TEX(1) General Commands Manual TEX(1) (NAME) tex, initex - (SYNOPSIS) tex [options] [&format] [ file [ more-input ] | [ \more-input ] (DESCRIPTION) TeX file[.tex] file.dvi . <<.tex>> . : tex paper paper.tex TeX . paper <> ( ) . TeX jobname texput . TeX (.tex) . paper (jobname) paper.log paper.dvi . --jobname . TeX DVI ( DeVice Independent ) . DVI . ( xdvi(1)) PDF (dvipdfmx(1)) PostScript (dvips(1)) . (pdftex(1) luatex(1)) TeX PDF . TeX ( ) (Donald Knuth) The TeXbook. TeX <<>> (format) . plain . latex(1) TeX . ( ) ( ) TeX \input . \input TeX TeX . TeX ** . : tex foo <<\input foo>> . tex foo bar <<\input foo bar>> foo.tex <> . tex \\end \end (escape) . TeX . TeX . ~ ~ (primitive tokens) . \string~ ~ . : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#Input-filenames (.fmt) &format TeX tex.fmt ( TEXFORMATS ) () format.fmt . -fmt format . TeX TeX Live ( Web2C) . initex ( -ini ) .fmt . virtex plain . initex virtex tex virtex TeX Live . TeX . tex tex.fmt plain . plain B The TeXbook ( ) . TeX latex pdftex latex.fmt . TeX paper.tex %& . %&format -translate-file tcxname TeX ( ) tcxname . -translate-file . . -parse-first-line parse_first_line . TeX ..PP TeX (Unicode) UTF-8 . pdfTeX . UTF-8 TeX . Unicode luatex(1) xetex(1) . TeX . . . : https://texfaq.org/index#errors null.tex . TeX <> . EOF ( control-D) . TeX ? . ? x . e TeX . TEXEDIT . "%s" "%d" ( ) . TEXEDIT emacs ( Bourne): TEXEDIT="emacs +%d %s"; export TEXEDIT --kpathsea-debug . (OPTIONS) TeX ( TeX Live Web2C) . . - -- <<->> <<-->> . = . -- . TeX ( TeX getopt_long_only(3) ) . TeX TeX . TeX . -help . -cnf-line string string texmf.cnf. Kpathsea . -enc encTeX. -ini . encTeX : http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html -[no-]file-line-error file:line:error . -no- TeX ! . -file-line-error-style -file-line-error . -fmt format format TeX %&. ( .) -halt-on-error . -ini INI . INI catcode . -interaction mode . batchmode nonstopmode scrollmode errorstopmode . \ . -ipc DVI . . -ipc-start -ipc . . -jobname name name . ( .) -kpathsea-debug bitmask bitmask . Kpathsea : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/kpathsea.html#Debugging -[no-]mktex fmt ( ) mktexfmt fmt tex tfm . Kpathsea : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/kpathsea.html#mktex-scripts -mltex MLTeX ( Multi-lingual TeX). -ini . : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#MLTeX -output-comment string string DVI . -output-directory directory directory . directory . TEXMFOUTPUT . -[no-]parse-first-line ( ) %& -translate-file..TP -progname name Kpathsea name . . -recorder . (jobname) .fls . -[no-]shell-escape ( ) \write18{command}. . . : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#Shell-escapes -src-specials (source specials) dvi. synctex(1) . SyncTeX . -src-specials where DVI where : cr display hbox math par parent vbox. -translate-file tcxname tcxname . -default-translate-file tcxname -translate-file %& . -8bit . -version . (ENVIRONMENT) . Kpathsea(rch) ( https://tug.org/texinfohtml/kpathsea.html#TeX-support) . kpsewhich(1) . Kpathsea "//" . texmf.cnf Kpathsea texmf.cnf ( ) . TEXMFOUTPUT TeX . TEXMFOUTPUT . . tex paper TEXMFOUTPUT /tmp TeX /tmp/paper.log ( /tmp/paper.dvi) . TEXMFOUTPUT TeX ( ".tex") . -output-directory TeX TEXMFOUTPUT TeX . : https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#Output-file-location TEXINPUTS \input \openin. . ( ) . texmf.cnf . TEXINPUTS ".:/home/user/tex:" "/home/user/tex" . TEXMFDOTDIR texmf.cnf TeX Live TEXINPUTS "." $TEXMFDOTDIR "." . : TEXMFDOTDIR ".//" . TEXFORMATS (.fmt). TEXMFSYSVAR . tex.fmt ( ) kpsewhich : kpsewhich -engine=/ -all tex.fmt TEXPOOL TeX (.pool) TeX . TFMFONTS (.tfm). TEXEDIT ( ). vi TeX . . kpsewhich . texmf.cnf . parse_first_line . tex.pool TeX. *.tfm TeX. *.fmt (.fmt) TeX. $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex The TeXbook . $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/config/tex.ini plain tex.fmt TeX Live . (BUGS) TeX TeX ( ). TeX "TeX" "TeXk" . TeX . / DVI . . Knuth TeX . . : https://tug.org/texmfbug TeX . (SEE ALSO) mf(1), pdftex(1), latex(1), luatex(1), . Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley. Leslie Lamport, LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley. TeX: Petr Olsak, TeX in a Nutshell: https://ctan.org/pkg/tex-nutshell Plain TeX CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/tut-plaintex Victor Eijkhout, TeX By Topic, TeXnician: https://www.eijkhout.net/tex/tex-by-topic.html Paul W. Abrahams, Kathryn Hargreaves, Karl Berry, TeX for the Impatient, TeX plain TeX eplain(1); : https://ctan.org/pkg/impatient : Getting Started with TeX, LaTeX, and friends, : https://tug.org/begin David Bausum, TeX primitive control sequences: https://tug.org/utilities/plain/cseq.html Levels of TeX : https://tug.org/levels TeX Live: https://tug.org/texlive Texinfo Web2C: https://tug.org/web2c Texinfo Kpathsea: https://tug.org/kpathsea literate TeX pdf: https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf TUGboat ( TeX ): https://tug.org/TUGboat TeX TeX : https://tug.org https://tug.org/usergroups.html TeX ``blecchhh'' . ``TeX'' ``TEX'' ``tex''. (AUTHORS) TeX Donald E. Knuth WEB Pascal . Stanford Howard Trickey Cornell Pavel Curtis Unix . TeX Live TeX Unix Web2C Tomas Rokicki Tim Morgan . TeX ( ): https://tug.org/texmfbug : https://lists.tug.org/tex-k TeX Live: https://lists.tug.org/tex-live TeX ( LaTeX): https://lists.tug.org/texhax Web2C 2026 24 January 2026 TEX(1)