TEXMFSTART(1)

NAME
texmfstart - run ConTeXt scripts, make ConTeXt wrapper scripts, view documents

SYNOPSIS
texmfstart [ options ... ] [ filename ] [ arguments ... ]

DESCRIPTION
ConTeXt is a typesetting system based on the tex(1) family of programs. texmfstart is a ConTeXt meta-script that can run subordinate scripts (subscripts?) such as texexec(1), ctxtools(1), or pdftools(1). It can also generate short wrapper scripts to simplify common uses. These scripts are often called stubs in the ConTeXt documentation. The options control texmfstart's behaviour, and the arguments are passed to the program identified by filename. If the filename is a document, then texmfstart will start a viewer for that document. For example:
    texmfstart showcase.pdf
will start an appropriate viewer for showcase.pdf. See the EXAMPLES section.

OPTIONS

  General:

--help, --version
    print version information, usage, and examples.

--verbose
    print status and progress information, for example what commands are being executed.

--clear
    don't pass info about locations to child processes.

  Running a program:

--arguments=str
    an alternative for providing the arguments to be passed. For example,
        texmfstart --arguments=b.tex texexec
    will pass b.tex as the argument to texexec.

--report
    dry run: report what command would be run, but do not run it

--locate
    dry run: like --report but doesn't print the trailing newline.

--browser
    view the document in a web browser (for Windows).

--file=filename
    an alternative way to specify the file (the program to run or document to open).

--direct
    run a program without searching for its location (assumes that the program is on the PATH).

--execute
    use the ruby(1) exec function instead of its system function.

--program=str
    the program space where kpsewhich(1) will search (default: context). This information is given to kpsewhich as its -progname option. Usually you don't need this option.

  Creating startup scripts:

--make
    create a wrapper script or batch file to run the given file. The wrapper scripts are put in the current path, which usually means the current directory. If all is given as the file, e.g.
        texmfstart --make all
    then make all the ConTeXt wrapper scripts (the stubs).

--windows
    when making a wrapper script (stub), create a Windows batch (.bat) file. Usually you do not need to specify this option, as texmfstart will figure out what operating system you are using.

--linux
    when making a wrapper script, create a Unix shell script. Usually you do not need to specify this option, as texmfstart will figure out what operating system you are using.

--stubpath=path
    specify where to put the wrapper scripts (stubs).

--indirect
    always use texmfstart in the wrapper script (stub).

  Document viewing:

--page=number
    open the document at this page.

  Environments and paths:

--path=str
    change to the specified path.

--tree=str
    use the given TEXMF tree.

--autotree
    automatically determine the TEXMF tree to use (the default).

--environment=str
    use the given environment file. Its syntax is given in the mtexmfstart.pdf manual.

--showenv
    print the environment variables known at runtime

  Conditional execution:

--iftouched=file1,file2
    run only when the given files have different timestamps.

--ifchanged=str
    run only when the given file has changed (based on its last-computed MD5 checksum).

  Special features:

--edit
    open the given file in an editor.

FILENAME PREFIXES

  Optional prefixes determine the method used to search for the specified file:

bin:filename
    expanded name based on the PATH environment variable

kpse:filename
    expanded name based on kpsewhich(1) result

rel:filename
    expanded name relative to the current directory

env:name
    expanded pathname based on environment variable name

path:filename
    path part of filename as located by kpsewhich(1)

EXAMPLES

texmfstart texexec.rb file.tex
    Locate the texexec.rb script and run it with file.tex as its argument. In other words, make file.pdf from file.tex. If texexec(1) is properly installed on your system, this common invocation can be shortened to
        texexec file.tex

texmfstart texexec file.tex
    Locate the texexec(1) program (currently a ruby(1) script, texexec.rb) and run it with file.tex as its argument, producing file.pdf. This invocation can be shortened to
        texexec file.tex

texmfstart ctxtools --updatecontext
    Run the ctxtools(1) script, updating the ConTeXt installation. This invocation is equivalent to
        ctxtools --updatecontext

texmfstart pstopdf --method=3 cow.eps
    Convert cow.eps to PDF using method 3 of pstopdf(1). This invocation is equivalent to
        pstopdf --method=3 cow.eps

texmfstart --make --stubpath=/usr/local/bin texexec
    Make a wrapper script (stub), either a shell script /usr/local/bin/texexec on Unix, or a batch file \usr\local\bin\texexec.bat on Windows. On Unix (and maybe on Windows?), you need to make the script executable; see chmod(1).

texmfstart --edit kpse:cont-sys.tex
    Locate and edit the cont-sys.tex configuration file.

texmfstart --ifchanged=whatever.mp texexec --mpgraphic whatever.mp
    Rerun texexec if whatever.mp has changed since the last use of --ifchanged.

texmfstart --ifchanged=whatever.mp bin:echo rerun MetaPost
    If the whatever.mp source file has changed since the last use of --ifchanged, then use the echo(1) command to tell the user to rerun MetaPost (see mpost(1)). This example shows that texmfstart can be used to run any script, not just ConTeXt scripts. The bin: prefix tells texmfstart not to search for echo in the TEXMF tree(s), but to assume that it's an executable somewhere on the PATH.

texmfstart --ifchanged=whatever.mp --direct echo rerun MetaPost
    This invocation has the same effect as the preceding example, but using --direct instead of the bin: prefix, again to tell texmfstart not to search for the echo command.

FILES

file.md5
    MD5 checksum file used for the --ifchanged option.

ENVIRONMENT

PATH
    For expanding filenames given with a bin prefix.

TEXMFSTART_EDITOR, EDITOR, editor
    Editor to use with --edit. The environment variables are looked up in that order, with the first setting found taking priority.

SEE ALSO

ctxtools(1), kpsewhich(1), makempy(1), mpost(1), pdftools(1), pstopdf(1), texexec(1), texfont(1), texutil(1).

The texmfstart manual, mtexmfstart.pdf, available from

BUGS
On Unix, opening a PDF document first tries pdfopen then acroread, neither of which may be present on your system. The --report option doesn't work if you specify a filename prefix (i.e. it does a real run instead of a dry run).

AUTHOR
ConTeXt is written and maintained by This man page, which is in the public domain, was written by Sanjoy Mahajan <sanjoy@mit.edu> based on the mtexmfstart.pdf manual.