NAME

       aleph - extended Unicode TeX

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       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 TeX 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 TeX.

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

OPTIONS

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

       --fmt format
              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.

       --interaction mode
              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-debug bitmask
              Sets path searching debugging flags according  to  the  bitmask.   See  the  Kpathsea  manual  for
              details.

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

       --no-maketex fmt
              Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be one of tex or tfm.

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

       --output-directory directory
              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.

       --progname name
              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.

ENVIRONMENT

       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 Metafont, 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 TeX 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
              directory 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.

NOTES

       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.

BUGS

       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.

SEE ALSO

       tex(1), mf(1)

AUTHORS

       The primary authors of Aleph are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous.