HITEX(1) General Commands Manual HITEX(1)
NAME
hitex - HINT output from TeX
SYNOPSIS
hitex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]
DESCRIPTION
Run the HiTeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.hnt. If the
file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead
of a file name, a set of HiTeX commands can be given, the first of which
must start with a backslash. With a &format argument HiTeX uses a dif-
ferent set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usu-
ally better to use the -fmt format option instead.
HiTeX is a version of TeX that creates HINT files. The HINT file format
is designed for on-screen reading of documents. Using a HINT viewer (see
https://hint.userweb.mwn.de) to display a HINT file its content will dy-
namically adapt to the available display area.
The typical use of HiTeX is with pre generated formats. The hitex com-
mand uses the equivalent of the plain TeX format, and the hilatex com-
mand uses the equivalent of the LaTeX format. To generate formats, use
the -ini switch.
HiTeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of of
the other TeX programs in the web2c implementation.
HiTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions (see etex(1)) if used with the
-etex switch.
HiTeX incorporates the extensions needed for LaTeX (see latex(1)) if
used with the -ltx switch.
OPTIONS
This version of HiTeX understands the following command line options.
-cnf-line string
Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration line. See the Kpathsea
manual.
-compress
Enable the use of compression for the HINT file. Compressed files
are smaller but require decompression when viewing. Use only for
large files if the file size matters.
-empty-page
When writing books, often empty pages are inserted - for example
to begin chapters on a right hand side page. These empty pages
are a nuisance for on-screen reading where there are no left or
right hand side pages. This option keeps empty pages in the out-
put.
-no-empty-page
This option tries to eliminate empty pages in the output. It is
set as a default.
-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.
-fmt format
Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
name by which HiTeX was called or a %& line.
-help Print help message and exit.
-hint-debug bitmask
Sets HINT file debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the
-hint-debug-help option for details.
-hint-debug-help
Print an explanation of the HINT debugging flags and exit.
-hyphenate-first-word
TeX will usually not attempt to insert hyphenation points into
the first word of a paragraph. If a HINT file must be displayed
on a very small device such hyphenation points might prove neces-
sary. This option is set by default and enables the generation of
these hyphenation points.
-no-hyphenate-first-word
Disable the automatic insertion of hyphenation points in the
first word of a paragraph. Needed only if complete compatibility
with TeX is required.
-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 ba-
sic 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 \commands.
-jobname name
Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
of the input file.
-kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
See the Kpathsea manual for details.
-ltx Enable the LaTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
combination with -ini. See latex(1).
-mfmode mode
Use mode as the Metafont mode when generating missing fonts. See
mf(1) for details.
-mktex fmt
Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex, tfm, fmt, or pk.
-no-mktex fmt
Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex, tfm, fmt, or pk.
-output-directory directory
Write output files in directory instead of the current directory.
Look up input files in directory first, then 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.
-no-parse-first-line
Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
-progname name
Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
and the search paths.
-resolution number
When using Metafont to generate missing pk fonts, use a resolu-
tion of number DPI. See mf(1) for details.
-version
Print version information and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsea library documentation (e.g., 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 HiTeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a file name you
give directly to HiTeX, because ~ is an active character in TeX, and
hence is expanded, not taken as part of the file name. Other programs,
such as Metafont, do not have this problem.
TEXMFOUTPUT
Normally, HiTeX 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 hitex paper and the current directory is not writable and
TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, HiTeX attempts to create /tmp/pa-
per.log (and /tmp/paper.hnt, if any output is produced.) TEXM-
FOUTPUT 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 normally starts
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 directory and
``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
TEXFORMATS
Search path for format files.
TFMFONTS
Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
If set, its value, taken to be in epoch-seconds, will be used for
the creation date and as the reference moment for the time re-
lated primitives of LaTeX. This is useful for making reproducible
builds.
FORCE_SOURCE_DATE
If set to the value "1", the time-related TeX primitives (\year,
\month, \day, \time) are also initialized from the value of
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. This is not recommended if there is any vi-
able alternative.
Many, many more environment variables may be consulted related to path
searching. See the Kpathsea manual.
FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
*.tfm Metric files for HiTeX's fonts.
*.fmt Predigested HiTeX format files.
*.pk *.pfb
Font files used by HiTeX.
NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documenta-
tion for HiTeX can be found in the HiTeX user manual Further information
can be found in the manual of the Kpathsea library and in HINT: The
file format which is available as a book or in electronic form from the
HINT project home page at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de.
BUGS
This version of HiTeX fails to handle correctly glues and kerns with a
width that depends on \hsize or \vsize. Similarly, when the layout of
table entries or mathematical formulas depends on \hsize or \vsize their
output might be distorted.
AVAILABILITY
HiTeX should compile on a large variety of machine architectures and op-
erating systems. HiTeX is part of the TeX Live distribution.
The HiTeX home page is at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de. There you find
additional software, most importantly viewers for HINT files, and fur-
ther information.
SEE ALSO
histretch(1), hishrink(1), latex(1), tex(1), kpsewhich(1),
AUTHORS
The primary author of HiTeX is Martin Ruckert, with eTeX extensions by
Peter Breitenlohner, LaTeX extensions by Thierry Laronde, and the kpath-
search library by Karl Berry.
TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
system for Pascal programs.
Many, many more contributed to the typesetting system now known as TeX;
far too many to name all of them here.
Version 1.0 11 November 2021 HITEX(1)
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