(web2c.info)Common options

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

3.2 Common options
==================

All of these programs accept the standard GNU `--help' and `--version'
options, and several programs accept `--verbose'.  Rather than writing
identical descriptions for every program, 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 a number of additional options in
common:

`-file-line-error'
`-no-file-line-error'
     Change (or do not change) the way error messages are printed. The
     alternate style looks like error messages from many compilers and
     is easier to parse for some editors that invoke TeX.  This option
     used to be called `-file-line-error-style'.

`-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).  Note: Memory dumps.
     Also sets the program name to DUMPNAME if no `-progname' option
     was given.

`-halt-on-error'
     Stop processing and exit when an error occurs, as opposed to the
     normal process of trying to recover and continue.

`-ini'
     Enable the "initial" form of the program (Note: Initial and
     virgin).  This is implicitly set if the program name is `initex'
     resp. `inimf' resp. `inimpost', although these variants are no
     longer typically installed.

`-interaction=STRING'
     Set the interaction mode from the command line.  The STRING must
     be one of `batchmode', `nonstopmode', `scrollmode', or
     `errorstopmode'.

`-jobname=STRING'
     Set the job name to STRING, instead of deriving it from the name
     of the input file.

`-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER'
     Set path searching debugging flags according to the bits of NUMBER
     (Note: Debugging.).  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.

`-output-directory=DIRNAME'
     Specify the directory DIRNAME to which output files are written.
     Also look for input files in DIRNAME first, before looking along
     the normal search path.  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.  Note that for input files
     the "search" in DIRNAME does not use the full generality of the
     search mechanism.  This means that some files are not found there
     even though you might expect them to be.

`-parse-first-line'
`-no-parse-first-line'
     Check or disable checking whether the first line of the main input
     file starts with `%&', and parse it if it does.  This line can be
     used specify the format and/or a TCX file.

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

`-recorder'
     Enable the filename recorder.  This makes the program save a list
     of the opened files into a file with (by default) extension
     `.fls'.  For Omega, this option is always on, and the file has
     extension `.ofl'.

`-translate-file=TCXFILE'
     Use TCXFILE to define which characters are printable and
     translations between the internal and external character sets.
     Moreover, TCXFILE can be explicitly declared in  the first line of
     the main input file `%& -translate-file=TCXFILE'.  This is the
     recommended method for portability reasons.  Note: TCX files.

`-8bit'
     This option specifies that by default all characters should be
     considered printable.  If `-translate-file' was given as well,
     then the TCX file may mark characters as non-printable.

`-oem'
     This option is specific to Windows. When specified, TeX engines
     will use the OEM code page rather than the ANSI one to display
     their messages.