bionic (1) dviselect.1.gz

NAME

       dviselect - extract pages from DVI files

SYNOPSIS

       dviselect [ -s ] [ -i infile ] [ -o outfile ] list of pages [ infile [ outfile ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       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.

AUTHOR

       Chris Torek, University of Maryland

SEE ALSO

       dviconcat(1), latex(1), tex(1)
       MC-TeX User's Guide
       The TeXbook

BUGS

       A  leading  ``-''  ought  to  be  allowed for negative numbers, but it is currently used as a synonym for
       ``:'', for backwards compatibility.

       Section or subsection selection will sometimes fail, for the DVI file lists only the \count  values  that
       were  active  when  the  page  ended.   Clever  macro  packages can alleviate this by making use of other
       ``free'' \count registers.  Chapters normally begin on new pages, and do not suffer from this  particular
       problem.

       The  heuristic  that  decides which arguments are page selectors and which are file names is often wrong.
       Using shell redirection or the -i and -o options is safest.

       Dviselect does not adjust the parameters in the postamble; however, since these values are normally  used
       only  to  size  certain structures in the output conversion programs, and the parameters never need to be
       adjusted upward, this has not proven to be a problem.

                                                                                                    DVISELECT(1)