pdftex - Man Page

• Compile a PDF document: pdftex source.tex
• Compile a PDF document, specifying an output directory: pdftex -output-directory=path/to/directory source.tex
• Compile a PDF document, exiting on each error: pdftex -halt-on-error source.tex

tldr.sh

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

Run the pdfT E X 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 pdfT E X commands can be given, the first of which must start with a backslash. With a &format argument pdfT E X uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually better to use the -fmt format option instead.

pdfT E X is a version of T E X, with the e-T E X extensions, that can create PDF files as well as DVI files.

In DVI mode, pdfT E X can be used as a complete replacement for the T E X engine.

The typical use of pdfT E X is with a pregenerated formats for which PDF output has been enabled.  The pdftex command uses the equivalent of the plain T E X format, and the pdflatex command uses the equivalent of the L A T E X format. To generate formats, use the -ini switch.

The pdfinitex and pdfvirtex commands are pdfT E X'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, pdfT E X can natively handle the PDF, JPG, JBIG2, and PNG graphics formats.  pdfT E X cannot include PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) graphics files; first convert them to PDF using epstopdf(1). pdfT E X's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of of the other T E X programs in the web2c implementation.

Starting with version 1.40, pdfT E X incorporates the e-T E X extensions, and pdfeT E X is just a copy of pdfT E X.  See etex(1).

This version of pdfT E X 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 pdfT E X doesn't write a PDF and doesn't read any included images, thus speeding up execution.

-enc

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

-etex

Enable the e-T E X 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 pdfT E X 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 \commands.

-ipc

Send DVI or PDF 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.

-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.

-mktex fmt

Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.

-mltex

Enable MLT E X extensions.  Only effective in combination with -ini.

-no-mktex fmt

Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.

-output-comment string

In DVI mode, use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date. This option is ignored in PDF mode.

-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.

-output-format format

Set the output format mode, where format must be either pdf or dvi. This also influences the set of graphics formats understood by pdfT E X.

-parse-first-line

If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.

-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.

-recorder

Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.

-shell-escape

Enable the \write18{command} construct.  The command can be any shell command.  This construct is normally disallowed for security reasons.

-no-shell-escape

Disable the \write18{command} construct, even if it is enabled in the texmf.cnf file.

-shell-restricted

Enable restricted \write18{}, as explained in the “Shell escapes” section of the Web2c Texinfo manual.

-src-specials

In DVI mode, insert source specials into the DVI file. This option is ignored in PDF mode.

-src-specials where

In DVI mode, insert source specials in certain places of the DVI file. The where argument is a comma-separated value list: cr, display, hbox, math, par, parent, or vbox. This option is ignored in PDF mode.

-synctex NUMBER

generate SyncTeX data for previewers according to bits of NUMBER. See the synctex manual page for details.

-translate-file tcxname

Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping of input characters and re-mapping of output characters.

-default-translate-file tcxname

Like -translate-file except that a %& line can overrule this setting.

-version

Print version information and exit.

-8bit

make all characters printable by default.

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 pdfT E X formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to pdfT E X, because ~ is an active character in T E X, and hence is expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as Metafont, do not have this problem.

TEXMFOUTPUT

Normally, pdfT E X 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 pdftex paper and the current directory is not writable and TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, pdfT E X attempts to create /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.pdf, if any output is produced.)  TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input files, as T E X 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.

TEXEDIT

Command template for switching to editor.  The default, usually vi, is set when pdfT E X is compiled.

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 timestamps in the PDF output, such as the CreationDate and ModDate keys. This is useful for making reproducible builds.

FORCE_SOURCE_DATE

If set to the value "1", the time-related T E X primitives (\year, \month, \day, \time) are also initialized from the value of SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH.  This is not recommended if there is any viable alternative.
pdfT E X also has several primitives to support reproducible builds, which are preferable to setting these environment variables; see the main manual.

Many, many more environment variables may be consulted related to path searching.  See the Kpathsea manual.

The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.  Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.

pdftex.map

Font name mapping definitions.

*.tfm

Metric files for pdfT E X's fonts.

*.fmt

Predigested pdfT E X format (.fmt) files.

This version of pdfT E X fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are added or subtracted.  Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it does the generated DVI or PDF file will be invalid.  

pdfT E X is available for a large variety of machine architectures and operating systems. pdfT E X is part of all major T E X distributions.
The pdfT E X home page: http://www.pdftex.org.
pdfT E X on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/pdftex.
pdfT E X mailing list for all discussion: https://lists.tug.org/pdftex.

This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The complete documentation for this version of pdfT E X can be found in the pdfT E X user manual and the Texinfo manuals Kpathsea library, Web2C: A TeX implementation. These manuals, and more, can be accessed from the pdfTeX or CTAN web pages given above.

Some related programs: epstopdf(1), etex(1), latex(1), luatex(1), mptopdf(1), tex(1), mf(1).

The primary authors of pdfT E X are Han The Thanh, Petr Sojka, Jiri Zlatuska, and Peter Breitenlohner (eT E X).

T E X was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his WEB system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now offered with the Unix T E X distribution is that generated by the WEB to C system (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan. The encT E X extensions were written by Petr Olsak.

dvipos(1), etex(1), gpg-key2latex(1), latex(1), latexmk(1), linuxdoc(1), luatex(1), musixtex(1), pdfetex(1), pdftosrc(1), pdfxup(1), perltex(1), purifyeps(1), sgml2latex(1), thumbpdf(1), tpic2pdftex(1), ttftotype42(1), updmap(1), updmap.cfg(5).

The man page pdflatex(1) is an alias of pdftex(1).