aleph (1)

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

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 \*(TX 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 \*(TX.

Aleph is no longer being actively developed; see LuaTeX for current activity.

Run aleph --help to see the complete list of options; this is not exhaustive.

--fmtformat

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.

--interactionmode

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-debugbitmask

Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for details.

--maketexfmt

Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or tfm.

--no-maketexfmt

Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or tfm.

--output-commentstring

Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.

--output-directorydirectory

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.

--prognamename

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.

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 \*(MF, 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 \*(TX 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.

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.

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.

tex(1), mf(1)

The primary authors of Aleph are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous. It is currently maintained (for severe bug fixes only) by Taco Hoekwater.