INITEX(1)                                                         INITEX(1)
                              27 December 1992






 NAME
      initex - initial TeX for making format (.fmt) files


 DESCRIPTION
      initex is a special version of the TeX program that has no preloaded
      macro packages, but is capable of converting a macro package into a
      special preformatted binary file, called a format (.fmt) file.  That
      format file can subsequently be read at high speed by virtex.


      Major macro packages may require TeX to process many thousands of
      lines of macros, and open and read scores of font files, all of which
      would contribute to a sizable startup overhead if the job had to be
      done every time TeX was run.  initex allows TeX to do the job once,
      and then save the results in a binary format file that can be later
      loaded more rapidly by virtex.


      initex is normally required only at the time TeX is installed, or
      whenever major macro packages are updated.  Thus, it will be rare for
      anyone but system installers to invoke it.  Nevertheless, it is just a
      normal program without special privileges, so ordinary users can use
      it to prepare a private format file.


      Here is how you can ask initex to prepare format files for several
      major packages:


      For plain tex:
           initex 'plain \dump'
           mv plain.fmt tex.fmt
           The single quotes are necessary to protect the backslash from
           interpretation as a Unix shell escape character.


      For amstex:
           initex '&tex amstex \dump'
           The single quotes around the first argument protect the ampersand
           from interpretation as a Unix shell background request.


      For etex:
           initex '&tex eplain \dump'
           mv eplain.fmt etex.fmt


      For lamstex:
           initex '&tex amstexl \input lamstex \dump'
           mv amstexl.fmt lamstex.fmt


      For latex:
           initex 'lplain \dump'
           mv lplain.fmt latex.fmt


      For slitex:
           initex 'splain \dump'
           mv splain.fmt slitex.fmt






                                    - 1 -        Formatted:  October 7, 1998












 INITEX(1)                                                         INITEX(1)
                              27 December 1992






      For texinfo:
           initex '&tex texinfo @dump'
           The last argument is different from the previous examples because
           texinfo redefines the TeX escape character from backslash to at-
           sign.  As for amstex, the file tex.fmt must already be available.


      Note that several of these require that the format file for plain TeX
      be available, since the first argument word &tex asks for the loading
      of the file tex.fmt.


      It does not matter whether the command-line arguments are passed as a
      single argument, or as separate arguments, since TeX reconstructs the
      command line anyway.


 SEE ALSO
      amslatex(1), amstex(1), lamstex(1), latex(1), slitex(1), tex(1),
      virtex(1).










































































                                    - 2 -        Formatted:  October 7, 1998