INITEX(1)

NAME
       initex - initial TeX for making format (.fmt) files

DESCRIPTION
       initex is a special version of the TeX program that has no
       preloaded macro packages, but is capable of  converting  a
       macro  package  into  a  special preformatted binary file,
       called a format (.fmt) file.  That format file can  subse-
       quently be read at high speed by virtex.

       Major macro packages may require TeX to process many thou-
       sands of lines of macros, and open and read scores of font
       files,  all of which would contribute to a sizable startup
       overhead if the job had to be done every time TeX was run.
       initex  allows  TeX  to do the job once, and then save the
       results in a binary format file that can be  later  loaded
       more rapidly by virtex.

       initex  is  normally  required  only  at  the  time TeX is
       installed, or whenever major macro packages  are  updated.
       Thus,  it will be rare for anyone but system installers to
       invoke it.  Nevertheless, it  is  just  a  normal  program
       without  special  privileges, so ordinary users can use it
       to prepare a private format file.

       Here is how you can ask initex to prepare format files for
       several major packages:

       For plain tex:
              initex 'plain \dump'
              mv plain.fmt tex.fmt
              The  single  quotes  are  necessary  to protect the
              backslash  from  interpretation  as  a  Unix  shell
              escape character.

       For amstex:
              initex '&tex amstex \dump'
              The single quotes around the first argument protect
              the ampersand from interpretation as a  Unix  shell
              background request.

       For etex:
              initex '&tex eplain \dump'
              mv eplain.fmt etex.fmt

       For lamstex:
              initex '&tex amstexl \input lamstex \dump'
              mv amstexl.fmt lamstex.fmt

       For latex:
              initex 'lplain \dump'
              mv lplain.fmt latex.fmt

       For slitex:
              initex 'splain \dump'
              mv splain.fmt slitex.fmt

       For texinfo:
              initex '&tex texinfo @dump'
              The  last  argument  is different from the previous
              examples because texinfo redefines the  TeX  escape
              character  from  backslash to at-sign.  As for ams-
              tex, the file tex.fmt must already be available.

       Note that several of these require that  the  format  file
       for  plain TeX be available, since the first argument word
       &tex asks for the loading of the file tex.fmt.

       It does not matter whether the command-line arguments  are
       passed  as  a  single  argument, or as separate arguments,
       since TeX reconstructs the command line anyway.

SEE ALSO
       amslatex(1) amstex(1) lamstex(1) latex(1) slitex(1) 
       tex(1) virtex(1).