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 direcory 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.  It is currently
       maintained (for severe bug fixes only) by Taco Hoekwater.