aleph
extended Unicode TeX
see also :
tex - mf
Synopsis
aleph
[options] [&format]
[file|\commands]
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examples
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description
Run the Aleph
typesetter on file, usually creating file.dvi.
If the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will
be appended to it. Instead of a filename, a set of Aleph
commands can be given, the first of which must start with a
backslash. With a &format argument Aleph
uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in
format.fmt; it is usually better to use the
-fmt format option instead.
Aleph is a
version of the TeX program modified for multilingual
typesetting. It uses Unicode, and has additional primitives
for (among other things) bidirectional typesetting.
Aleph’s
command line options are similar to those of TeX.
Aleph is no
longer being actively developed; see LuaTeX for current
activity.
options
Run aleph
--help to see the complete list of options; this is not
exhaustive.
--fmt format
Use format as the name
of the format to be used, instead of the name by which Aleph
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
Be ’initial’ Aleph for dumping formats; this
is implicitly true if the program is called as
inialeph.
--interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The
mode can be one of batchmode, nonstopmode,
scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
these modes is the same as that of the corresponding
\commands.
--ipc
Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output
file. Whether this option is available is the choice of the
installer.
--ipc-start
As --ipc, and starts the
server at the other end as well. Whether this option is
available is the choice of the installer.
--kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging
flags according to the bitmask. See the Kpathsea
manual for details.
--maketex fmt
Enable mktexfmt, where
fmt must be one of tex or tfm.
--no-maketex fmt
Disable mktexfmt, where
fmt must be one of tex or tfm.
--output-comment string
Use string for the DVI
file comment instead of the date.
--output-directory directory
Write output files in
directory instead of the current directory. Look up
input files in directory first, the along the normal
search path.
--parse-first-line
If the first line of the main
input file begins with %& parse it to look for a
dump name.
--progname name
Pretend to be program
name. This affects both the format used and the
search paths.
--recorder
Enable the filename recorder.
This leaves a trace of the files opened for input and output
in a file with extension .ofl. (This option is always
on.)
--shell-escape
Enable the
\write18{command} construct. The
command can be any Bourne shell command. By default,
this construct is enabled in a restricted mode, for security
reasons.
--version
Print version information and
exit.
environment
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the ’Path
specifications’ node) for precise details of how the environment
variables are used. The kpsewhich utility can be used to
query the values of the variables.
One caveat: In most Aleph formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename
you give directly to Aleph, because ~ is an active character, and
hence is expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other
programs, such as Metafont, do not have this problem.
TEXMFOUTPUT
Normally, Aleph puts its output files in the current directory.
If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it in
the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
There is no default value for that variable. For example, if you
say tex paper and the current directory is not writable,
if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, Aleph attempts to
create /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any
output is produced.) TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input files,
as TeX often generates files that need to be subsequently read;
for input, no suffixes (such as ’’.tex’’) are added by default,
the input name is simply checked as given.
TEXINPUTS
Search path for \input and \openin files. This
should start with ’’.’’, so that user files are found before
system files. An empty path component will be replaced with the
paths defined in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set
TEXINPUTS to ".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the current direcory
and ’’/home/user/tex’’ to the standard search path.
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
vi, is set when Aleph is compiled.
notes
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete
documentation for this version of Aleph can be found in the info
manual Web2C: A TeX implementation. See
http://tug/org/web2c.
bugs
This version of
Aleph implements a number of optional extensions. In fact,
many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser
extent with the definition of Aleph. When such extensions
are enabled, the banner printed when Aleph starts is changed
to print Alephk instead of Aleph.
This version of
Aleph fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are
added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but
when it does the generated DVI file will be
invalid.
see also
tex ,
mf
authors
The primary
authors of Aleph are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous. It
is currently maintained (for severe bug fixes only) by Taco
Hoekwater.