Synopsis

mk [options] [file]

General options:

-h,--help

print this help and exit

-H,--Help

print full documentation via less and exit

-V,--version

print version and exit

-v,--verbose

be verbose

   --noverbose

be quiet (this is the default)

-r,--rc=X

set rc file to X, but this must be the first option!

If X is absent, don’t read any rc file.

-n,--nocolor

no coloring instead of ANSI

mk specific options:

-f,--formatter=X

Use X as the formatter: tex, latex, pdflatex,

et cetera

-e,--edit=X

use X as the file to be edited; by default, the file

file.

-C,--Clean

Remove all files generated by the compilation

-c,--clean

Same, except for the pdf or postscript files

vpp-related options:

-b,--batch=X

run in batch using X as a printing command for vpp.

information.

-p,--printer=X

print to printer named X

   --view

view the document after compilation

   --noview

do not view

   --print

offer printing interaction after viewing

   --noprint

do not offer printing interaction

Defaults:

    --print --view --noverbose main

Arguments for short options are given without a separator, so you can write either --rc=myrc or -rmyrc.

Description

Having an existing TeX document, say main.tex (see the section Locating the source for the creation of new documents and for other extensions than .tex), you run mk by typing:

    $ mk main

or, since main happens to be mk´s default filename:

    $ mk

Now, if main.tex is a valid TeX source, mk compiles it, including any table of contents, indices, bibliography references, included files, and so on, and vpp takes over and displays the resulting PDF or PostScript output. When you leave the viewer you will see a prompt:

    vpp command (h for help):

If you are satisfied with the displayed output, you can now decide to print all or part of your document (see the section Page selection), or you can simply quit by typing 'q'. On the other hand, if you decide that you want to change the source and have another try, you can edit the source by typing 'e' to get back to mk and (re)edit your source. After saving your work and leaving your editor, another compilation and display cycle will be performed, based on the new source.

If the compilation results in an error, the eror wil be displayed by the texlog_extract script, and you will be prompted with:

    =====> e(dit) c(ompile) q(uit) 

giving you the opportunity to e(dit) the source, after which it will be recompiled, or to c(ompile) it again (because you may have editied it in another window), or just to quit.

Essentially, mk uses texi2dvi for compilation. texi2dvi always runs TeX at least once, even though this may be unnecessary. Therefore, TeX will be run with the --recorder option, which reports all the target´s dependencies in a .fls file. In every cycle, mk analyzes the .fls and the tex and bibtex .log files to see if a compilation is needed. When errors have occurred, mk uses the log files to find out which file has to be edited, and at which line. This can also be a file read with \input, a style file, or any other file on which the target depends. However, files in the TEXMFMAIN tree are excluded.

Editor

vpp uses the contents of environment variable EDITOR to find your editor. If that variable is empty, vim is used. Note that your editor should not fork off your shell, so if you specify gvim, for example, specify it with the option --nofork.

Page selection

As said in the introduction, after a successful compilation and display of the resulting PDF or PostScript output, the user is prompted with:

    vpp command (h for help):

on typing 'h' vpp displays examples of possible commands:

   Examples of print commands:
      5         to print page 5
      5-        to print pages 5 through the end
      5-7       to print pages 5, 6 and 7
      7-5 ox    write pages 7, 6 and 5, in that order, to x.pdf
      -7        to print the first 7 pages
      5-7 19-   to print pages 5, 6, 7 and 19 through the end
      a         to print the whole document
      -         to print the whole document
      a x3      to print 3 copies of the document
      x3        the same
      5 x3      to print 3 copies of page 5
      s         print the whole document single-sided
      s 2-      print single-sided starting at page 2
      b         to print the whole document as an a5 size booklet
      b -12     to print the first 12 pages as an a5 size booklet
   Other commands:
      e         edit the tex source and rerun mk
      c         rerun mk with forced compilation
      v         (re)view the ps/pdf file
      w         list errors and warnings from the log file
      oxyz      send pdf output to file xyz.pdf instead of printer
      pxyz      print to printer xyz
      h         display this help
      ?         display this help
      q         quit

With these examples, no further explanation should be necessary, except that, when two sided (t) or booklet (b) printing is selected for a single- sided printer, printing will be performed in two shifts, one for the front side and one for the backside. Between the shifts, another prompt appears:

    printer ready? then turn stack and type return

You will have to arrange your printer such that, with the printed sides up, the first page printed will be at the bottom of the stack, and the last page printed will be on top. Normally you will then have your output come out the back of your printer. 'Turn the stack' then means: rotate it over the long side of the paper and feed it back into the printer for the other side to be printed.

For further information on vpp, look in its manpage by typing

    $ vpp --help

or read the vpp documentation.

Locating the source

mk locates the LaTeX source in several steps: (here the source extension .tex is supposed, but .ltx, .drv and .dtx will also be tried)

• If you supply no arguments, the file main.tex in the current directory is assumed.
• If you supply an argument (say myfile), mk adds a .tex extension if it isn´t there and looks for myfile.tex in the current directory.
• If myfile.tex is not found in the current directory, mk looks in the 'alternate directory' (say /Docs) if you have defined one (see the section 'RC files').
• If the source was not found in /Docs, mk thinks that you may have a subdirectory myfile in /Docs where the source may live under the name main.tex
• If that file is not there, mk now concludes that the source does not yet exist and reports this, telling at the same time which files have been tried.
• Finally, if all the above did not lead to a source file, mk dies.

The TeX formatter to be used

mk determines the TeX formatter needed to compile the source as follows:

• if the --formatter option was used, its argument will be used;
• if the first line of the source starts with %!, the rest of that line specifies the formatter; for example:

      %!xelatex

• if the --formatter option was not used and the first line does not start with %!, mk looks for a \usepackage{fontspec} or \RequirePackage{fontspec} and, if found, uses lualatex. Those calls may have options, but they must be on the same line.
• if still no decision could be made, mk looks for \documentclass and chooses pdflatex;
• finally, if no match was found, pdftex is assumed.

Running in batch mode

If you don´t need to edit the source and to view the output, but just want to compile and maybe print the result, the --batch option is useful.

The --batch=command option prevents mk display the output and to interrogate the user about pages to be printed. Instead the document is printed according to the mandatory command, which mus be quoted if it contains spaces. Thus the command

    mk --batch='2-3 x3' test

prints 3 copies of pages 2 and 3 of test.tex, without viewing. If you just want to compile without printing anything, use the q command:

    mk --batch=q test

or

    mk -bq test

RC file and customization

Unless the option --rc has been used, the file ~/.mkrc will be sourced, if it exists, before reading the command line options.

You can use this rc file to set the default values for the options, by setting the global shell variable named after the long version of the options. For example:

    verbose=true # run in verbose mode

So if you usually like mk to work in verbose mode, you can indicate so in your rc file and change your mind in some cases by using the --noverbose option.

Other variables, not having a corresponding command line option, that can be set in the rc files, and their default values, are:

EDITOR=

EDITOR='gvim --nofork'

extraoptions=

othercleans=

othercleans='$base-gnuplottex-fig*'

texi2dviquiet=false

texi2dviquiet=true

skip_pattern=

altdir=

$ mk myfile

default=main

warnings_to_skip=()

warnings_to_skip=(

'Package hyperref Warning: Token not allowed'

'Package array Warning: Column [XY] is already defined'

)

TeXWorks and mk

mk can be used for one-click typesetting:

• edit -> preferences -> Typesetting
• add a new tool mk and give it three parameters:

      --preview --nocolor $basename

• Deselect "Auto-hide output panel unless errors occur"
• If you need an other formatter than the default, pdflatex, use the %! line in your source, or define separate tools in TeXWorks with an extra --formatter=... parameter.

mk runs pdflatex with the --synctex=1 option, so you will be able to jump between source and pdf-ouput.

Bugs

• If, during the compile-edit-cycle, the %! line is changed, mk should respond to it by changing the formatter.

• Currently, mk is only available for Linux. It depends on texi2dvi. Spaces in the basename of TeX sources are not allowed (neither does the texi2dvi script on which mk is based.)

Author

Copyright

Functions used:

excheck

synopsis:

excheck executable1 [executable2...]

description:

findsource

synopsis:

findsource [file]

description:

globals set:

base dir ext

globals used:

IFS PWD RED Nor altdir default

run

synopsis:

run command [arg...]

description:

globals used:

Yel Gre Blu Red Gre Nor

returns:

newtexdeps

description:

globals used:

base skip_pattern target

returns:

newbibdeps

description:

                those in the variable bibdeps. If there are bibdeps newer
                than target, remove .bbl, forcing texi2dvi to run bibtex

globals  set:

bibdeps

globals used:

base target bibdeps

returns:

compile

description:

globals used:

base bibdeps target targetext dvips texcommand

returns:

show_error_and_edit

description:

globals  set:

IFS

globals used:

color verbose Gre base bibdeps edit target warnings_to_skip

edit

synopsis:

edit edfile lineno ask

description:

                detection of an error in edfile, the third argument is
                true and the user will be asked if he wants to edit edfile,
to compile it again (in case he edited it externally) or to quit.

globals used:

edit EDITOR

returns:

handle_options

synopsis:

handle_options "$@"

description:

globals  set:

Clean batch clean dvips edit formatter input print printer

rc verbose view

globals used:

Myname Version first HOME verbose formatter

setformatter

description:

globals  set:

formatter targetext vpptargetext

globals used:

base ext

set_vpp_options

description:

globals  set:

vppoptions

globals used:

batch color print printer pwd verbose view