DVISELECT(1)                                                  General Commands Manual                                                 DVISELECT(1)

NAME

       dviselect - extract pages from DVI files

SYNOPSIS

       dviselect [ -s ] [ -i infile ] [ -o outfile ] list of pages [ infile [ outfile ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       Dviselect  selects  pages from a DVI file produced by TeX, creating a new DVI file usable by any of the TeX conversion programs, or even by
       dviselect itself.

       A range is a string of the form even, odd, or first:last where both first and last are optional  numeric  strings,  with  negative  numbers
       indicated  by  a leading underscore character ``_''.  If both first and last are omitted, the colon may also be omitted, or may be replaced
       with an asterisk ``*''.  A page range is a list of ranges separated by periods.  A list of pages is described by a set of page ranges sepa-
       rated by commas and/or white space.

       Dviselect  actually looks at the ten count variables that TeX writes; the first of these (count0) is the page number, with count1 through
       count9 having varied uses depending on which macro packages are in use.  (Typically count1 might be a chapter or section number.)  A page
       is  included  in dviselect's output if all its count values match any one of the ranges listed on the command line.  For example, the com-
       mand ``dviselect *.1,35:'' might select everything in chapter 1, as well as pages 35 and up.  ``dviselect 10:30''  would  select  pages  10
       through  30  (inclusive).   ``:43'' means everything up to and including page 43 (including negative-numbered pages).  To get all even-num-
       bered pages, use ``even''; to get all odd-numbered pages, use ``odd''.  If a Table of Contents has  negative  page  numbers,  ``:_1''  will
       select it.  Note that ``*'' must be quoted from the shell; the empty string is more convenient to use, if harder to read.

       Instead  of count values, dviselect can also select by ``absolute page number'', where the first page is page 1, the second page 2, and so
       forth.  Absolute page numbers are indicated by a leading equal sign ``=''.  Ranges of absolute pages are also allowed:  ``dviselect  =3:7''
       will  extract  the  third  through seventh pages.  Dot separators are not legal in absolute ranges, and there are no negative absolute page
       numbers.  Even/odd specifiers, however, are legal; ``dviselect =even'' selects every other page, starting with the second.

       More precisely, an asterisk or an empty string implies no limit; an equal sign means absolute page number rather than  counts;  a  leading
       colon  means  everything  up  to  and including the given page; a trailing colon means everything from the given page on; the word ``even''
       means only even values shall be accepted; the word ``odd'' means only odd values shall be accepted; and a period indicates  that  the  next
       count  should  be  examined.   If  fewer  than  10 ranges are specified, the remaining counts are left unrestricted (that is, ``1:5'' and
       ``1:5.*'' are equivalent).  A single number n is treated as if it were the range n:n.  An arbitrary number of page selectors may be  given,
       separated by commas or whitespace; a page is selected if any of the selectors matches its counts or absolute page number.

       Dviselect normally prints the page numbers of the pages selected; the -s option suppresses this.

AUTHOR

       Chris Torek, University of Maryland

SEE ALSO

       dviconcat(1), latex(1), tex(1)
       MC-TeX User's Guide
       The TeXbook

BUGS

       A leading ``-'' ought to be allowed for negative numbers, but it is currently used as a synonym for ``:'', for backwards compatibility.

       Section  or  subsection  selection will sometimes fail, for the DVI file lists only the count values that were active when the page ended.
       Clever macro packages can alleviate this by making use of other ``free'' count registers.  Chapters normally begin on new  pages,  and  do
       not suffer from this particular problem.

       The  heuristic  that decides which arguments are page selectors and which are file names is often wrong.  Using shell redirection or the -i
       and -o options is safest.

       Dviselect does not adjust the parameters in the postamble; however, since these values are normally used only to size certain structures in
       the output conversion programs, and the parameters never need to be adjusted upward, this has not proven to be a problem.

                                                                                                                                      DVISELECT(1)