1 .\" Man page for tex2lyx.
2 .\" Use the following command to view man page:
4 .\" tbl tex2lyx.1 | nroff -man | less
6 .TH TEX2LYX 1 "@LYX_DATE@" "Version @VERSION@" "tex2lyx @VERSION@"
8 tex2lyx@version_suffix@ \- translate well-behaved LaTeX into LyX
16 The simplest way to use \fBtex2lyx\fR is via the File->Import->LaTeX
17 (plain) menu item in LyX. That runs \fBtex2lyx\fR on the given file
18 and loads the resulting file into LyX. You should try that first, and
19 call it from the command line only if you need to use more complicated
22 \fBtex2lyx\fR [ \fB\-userdir\fR \fIuserdir\fR ] [ \fB\-systemdir\fR \fIsystemdir\fR ]
23 [ \fB\-n\fR ] [ \fB\-c\fR \fItextclass\fR ] [\ \fB\-s\fR\ \fIsfile1\fR[,\fIsfile2\fR...]] [
24 \fB\-roundtrip\fR ] \fIinputfile\fR [ \fIoutputfile\fR ]
26 .\" \fBtex2lyx\fR [ \fB\-userdir\fR \fIuserdir\fR ] [ \fB\-systemdir\fR \fIsystemdir\fR ]
27 .\" [\ \fB\-r\fR\ \fIrenv1\fR[,\fIrenv2\fR...]] [\ \fB\-s\fR\ \fIsfile1\fR[,\fIsfile2\fR...]]
28 .\" \fIinputfiles\fR \fB\-p\fR \fB\-c\fR \fItextclass\fR
32 Class. By default, when \fBtex2lyx\fR sees a \f(CW\edocumentclass{foo}\fR command, it
33 creates a file of textclass \*[lq]foo\*[rq] and reads the LyX layout file for that class
34 (something like /usr/local/share/lyx/layouts/foo.layout \s-1OR\s0
35 \fB\s-1HOME\s0\fR/.lyx/layouts/foo.layout). Use \fB\-c\fR to declare a different textclass
36 (and read a different layout file).
38 This option is needed if the input file is a LaTeX fragment, with no preamble
39 matter or \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR command. LyX files created by
40 \fBtex2lyx\fR from partial files can be included in an existing LyX file using
41 the \*[lq]Include LyX File\*[rq] command from LyX's Insert menu.
44 Force. \fBtex2lyx\fR will not run if the .lyx file it would generate already exists.
45 Use the \fB\-f\fR option (carefully) to clobber any existing files.
48 Noweb. Translate a noweb (aka literate programming) file. This should be
49 (almost?) equivalent to running \*[lq]noweb2lyx foo.tex foo.lyx\*[rq]. This option
50 requires the \fB\-c\fR option.
53 .\" Regular environments (see the section on \fISyntax Files\fR). If you give more than one
54 .\" environment, separate them with commas (not spaces). You'll probably need to
55 .\" quote the environment list, especially if it has asterisk environments (foo*)
56 .\" in it. If you use this command often, considering creating a personal syntax
57 .\" file. (\fBNOTE\fR: this feature of the older \fBreLyX\fR script has
58 .\" not yet been implemented in \fBtex2lyx\fR).
61 Syntax files. Input (one or more quoted, comma-separated) syntax files to read
62 in addition to the default. (see the section on \fISyntax Files\fR for details).
65 Specify a system directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX system directory is
66 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
69 Specify a user directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX user directory is
70 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
73 Call LyX to re-export the created output file to LaTeX. The output file name
74 is always determined automatically to avoid over-writing the input file by
75 accident: If the input file is named \fIfoo.tex\fR the output file will be
76 named \fIfoo.lyx.lyx\fR, and the re-exported file will be named
80 Help. Print out usage information and quit.
83 Print out the version number and build information and quit.
86 \fBtex2lyx\fR will create a LyX file with the specified name (or
87 \fIdir/foo.lyx\fR if no name was given) from the LaTeX file
90 Suffixes .tex, .ltx and .latex are supported. If \fIinputfile\fR
91 does not exist and does not have one of these suffixes, \fBtex2lyx\fR will try to
92 translate \fIinputfile.tex\fR. (This is similar to the behavior of LaTeX.)
94 The purpose of \fBtex2lyx\fR is to translate \fIwell-behaved\fR LaTeX2e into LyX. If
95 your LaTeX file doesn't compile---or if you do weird things, like redefining
96 standard LaTeX commands---it may choke. LaTeX209 will often be translated
97 correctly, but it's not guaranteed.
99 \fBtex2lyx\fR lacks a few features. However, its main goals are:
101 Get through a well-behaved LaTeX2e file without crashing
103 Translate a lot of that file.
105 Localize the parts that can't be translated and copy them in TeX mode
107 It achieves these main goals pretty well on most files.
109 Here's a more lengthy description of what you should do to translate a LaTeX
114 \fBtex2lyx\fR will inform you of its progress and give any warnings to stderr, so if
115 you don't want any output at all, try (in csh) `tex2lyx foo.tex >& /dev/null'.
116 You should \s-1NOT\s0 redirect standard output to \fIfoo.lyx\fR.
118 Run LyX (version 2.1 or later) on the resulting .lyx file.
120 In theory, most of the file will have been translated, and anything that's
121 untranslatable will be transferred to TeX code (ERT in LyX-speak). In theory, LyX will be
122 able to read in the file, and to create printed documents from it, because all
123 that untranslated ERT stuff will be passed directly back to LaTeX, which LyX
124 uses as a backend. Unfortunately, reality doesn't always reflect theory. If
125 \fBtex2lyx\fR crashes, or LyX cannot read the generated LyX file, see the \f(CWBUGS\fR section below.
127 Transform things have been inserted as TeX code manually to LyX features, if possible.
129 As mentioned above, you should be able to print out the LyX file even without
130 doing this. However, changing a command in TeX code to the corresponding LyX
131 object will allow you to take advantage of LyX's \s-1WYSIWYM\s0 editing.
133 \fBtex2lyx\fR is not guaranteed to create a LyX file which generates exactly the same
134 output as the LaTeX file, although its goal is to achieve this. \fBtex2lyx\fR will generally err
135 on the side of translating less to ensure that the resulting output files are accurate,
136 even though this leads to more TeX code and less \s-1WYSIWYM\s0.
138 \s-1PROOFREAD\s0 \s-1THE\s0 \s-1DOCUMENT\s0!!
140 I'm sure you were planning on doing this anyway, but it's particularly
141 important after translating a LaTeX document. \fBtex2lyx\fR is better
142 at \*[lq]macro-translating\*[rq] (translating the whole document) than
143 \*[lq]micro-translating\*[rq] (translating every little detail). For example, you may see
144 extra spaces or deleted spaces. Space handling has improved, but it's
146 .SS "What tex2lyx Can Handle"
147 \fBtex2lyx\fR understands many LaTeX commands. It will translate:
149 regular text, including mini-commands like ~, `', \f(CW\e@\fR, \f(CW\eTeX\fR, as well as
150 accented characters like \f(CW\e'{a}\fR, and the special cases ?` and !`
152 title commands like \f(CW\eauthor\fR, \f(CW\edate\fR, \f(CW\etitle\fR, \f(CW\ethanks\fR and the
155 heading commands like \f(CW\esection\fR including starred commands (\f(CW\esection*\fR)
157 Environments: quote, quotation, and verse; center, flushright, and flushleft
159 itemize, enumerate, and description environments, and their \f(CW\eitem\fR commands.
160 Also, well-behaved nested lists
162 cross-referencing commands: \f(CW\eref\fR, \f(CW\epageref\fR, \f(CW\elabel\fR, and \f(CW\ecite\fR
164 \f(CW\efootnote\fR and \f(CW\emargin\fR
166 font-changing commands including \f(CW\eem\fR, \f(CW\eemph\fR, \f(CW\etextit\fR, and
167 corresponding commands to change family, size, series, and shape
169 \f(CW\einput{foo}\fR (or \f(CW\einput{foo.blah}\fR) and \f(CW\einclude{foo}\fR. Plain TeX
170 \f(CW\einput\fR command \*[lq]\f(CW\einput foo.tex\fR\*[rq] is also supported.
172 tabular environment, and commands that go inside it like \f(CW\ehline\fR, \f(CW\ecline\fR,
173 and \f(CW\emulticolumn\fR (but see below)
175 float environments table and table*, as well as \f(CW\ecaption\fR commands within
178 float environments figure and figure*, as well as graphics inclusion commands
179 \eepsf, \eepsffile, \eepsfbox, \eepsfxsize, \eepsfig, \epsfig, and \eincludegraphics.
180 Both the graphics and graphicx forms of \eincludegraphics are supported.
182 thebibliography environment and \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command, as well as BibTeX's
183 \f(CW\ebibliography\fR and \f(CW\ebibliographystyle\fR commands
185 miscellaneous commands: \f(CW\ehfill\fR, \f(CW\e\fR\f(CW\e\fR, \f(CW\enoindent\fR, \f(CW\eldots\fR...
187 documentclass-specific environments (and some commands) which can be
188 translated to LyX layouts
190 arguments to certain untranslatable commands (e.g. \f(CW\embox\fR)
192 Some of this support may not be 100% yet. See below for details
194 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies math (almost) verbatim from your LaTeX file. Luckily, LyX reads
195 in LaTeX math, so (almost) any math which is supported by LyX should work just
198 \fBtex2lyx\fR will copy any preamble commands (i.e., anything before
199 \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR) verbatim. Fancy stuff you've got in your preamble
200 should thus be conserved in printed documents, although it will not of
201 course show up in the LyX window. Check Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble to see the result.
202 .SS "What tex2lyx Can't Handle --- But it's \s-1OK\s0"
204 some spacing commands (\f(CW\ehspace\fR, \f(CW\epagebreak\fR and \f(CW\elinebreak\fR)
206 \f(CW\ecentering\fR, \f(CW\eraggedleft\fR, \f(CW\eraggedright\fR
208 \f(CW\everb\fR and verbatim environment. \fBtex2lyx\fR is careful to copy \fIexactly\fR in
209 this case, including comments and whitespace.
211 unknown (e.g., user-defined) environments and commands
213 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies unknown commands, along with their arguments, verbatim into the
214 LyX file. Also, if it sees a \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR where it doesn't recognize the
215 \*[lq]foo\*[rq] environment, it will copy verbatim until it sees \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR (unless
216 you use the \fB\-r\fR option). Most of these unknown commands
217 won't cause \fBtex2lyx\fR to break; they'll merely require you to do some editing
218 once you've loaded the file up in LyX. That should be less painful than
219 editing either the .tex or the .lyx file using a text editor.
220 .SS "What tex2lyx Handles Badly --- aka \s-1BUGS\s0"
221 Since \fBtex2lyx\fR is relatively new, it's got a number of problems. As it
222 matures, these bugs will be squished.
224 \*[lq]Exact\*[rq] copying of unknown environments and commands isn't quite exact.
225 This will yield ugly LyX, but in almost all cases the output will be the same.
226 However, most parts of the file will be copied perfectly, including whitespace
227 and comments. This includes: the LaTeX preamble, verbatim environments as well as
228 \f(CW\everb\fR commands, and skip blocks.
230 \fBtex2lyx\fR translates only a subset of the document class options to native features.
231 Other options are placed in the \*[lq]options\*[rq] field in the Document->Settings popup.
233 More importantly, \fBtex2lyx\fR doesn't translate \f(CW\enewcommands\fR, unknown
234 \f(CW\eusepackage\fR commands and other unknown code in the preamble. It
235 simply copies that into the LaTeX preamble. If you use special commands, e.g. to
236 specify the text layout in a way that that is not understood by LyX, tex2lyx won't
237 recognize it. Note that these settings will be overwritten if you modify the text
238 layout in LyX's document settings. Better remove these special options from the LaTeX
239 preamble (Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble) and use the corresponding LyX document
240 settings, if possible.
242 The foil document class has a couple of bugs. \fBtex2lyx\fR may do weird things with optional
243 arguments to \f(CW\efoilhead\fR commands. Also, it may handle \f(CW\ebegin{dinglist}\fR
244 incorrectly (although the stuff in the environment should translate normally).
246 All known bugs of \fBtex2lyx\fR can be found on \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR.
248 \fBtex2lyx\fR is rather robust. As mentioned above, it may not translate
249 your file perfectly, but the result should be usable and it shouldn't crash. If you encounter
250 problems---and the problem is not one of those mentioned above or on
251 \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR---please report the issue as described in the section
252 on \fIBug Reports\fR.
253 .SS "What LyX Can't Handle"
254 LyX itself is missing a couple of features, such that even if \fBtex2lyx\fR translates
255 things perfectly, LyX may still have trouble reading it. If you really need
256 these features, you can export your final document as LaTeX, and put them
257 back in. See \fI\s-1BUGS\s0\fR for more details on these bugs.
259 For a number of commands (such as \f(CW\e\e\fR), LyX does not support the optional argument.
260 \fBtex2lyx\fR will automatically discard the optional arguments with a warning to
261 stdout. LyX also ignores the width argument for the thebibliography
264 LyX support for tables isn't perfect. For complicated tables, use a \*[lq]skip\*[rq]
265 block, so that they will be copied in TeX mode.
267 LyX allows figures to have sizes in the units known to TeX, such as in, cm, etc. It also
268 translates percentages of \etextwidth, \etextheight, \ecolumnwidth, but no other lengths
269 (e.g. if you wanted to scale a figure to size \etopmargin for some reason). \fBtex2lyx\fR
270 will copy figures with untranslatable sizes in TeX mode. Again, you might be able to fix
273 tex2lyx \fB\-f\fR \fB\-r\fR \*[lq]myenv\*[rq] foo.tex
275 The above will create a file foo.lyx from foo.tex, overwriting if
276 necessary. When it finds a \f(CW\ebegin{myenv} ... \eend{myenv}\fR block, it will
277 translate the stuff within the block, but copy the \f(CW\ebegin\fR and \f(CW\eend\fR
278 commands in TeX mode.
280 tex2lyx \fB\-n\fR \fB\-c\fR \*[lq]literate-article\*[rq] foo.tex
282 The above will change a noweb document into a LyX literate-article
283 document. A user would do this if the noweb document had documentclass
287 Bugs should be reported to the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome. Additionally,
288 you can post a message to the LyX developers' mailing list. Its address is currently
289 lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org. If your message bounces, you can check the LyX home page,
290 http://www.lyx.org/. If you are running \fBtex2lyx\fR on a huge file, please do not send all of the output in
291 your bug report. Just include the last ten or twenty lines of output, along with
292 the piece of the LaTeX file it crashed on. Or, even better, attach a small but
293 complete file which causes the same problem as your original file.
295 \fBtex2lyx\fR reads a LyX layout file to know how to handle LaTeX environments and
296 commands which get translated to LyX layouts. This file will include all
297 \*[lq]normal\*[rq] non-math environments (i.e., including quote and itemize, but not
298 tabular, minipage, and some other fancy environments), and commands like
299 \f(CW\esection\fR and \f(CW\etitle\fR. If you want to tex2lyx a class that doesn't have an
300 existing layout file, then you'll have to create a layout file. But you have
301 to do this anyway, in order to LyX the file, since LyX depends on layout files
302 to know how to display and process its files. Check the LyX documentation for
303 help with this task (which can be hard or easy, depending on the class you
304 want to create a layout file for.) If your class is quite similar to a class
305 that has a layout file, then consider using the \fB\-c\fR option.
307 \fBtex2lyx\fR always reads at least one syntax file, called the default syntax file.
308 \fBtex2lyx\fR will read your personal syntax file if it exists; otherwise it will
309 read the system-wide file. \fBtex2lyx\fR will read additional syntax files if you
310 specify them with the \fB\-s\fR option. (These extra files should have the same
311 format as the default file, but will tend to be shorter, since they only have
312 to specify extra commands not found in the default file.) A syntax file tells
313 \fBtex2lyx\fR a few things.
315 First, it describes the syntax of each command, that is, how many required
316 arguments and how many optional arguments the command takes. Knowing this
317 makes it easier for \fBtex2lyx\fR to copy (in TeX mode) commands that it doesn't
318 know how to translate. The syntax file simply has a command, followed by
319 braces or brackets describing its arguments in the correct order. For example,
320 a syntax file entry \f(CW\ebibitem[]{}\fR means that the \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command takes
321 an optional argument followed by a required one, while the entry \f(CW\ebf\fR
322 means that the \f(CW\ebf\fR command takes no arguments at all. When \fBtex2lyx\fR
323 encounters a token that it doesn't know how to translate into LyX, it will
324 copy the token---along with the correct number of arguments---exactly. If the
325 token is not in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR just copies as many arguments
326 as it finds. This means that it may copy too much. But since the user can
327 specify additional syntax files, that shouldn't happen often.
329 Some commands that cannot be translated to LyX, like \f(CW\embox\fR, have as one of
330 their arguments regular LaTeX text. If the string \*[lq]translate\*[rq] is put into an
331 argument of an (untranslatable) command in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR will
332 translate that argument instead of copying it verbatim. So, for example, the
333 default syntax file has \f(CW\eraisebox{}[][]{translate}\fR. This means that the
334 \f(CW\eraisebox\fR command and the first argument (and optional arguments if they
335 exist) are copied in TeX mode, but the last argument (which may contain math,
336 complicated LaTeX, other untranslatable commands, etc.) will be translated
337 into LyX. You can't use \*[lq]translate\*[rq] on optional arguments.
339 User-defined syntax files are allowed to define new commands and
340 their syntax, or override the number of arguments for a command given in the
341 default syntax file. (E.g., if you're using a style that gives an extra
342 argument to some command...) However, this will only be useful for commands
343 copied in TeX mode. Commands which are actually translated by \fBtex2lyx\fR (like
344 \f(CW\eitem\fR) have their argument syntax hard-coded. The hard-coded commands are
345 identified in the default syntax file.
347 Second, the syntax file describes any \*[lq]regular environments\*[rq]. Usually, an
348 entire unknown environment will be copied in TeX mode. If you define a regular
349 environment \*[lq]foo\*[rq], though, then only the \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR and \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR
350 commands will be copied in TeX mode; the text within the environment will be
351 treated (i.e., translated) by \fBtex2lyx\fR as regular LaTeX, rather than being
352 copied into TeX mode. Don't try to declare \*[lq]tabbing\*[rq] and \*[lq]picture\*[rq] as regular
353 environments, as the text within those environments will confuse \fBtex2lyx\fR; use
354 this capability for new environments you create that have plain text or math
355 or simple commands in them. You also can't declare unknown math environments
356 (like equation*) as regular environments, either, since the LyX math editor
357 won't understand them. The names of regular environments appear,
358 whitespace-separated, between \f(CW\ebegin{tex2lyxre}\fR and \f(CW\eend{tex2lyxre}\fR
359 statements in the syntax file. (If you have a regular environment which you
360 won't use very often, you can use the \fB\-r\fR option rather than writing a
363 Always keep a copy of your original LaTeX files either under a different
364 name or in a different directory. There are a couple ways in which using LyX
365 could lead to overwriting the original LaTeX file.
367 If you import foo.tex to create foo.lyx, then edit foo.lyx and want to
368 re-export it, note that it will overwrite the original foo.tex. (LyX will ask
369 you if you want to overwrite it.)
373 can be used to specify which system directory to use.
375 The system directory is determined by searching for the file
376 "chkconfig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order:
378 1) \-sysdir command line parameter
380 2) @LYX_DIR_VER@ environment variable
382 3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib
384 4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/
386 5) hardcoded lyx_dir (at build time: @real_pkgdatadir@)
389 can be used to specify which user directory to use.
391 The user directory is, in order of precedence:
393 1) \-userdir command line parameter
395 2) @LYX_USERDIR_VER@ environment variable
397 3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made
400 If \fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR is the system-wide LyX directory and
401 \fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR
402 is your personal LyX directory, then the following files are read by tex2lyx:
403 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
404 User's personal layout files for document classes
405 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/syntax.default" 4
406 User's personal syntax file
407 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
408 System-wide layout files for document classes
409 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/lib/syntax.default" 4
410 System-wide LaTeX syntax file
412 \fIlyx@version_suffix@\fR\|(1), \fIlatex\fR\|(1)
414 tex2lyx is Copyright (c) 2003ff. by the LyX Team (lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org)
projects / lyx.git / blob