dviselect1

Usage

Overview

Dviselect selects pages from a DVI file produced by TeX, creating a new DVI file usable by any of the TeX conversion programs, or even by dviselect itself.

A range is a string of the form even, odd, or first:last where both first and last are optional numeric strings, with negative numbers indicated by a leading underscore character ``_''. If both first and last are omitted, the colon may also be omitted, or may be replaced with an asterisk ``*''. A page range is a list of ranges separated by periods. A list of pages is described by a set of page ranges separated by commas and/or white space.

Dviselect actually looks at the ten count variables that TeX writes; the first of these (\count0) is the page number, with \count1 through \count9 having varied uses depending on which macro packages are in use. (Typically \count1 might be a chapter or section number.) A page is included in dviselect's output if all its \count values match any one of the ranges listed on the command line. For example, the command ``dviselect *.1,35:'' might select everything in chapter 1, as well as pages 35 and up. ``dviselect 10:30'' would select pages 10 through 30 (inclusive). ``:43'' means everything up to and including page 43 (including negative-numbered pages). To get all even-numbered pages, use ``even''; to get all odd-numbered pages, use ``odd''. If a Table of Contents has negative page numbers, ``:_1'' will select it. Note that ``*'' must be quoted from the shell; the empty string is more convenient to use, if harder to read.

Instead of \count values, dviselect can also select by ``absolute page number'', where the first page is page 1, the second page 2, and so forth. Absolute page numbers are indicated by a leading equal sign ``=''. Ranges of absolute pages are also allowed: ``dviselect =3:7'' will extract the third through seventh pages. Dot separators are not legal in absolute ranges, and there are no negative absolute page numbers. Even/odd specifiers, however, are legal; ``dviselect =even'' selects every other page, starting with the second.

More precisely, an asterisk or an empty string implies no limit; an equal sign means absolute page number rather than \counts; a leading colon means everything up to and including the given page; a trailing colon means everything from the given page on; the word ``even'' means only even values shall be accepted; the word ``odd'' means only odd values shall be accepted; and a period indicates that the next \count should be examined. If fewer than 10 ranges are specified, the remaining \counts are left unrestricted (that is, ``1:5'' and ``1:5.*'' are equivalent). A single number n is treated as if it were the range n:n. An arbitrary number of page selectors may be given, separated by commas or whitespace; a page is selected if any of the selectors matches its \counts or absolute page number.

Dviselect normally prints the page numbers of the pages selected; the -s option suppresses this.