pdftex (1) Linux Manual Page

NAME

pdftex – PDF output from TeX

SYNOPSIS

pdftex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]

DESCRIPTION

Run the pdfTeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.pdf. If the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a filename, a set of pdfTeX commands can be given, the first of which must start with a backslash. With a &format argument pdfTeX uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually better to use the -fmt format option instead.

pdfTeX is a version of TeX, with the e-TeX extensions, that can create PDF files as well as DVI files.

In DVI mode, pdfTeX can be used as a complete replacement for the TeX engine.

The typical use of pdfTeX is with a pregenerated formats for which PDF output has been enabled. The pdftex command uses the equivalent of the plain TeX format, and the pdflatex command uses the equivalent of the LaTeX format. To generate formats, use the -ini switch.

The pdfinitex and pdfvirtex commands are pdfTeX’s analogues to the initex and virtex commands. In this installation, if the links exist, they are symbolic links to the pdftex executable.

In PDF mode, pdfTeX can natively handle the PDF, JPG, JBIG2, and PNG graphics formats. pdfTeX cannot include PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) graphics files; first convert them to PDF using epstopdf(1). pdfTeX’s handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of of the other TeX programs in the web2c implementation.

Starting with version 1.40, pdfTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions, and pdfeTeX is just a copy of pdfTeX. See etex(1).

OPTIONS

This version of pdfTeX understands the following command line options.

-cnf-line string

Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration line. See the Kpathsea manual.

-draftmode

Sets \pdfdraftmode so pdfTeX doesn’t write a PDF and doesn’t read any included images, thus speeding up execution.

-enc

Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX extensions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.

-etex

Enable the e-TeX extensions. This option is only effective in combination with -ini. See etex(1).

-file-line-error

Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is similar to the way many compilers format them.

-no-file-line-error

Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.

-file-line-error-style

This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.

-fmt format

Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which pdfTeX was called or a %& line.

-halt-on-error

Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during processing.

-help

Print help message and exit.

-ini

Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.

-interaction mode

Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding