TEX(1L)

NAME
tex, initex, virtex - text formatting and typesetting

SYNOPSIS
tex [ first line ]

initex [ first line ]

virtex [ first line ]

DESCRIPTION
TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI which is short for DeVice Independent). TeX capabilities and language are described in The TeX book by Donald E. Knuth, published by Addison-Wesley.

Any arguments given on the command line to the TeX programs are passed to them as the first input line. (But it is easier to type them as the first input line, since you don't have to quote any of the symbols.) As described in The TeX book, that first line should begin with a file name or a \controlsequence. The normal usage is to say ``tex paper'' to start processing paper.tex. The name ``paper'' will be the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output file names. If TeX doesn't get a file name in the first line, the jobname is ``texput''. The default `.tex' extension can be overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.

If there is no paper.tex in the current directory, TeX will look look through a search path of directories to try to find it. The standard library on the default search path has the basic format package, plain.tex, described in the TeX book, as well as several others. Note that it is hardly ever necessary to \input plain, since the tex program has preloaded it. This means that all of the control sequences discussed in the TeX book are known to TeX .

The output DVI file is written on name.dvi where name is the jobname. A log of error messages goes into name.log.

Several environment variables can be used to set up directory paths to search when TeX opens a file for input. For example, the csh command
setenv TEXINPUTS .:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/local/lib/tex/inputs
or the sh command sequence
TEXINPUTS=.:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/local/lib/tex/inputs
export TEXINPUTS
would cause all invocations of TeX and its derivatives to look for \input files first in the current directory, then in a hypothetical user's ``mylib'', and finally in the system library. Normally, the user will place the command sequence which sets up the TEXINPUTS environment variable in the .cshrc or .profile file. The Environment section below lists the relevant environment variables, and their defaults.

The e response to TeX 's error prompt causes the emacs editor to start up at the current line of the current file. There is an environment variable, TEXEDIT, that can be used to change the editor used. It should contain a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes and "%d" indicating where the decimal linenumber (if any) goes. For example, a TEXEDIT string for vi can be set by:
setenv TEXEDIT "/usr/bin/vi +%d %s"

A convenient file in the library is null.tex, containing nothing. When TeX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you for another file name; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you don't want to input anything.

Two other TeX programs, initex and virtex, can be used to create fast-loading customized versions of TeX . The initex program is used to create a format (.fmt) file that permits fast loading of fonts and macro packages. After processing the fonts and definitions desired, a \dump command will create the format file. The format file is used by virtex. It needs to be given a format file name as the first thing it reads. A format file name is preceded by an &, which needs to be escaped with \ if given on the command line. So, for instance, one could create a file myfmt.fmt using initex, and then set up a cshell alias with
alias mytex "virtex \&myfmt"
to allow the use of ``mytex paper''. A slightly better way, which also works, is to rename myfmt.fmt as mytex.fmt and then make a symbolic link between /usr/local/bin/mytex and /usr/local/bin/virtex; virtex looks first to see if there is a format whose name matches arg0.

ENVIRONMENT
The defaults for all environments are set at the time of compilation, by reference to a file called /home/tex/localtexpaths.h.

TEXINPUTS
    Search path for \input and \openin files. It should be colon-separated, and start with ``.''. The entire path must be no longer than 700 characters long. Default: .:..:/home/tex/local/lib:/home/tex/dist/lib

TEXFONTS
    Search path for font metric files. The entire path must be no longer than 100 characters long. The default doesn't include the current area (".") to avoid confusing the programs that convert the output for printing on the various output devices (most of which don't know about the path stuff yet). Default: /home/fonts

TEXFORMATS
    Search path for format files. Default: .:/home/tex/local/tex

TEXPOOL
    Search path for INITEX internal strings. Default: .:/home/tex/local/tex

TEXEDIT
    Command template for switching to editor. Default: "emacs +%d %s"

FILES

/home/tex/{dist,local}/lib
    TeX 's library areas

/home/tex/local/tex/tex.pool
    Encoded text of TeX 's messages

/home/fonts/*.tfm
    Width information used by TeX (TeX Font Metric files)

/home/fonts/*{gf,pk}
    Bit maps for low resolution devices.

/home/tex/local/tex/*.fmt
    TeX .fmt files

/home/tex/dist/lib/plain.tex
    The ``default'' macro package

SEE ALSO
Donald E. Knuth, The TeX book
Leslie Lamport, The LaTeX Document Preparation System
Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX
TUGBOAT (the publication of the TeX Users Group)

TRIVIA
TeX , pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' Note that the proper spelling in typewriter-like output is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''

BUGS
Maybe there should be character other than & to specify format files, since if you forget the \ on the command line, it doesn't do what you want! Also, there is no way to read a TeX input file with no filename extension.

AUTHORS
TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his WEB system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. This version is a combination of their efforts.