FMTUTIL(1) TeX Live FMTUTIL(1)NAME
fmtutil - utility for maintaining TeX format files
fmtutil-sys - utility for maintaining TeX format files system-wide
SYNOPSIS
fmtutil [OPTION...] COMMAND
fmtutil-sys [OPTION...] COMMAND
DESCRIPTION
fmtutil is used to create or recreate format and hyphenation files or show information about format files.
COMMAND is one of:
--all recreate all format files
--byengine enginename
(re)create formats that depend on the engine enginename
--byfmt formatname
(re)create the format for format formatname
--byhyphen hyphenfile
(re)create formats that depend on the hyphenation file hyphenfile
--catcfg
output the content of the config file
--disablefmt formatname
disable formatname in config file
--edit no-op in TeX Live
--enablefmt formatname
ensable formatname in config file
--help print a summary of commands and options
--listcfg
list (enabled and disabled) configurations, filtered to available formats
--missing
create all missing format files
--refresh
recreate only existing format files
--showhyphen formatname
print the name of the hyphenation file for the format formatname
--version
show version info
OPTIONS --cnffile file
specify the configuration file fmtutil should use
--dolinks
(not implemented, just for compatibility)
--fmtdir directory
set the destination directory for format files generated by fmtutil to directory
--force
(not implemented, just for compatibility)
--no-engine-subdir
don't use engine-specific subdir of the fmtdir
--no-error-if-no-format
exit successfully if no format is selected
--quiet
be silent
--test (not implemented, just for compatibility)
FILES
fmtutil.cnf
default configuration file
SEE ALSO kpsewhich(1)BUGS
None known, but report any bugs found to <tex-k@tug.org> (mailing list).
AUTHOR
fmtutil was written by Thomas Esser <te@dbs.uni-hannover.de> and is in the public domain.
This manual page was written by C.M. Connelly <c@eskimo.com>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system and later slightly adapted for the teTeX 3
release.
TeX Live June 2011 FMTUTIL(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
update-fontlang(8) Debian User's Manual update-fontlang(8)NAME
update-language, update-fmtutil, update-fmtlang - update various TeX-related configuration files
SYNOPSIS
update-language [options]
update-fmtutil [options]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page explains briefly the usage of the three TeX configuration update programs update-language and update-fmtutil.
The update-fontlang script should not be called directly, but only via the two described links. For a more in-depth description, please
see the document TeX on Debian in /usr/share/doc/tex-common/TeX-on-Debian.txt.gz (also available as HTML and PDF).
The programs update-language and update-fmtutil create or update the configuration files language.dat and fmtutil.cnf, respectively. These
files define the hyphenation patterns to be loaded into LaTeX-related TeX formats (language.dat), and the list of formats to be created
(fmtutil.cnf).
These programs can be used either in system-wide mode if called by root, or in a user-specific mode if called by a user without super-user
privileges.
OPTIONS -c DIR, --conf-dir=DIR
directory where the user-specific configuration files are looked for in user-specific mode (default TEXMFCONFIG/language.d for
update-language and TEXMFCONFIG/fmt.d for update-fmtutil, where TEXMFCONFIG is usually $HOME/.texmf-config).
-o FILE, --output-file=FILE
file to write the output to. Per default, in system-wide mode, update-language writes to /var/lib/texmf/tex/generic/config/lan-
guage.dat and update-fmtutil writes to /var/lib/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf.
--checks
perform sanity checks on the generated config file. Don't use this in maintainer scripts.
--quiet
don't write anything to the standard output during normal operation
--help print a summary of the command-line usage and exit
--version
output version information and exit
USAGE
In system-wide mode, both programs merge those files ("configuration snippets") with a specific extension in the respective configuration
directories to produce the final file. These configuration directories and extensions are language.d and .cnf for update-language, and
fmt.d and .cnf for update-fmtutil. In system-wide mode, these directories are those under /etc/texmf/. Both TeX add-on packages and local
administrators can add files to these directories.
If a package that provides such snippets is removed but not purged, including the snippet will likely break the system. To prevent the
inclusion in these cases, snippets installed by packages have to contain a magic header:
# -_- DebPkgProvidedMaps -_-
which local administrators should not remove. From the files with a magic header, only those files which are also listed in one of the
files in /var/lib/tex-common/language-cnf/ for update-language, and /var/lib/tex-common/fmtutil-cnf/ for update-fmtutil, are actually
included into the final output file. This way, local changes to the configuration can be preserved while the package is in state 'rc' (that
is, the package is removed, but its configuration files are still present). For details about this mechanism, package maintainers should
consult the Debian TeX Policy. As a special case, the files for JadeTeX and xmlTeX are only included if there is already a file for the
LaTeX format (see TeX on Debian for details).
The user-specific mode provides a way for a non-admin user to override system-wide settings. In this mode, update-language writes to TEXM-
FVAR/tex/generic/config/language.dat, and update-fmtutil writes to TEXMFVAR/web2c/fmtutil.cnf, where TEXMFVAR is usually $HOME/.texmf-var.
Furthermore, files present within the user-specific configuration directories are included in addition to the files present in the system-
wide configuration directories. In case the same filename exists in the system-wide configuration directory and the user-specific configu-
ration directory, the user-specific file is used instead of the system-wide one. The user-specific configuration directories are TEXMFCON-
FIG/language.d for update-language and TEXMFCONFIG/fmt.d for update-fmtutil, where TEXMFCONFIG is usually $HOME/.texmf-config. The system-
wide configuration directories have the same names, but are located in /etc/texmf/ instead of TEXMFCONFIG.
Note that changes introduced by updates of packages are not propagated to the user's configuration files. This has to be done by hand.
FILES
/var/lib/texmf/tex/generic/config/language.dat
This file is generated or updated by update-language in system-wide mode and contains a list of the hyphenation patterns loaded into
LaTeX-based formats by fmtutil-sys.
/var/lib/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
This file is generated or updated by update-fmtutil in system-wide mode and contains a list of formats to be generated by fmtutil-
sys.
/etc/texmf/language.d/name.cnf
Input files for update-language
/etc/texmf/fmt.d/name.cnf
Input files for update-fmtutil
/var/lib/tex-common/language-cnf/package.list
Lists the file(s) installed by package in /etc/texmf/language.d/.
/var/lib/tex-common/fmtutil-cnf/package.list
Lists the file(s) installed by package in /etc/texmf/fmt.d/.
SEE ALSO fmtutil(1), fmtutil-sys(1)
The programs actually using the generated configuration files (language.dat and fmtutil.cnf).
TeX on Debian Documentation
to be found in /usr/share/doc/tex-common/TeX-on-Debian.txt.gz (also available as HTML and PDF), describing in more detail how to
setup and maintain a TeX system in Debian. It also includes details on user-specific configuration.
Debian TeX Policy
to be found in /usr/share/doc/tex-common/Debian-TeX-Policy.txt.gz (also available as HTML and PDF), describing the internals and the
TeX Policy established on the Debian TeX mailing-list (debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org). Intended audience is mainly developers
packaging TeX-related resources for Debian.
dh_installtex(1)
a debhelper-like script for managing the installation of files into the system-wide configuration directories; this script helps to
write Debian packages containing TeX-related resources that conform to the Debian TeX Policy.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Norbert Preining <preining@debian.org> for the Debian distribution (and may be used by others). It was
later updated by Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr>.
Debian 2006-12-11 update-fontlang(8)