VIRTEX(1)

NAME
       virtex - virgin TeX for production typesetting

DESCRIPTION
       virtex  is  a  version  of  the  TeX  program  that has no
       preloaded macro packages, but is capable of loading a spe-
       cial preformatted binary file, called a format (.fmt) file
       produced by the initex(1) program.

       Preprocessing of large macro files and font definitions by
       initex makes it possible to rapidly load complex packages,
       like plain TeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX, or  LaTeX,  without  the
       overhead of macro parsing and file opening that would oth-
       erwise be experienced.

       virtex can be invoked directly, providing it with  a  name
       of a format file specially prefixed by an ampersand:
              virtex '&plain' filename
       This  causes  it  to  load the binary file named plain.fmt
       from a directory in the standard  TEXINPUTS  search  path,
       and  then load the text file filename and process it.  The
       quotes are needed to protect the ampersand from Unix shell
       interpretation.

       Because  this need occurs frequently, Unix virtex provides
       a convenient shorthand.  If it is  invoked  under  a  name
       other than virtex, such as footex, it will behave as if it
       had been invoked as virtex '&footex' and first load a file
       named footex.fmt.  Thus, amslatex, amstex, lamstex, latex,
       slitex, tex, texinfo, and others can all  be  file  system
       links  to virtex, without requiring additional disk space.

SEE ALSO
       initex(1) tex(1).