-offset
Y-offset
     Horizontal and vertical offset from the upper left pixel to the reference (origin) pixel for this character, in pixels (right and down are positive).  The reference pixel is the pixel that occupies the unit square in Metafont; the Metafont reference point is the lower left hand corner of this pixel. Put another way, the x-offset is the negative of the left side bearing; the right side bearing is the horizontal escapement minus the bitmap width plus the x-offset.

[2]23(16)...
     Finally, run lengths of black pixels alternate with parenthesized run lengths of white pixels, and brackets indicate a repeated row.

GFtype: Plain text transliteration of generic fonts
===================================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  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):

-images
     Show the characters' bitmaps using asterisks and spaces.

-mnemonics
     Translate all commands in the GF file.

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:

2033
2043
...
     The byte position in the file where each GF command starts.

beginning of char 75
     The character code, in decimal.

3<=m<=60 0<=n<=56
     The character's bitmap lies between 3 and 60 (inclusive) horizontally, and between 0 and 56 (inclusive) vertically. (m is a column position and n is a row position.)  Thus, 3 is the left side bearing.  The right side bearing is the horizontal escapement (given below) minus the maximum m.

(initially n=56) paint (0)24(12)20
     The first row of pixels: 0 white pixels, 24 black pixels, 12 white pixels, etc.

newrow 0 (n=55) paint 24(12)20
     The second row of pixels, with zero leading white pixels on the row.

eoc
     The end of the main character definition.

Here is the GF postamble information that GFtype outputs at the end:

     Character 75: dx 4259840 (65), width 815562 (64.57289), loc 2033

Explanation:

dx
     The device-dependent width, in scaled pixels, i.e., units of horizontal pixels times 2^16.  The (65) is simply the same number rounded.  If the vertical escapement is nonzero, it would appear here as a dy value.

width
     The device-independent (TFM) width of this character.  It is 2^24 times the ratio of the true width to the font's design size.  The 64.57289 is the same number converted to pixels.

loc
     The byte position in the file where this character starts.

TFtoPL: TeX font metric to property list conversion
===================================================

TFtoPL translates a TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files (Dvips)) 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 (Kpathsea)).  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):

-charcode-format=TYPE
     Output character codes in the PL file according to TYPE: either octal or ascii.  Default is ascii for letters and digits, octal for all other characters.  Exception: if the font's coding scheme starts with TeX math sy or TeX math ex, all character codes are output in octal.

     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.

  * The first few items (FAMILY, FACE, and so on) are the so-called headerbyte information from Metafont, giving general information about the font.

  * The FONTDIMEN property defines the TeX \fontdimen values.

  * The 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).

  * The 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: Property list to TeX font metric conversion
===================================================

PLtoTF translates a property list file (as output by TFtoPL, for example) to TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files (Dvips)) 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: Virtual font to virtual property lists
==============================================

VFtoVP translates a virtual font metric (VF, see Virtual fonts (Dvips)) file and its accompanying TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files (Dvips)) 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 (Kpathsea)).  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):

-charcode-format=TYPE
     Output character codes in the PL file according to TYPE: either octal or ascii.  Default is ascii for letters and digits, octal for all other characters.  Exception: if the font's coding scheme starts with TeX math sy or TeX math ex, all character codes are output in octal.

     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: Virtual property lists to virtual font
==============================================

VPtoVF translates a virtual property list file (as output by VFtoVP, for example) to virtual font (VF, see Virtual fonts (Dvips)) and TeX font metric (TFM, see Metric files (Dvips)) 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 file 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).

Font utilities available elsewhere
==================================

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 (Kpathsea)).  Here are some of the most commonly-requested items:

  * AFM (Adobe font metric) to TFM conversion: see Invoking afm2tfm (Dvips), and CTAN:/fonts/utilities/afmtopl.

  * BDF (the X bitmap format) conversion: ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/bdf.tar.gz.

  * Editing of bitmap fonts: Xbfe from the GNU font utilities mentioned below; the X BDF-editing programs available from ftp://ftp.x.org/R5contrib/xfed.tar.Z and ftp://ftp.x.org/R5contrib/xfedor.tar.Z; and finally, if your fonts have only 128 characters, you can use the old gftopxl, pxtoch, and chtopx programs from ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web.

  * PK bitmaps from PostScript fonts: gsftopk from the xdvik distribution or from CTAN:/fonts/utilities/gsftopk; alternatively, ps2pk, from CTAN:/fonts/utilities/ps2pk.

  * PostScript Type 1 font format conversion (i.e., between PFA and PFB formats): ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/t1utils.tar.gz.

  * Scanned image conversion: the (aging) GNU font utilities convert type specimen images to Metafont, PostScript, etc.: ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/fontutils-0.6.tar.gz.

  * Virtual font creation: CTAN:/fonts/utilities/fontinst.

Legalisms
*********

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, almost all of the Kpathsea library is covered by the GNU Library General Public License, but part of one file is covered by the regular GNU General Public License (see Introduction (Kpathsea)).  Therefore, the binaries resulting from a standard Web2c compilation are also covered by the GPL; so if you (re)distribute the binaries, you must also (offer to) distribute the complete source that went into those binaries.  See the files COPYING and COPYING.LIB for complete details on the GPL and 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.

References
**********

 1. Kpathsea: see Introduction (Kpathsea).

 2. Dvips and Afm2tfm: see Introduction (Dvips).

 3. For a bibliography of formal articles and technical reports on the TeX project, see the books TeX: The Program or Metafont: The Program cited below.

 4. TUGboat: ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/tugboat.bib.

 5. TeX and computer typesetting in general:

     ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/texbook1.bib.

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