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).
39 Force. \fBtex2lyx\fR will not run if the .lyx file it would generate already exists.
40 Use the \fB\-f\fR option (carefully) to clobber any existing files.
43 Noweb. Translate a noweb (aka literate programming) file. This should be
44 (almost?) equivalent to running \*[lq]noweb2lyx foo.tex foo.lyx\*[rq]. This option
45 requires the \fB\-c\fR option.
48 .\" Partial file. The input files are LaTeX fragments, with no preamble matter or
49 .\" \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR commands. This option requires the \fB\-c\fR option, since there
50 .\" are no \f(CW\edocumentclass\fR commands in the files \fBtex2lyx\fR is translating. When
51 .\" using this option, you can translate more than one file, as long as all files
52 .\" are the same class. The LyX file created by \fBtex2lyx\fR can be included in an
53 .\" existing LyX file using the \*[lq]Include LyX File\*[rq] command from
54 .\" LyX's Insert menu. (\fBNOTE\fR: this feature of the older \fBreLyX\fR script has
55 .\" not yet been implemented in \fBtex2lyx\fR).
58 .\" Regular environments (see the section on \fISyntax Files\fR). If you give more than one
59 .\" environment, separate them with commas (not spaces). You'll probably need to
60 .\" quote the environment list, especially if it has asterisk environments (foo*)
61 .\" in it. If you use this command often, considering creating a personal syntax
62 .\" file. (\fBNOTE\fR: this feature of the older \fBreLyX\fR script has
63 .\" not yet been implemented in \fBtex2lyx\fR).
66 Syntax files. Input (one or more quoted, comma-separated) syntax files to read
67 in addition to the default. (see the section on \fISyntax Files\fR for details).
70 Specify a system directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX system directory is
71 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
74 Specify a user directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX user directory is
75 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
78 Call LyX to re-export the created output file to LaTeX. The output file name
79 is always determined automatically to avoid over-writing the input file by
80 accident: If the input file is named \fIfoo.tex\fR the output file will be
81 named \fIfoo.lyx.lyx\fR, and the re-exported file will be named
85 Help. Print out usage information and quit.
88 Print out the version number and build information and quit.
91 \fBtex2lyx\fR will create a LyX file with the specified name (or
92 \fIdir/foo.lyx\fR if no name was given) from the LaTeX file
95 Suffixes .tex, .ltx and .latex are supported. If \fIinputfile\fR
96 does not exist and does not have one of these suffixes, \fBtex2lyx\fR will try to
97 translate \fIinputfile.tex\fR. (This is similar to the behavior of LaTeX.)
99 The purpose of \fBtex2lyx\fR is to translate \fIwell-behaved\fR LaTeX2e into LyX. If
100 your LaTeX file doesn't compile---or if you do weird things, like redefining
101 standard LaTeX commands---it may choke. LaTeX209 will often be translated
102 correctly, but it's not guaranteed.
104 \fBtex2lyx\fR lacks a few features. However, its main goals are:
106 Get through a well-behaved LaTeX2e file without crashing
108 Translate a lot of that file.
110 Localize the parts that can't be translated and copy them in TeX mode
112 It achieves these main goals pretty well on most files.
114 Here's a more lengthy description of what you should do to translate a LaTeX
119 \fBtex2lyx\fR will inform you of its progress and give any warnings to stderr, so if
120 you don't want any output at all, try (in csh) `tex2lyx foo.tex >& /dev/null'.
121 You should \s-1NOT\s0 redirect standard output to \fIfoo.lyx\fR.
123 Run LyX (version 1.6 or later) on the resulting .lyx file.
125 In theory, most of the file will have been translated, and anything that's
126 untranslatable will be transferred to TeX code (ERT in LyX-speak). In theory, LyX will be
127 able to read in the file, and to create printed documents from it, because all
128 that untranslated ERT stuff will be passed directly back to LaTeX, which LyX
129 uses as a backend. Unfortunately, reality doesn't always reflect theory. If
130 \fBtex2lyx\fR crashes, or LyX cannot read the generated LyX file, see the \f(CWBUGS\fR section below.
132 Transform things have been inserted as TeX code manually to LyX features, if possible.
134 As mentioned above, you should be able to print out the LyX file even without
135 doing this. However, changing a command in TeX code to the corresponding LyX
136 object will allow you to take advantage of LyX's \s-1WYSIWYM\s0 editing.
138 \fBtex2lyx\fR is not guaranteed to create a LyX file which generates exactly the same
139 output as the LaTeX file, although its goal is to achieve this. \fBtex2lyx\fR will generally err
140 on the side of translating less to ensure that the resulting output files are accurate,
141 even though this leads to more TeX code and less \s-1WYSIWYM\s0.
143 \s-1PROOFREAD\s0 \s-1THE\s0 \s-1DOCUMENT\s0!!
145 I'm sure you were planning on doing this anyway, but it's particularly
146 important after translating a LaTeX document. \fBtex2lyx\fR is better
147 at \*[lq]macro-translating\*[rq] (translating the whole document) than
148 \*[lq]micro-translating\*[rq] (translating every little detail). For example, you may see
149 extra spaces or deleted spaces. Space handling has improved, but it's
151 .SS "What tex2lyx Can Handle"
152 \fBtex2lyx\fR understands many LaTeX commands. It will translate:
154 regular text, including mini-commands like ~, `', \f(CW\e@\fR, \f(CW\eTeX\fR, as well as
155 accented characters like \f(CW\e'{a}\fR, and the special cases ?` and !`
157 title commands like \f(CW\eauthor\fR, \f(CW\edate\fR, \f(CW\etitle\fR, \f(CW\ethanks\fR and the
160 heading commands like \f(CW\esection\fR including starred commands (\f(CW\esection*\fR)
162 Environments: quote, quotation, and verse; center, flushright, and flushleft
164 itemize, enumerate, and description environments, and their \f(CW\eitem\fR commands.
165 Also, well-behaved nested lists
167 cross-referencing commands: \f(CW\eref\fR, \f(CW\epageref\fR, \f(CW\elabel\fR, and \f(CW\ecite\fR
169 \f(CW\efootnote\fR and \f(CW\emargin\fR
171 font-changing commands including \f(CW\eem\fR, \f(CW\eemph\fR, \f(CW\etextit\fR, and
172 corresponding commands to change family, size, series, and shape
174 \f(CW\einput{foo}\fR (or \f(CW\einput{foo.blah}\fR) and \f(CW\einclude{foo}\fR. Plain TeX
175 \f(CW\einput\fR command \*[lq]\f(CW\einput foo.tex\fR\*[rq] is also supported.
177 tabular environment, and commands that go inside it like \f(CW\ehline\fR, \f(CW\ecline\fR,
178 and \f(CW\emulticolumn\fR (but see below)
180 float environments table and table*, as well as \f(CW\ecaption\fR commands within
183 float environments figure and figure*, as well as graphics inclusion commands
184 \eepsf, \eepsffile, \eepsfbox, \eepsfxsize, \eepsfig, \epsfig, and \eincludegraphics.
185 Both the graphics and graphicx forms of \eincludegraphics are supported.
187 thebibliography environment and \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command, as well as BibTeX's
188 \f(CW\ebibliography\fR and \f(CW\ebibliographystyle\fR commands
190 miscellaneous commands: \f(CW\ehfill\fR, \f(CW\e\fR\f(CW\e\fR, \f(CW\enoindent\fR, \f(CW\eldots\fR...
192 documentclass-specific environments (and some commands) which can be
193 translated to LyX layouts
195 arguments to certain untranslatable commands (e.g. \f(CW\embox\fR)
197 Some of this support may not be 100% yet. See below for details
199 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies math (almost) verbatim from your LaTeX file. Luckily, LyX reads
200 in LaTeX math, so (almost) any math which is supported by LyX should work just
203 \fBtex2lyx\fR will copy any preamble commands (i.e., anything before
204 \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR) verbatim. Fancy stuff you've got in your preamble
205 should thus be conserved in printed documents, although it will not of
206 course show up in the LyX window. Check Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble to see the result.
207 .SS "What tex2lyx Can't Handle --- But it's \s-1OK\s0"
211 some spacing commands (\f(CW\ehspace\fR, \f(CW\epagebreak\fR and \f(CW\elinebreak\fR)
213 \f(CW\ecentering\fR, \f(CW\eraggedleft\fR, \f(CW\eraggedright\fR
215 \f(CW\everb\fR and verbatim environment. \fBtex2lyx\fR is careful to copy \fIexactly\fR in
216 this case, including comments and whitespace.
218 unknown (e.g., user-defined) environments and commands
220 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies unknown commands, along with their arguments, verbatim into the
221 LyX file. Also, if it sees a \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR where it doesn't recognize the
222 \*[lq]foo\*[rq] environment, it will copy verbatim until it sees \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR (unless
223 you use the \fB\-r\fR option). Most of these unknown commands
224 won't cause \fBtex2lyx\fR to break; they'll merely require you to do some editing
225 once you've loaded the file up in LyX. That should be less painful than
226 editing either the .tex or the .lyx file using a text editor.
227 .SS "What tex2lyx Handles Badly --- aka \s-1BUGS\s0"
228 Since \fBtex2lyx\fR is relatively new, it's got a number of problems. As it
229 matures, these bugs will be squished.
231 \*[lq]Exact\*[rq] copying of unknown environments and commands isn't quite exact.
232 This will yield ugly LyX, but in almost all cases the output will be the same.
233 However, most parts of the file will be copied perfectly, including whitespace
234 and comments. This includes: the LaTeX preamble, verbatim environments as well as
235 \f(CW\everb\fR commands, and skip blocks.
237 \fBtex2lyx\fR translates only a subset of the document class options to native features.
238 Other options are placed in the \*[lq]options\*[rq] field in the Document->Settings popup.
240 More importantly, \fBtex2lyx\fR doesn't translate \f(CW\enewcommands\fR, unknown
241 \f(CW\eusepackage\fR commands and other unknown code in the preamble. It
242 simply copies that into the LaTeX preamble. If you use special commands, e.g. to
243 specify the text layout in a way that that is not understood by LyX, tex2lyx won't
244 recognize it. Note that these settings will be overwritten if you modify the text
245 layout in LyX's document settings. Better remove these special options from the LaTeX
246 preamble (Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble) and use the corresponding LyX document
247 settings, if possible.
249 The foil document class has a couple of bugs. \fBtex2lyx\fR may do weird things with optional
250 arguments to \f(CW\efoilhead\fR commands. Also, it may handle \f(CW\ebegin{dinglist}\fR
251 incorrectly (although the stuff in the environment should translate normally).
253 All known bugs of \fBtex2lyx\fR can be found on \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR.
255 \fBtex2lyx\fR is rather robust. As mentioned above, it may not translate
256 your file perfectly, but the result should be usable and it shouldn't crash. If you encounter
257 problems---and the problem is not one of those mentioned above or on
258 \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR---please report the issue as described in the section
259 on \fIBug Reports\fR.
260 .SS "What LyX Can't Handle"
261 LyX itself is missing a couple of features, such that even if \fBtex2lyx\fR translates
262 things perfectly, LyX may still have trouble reading it. If you really need
263 these features, you can export your final document as LaTeX, and put them
264 back in. See \fI\s-1BUGS\s0\fR for more details on these bugs.
266 For a number of commands (such as \f(CW\e\e\fR), LyX does not support the optional argument.
267 \fBtex2lyx\fR will automatically discard the optional arguments with a warning to
268 stdout. LyX also ignores the width argument for the thebibliography
271 LyX support for tables isn't perfect. For complicated tables, use a \*[lq]skip\*[rq]
272 block, so that they will be copied in TeX mode.
274 LyX allows figures to have sizes in the units known to TeX, such as in, cm, etc. It also
275 translates percentages of \etextwidth, \etextheight, \ecolumnwidth, but no other lengths
276 (e.g. if you wanted to scale a figure to size \etopmargin for some reason). \fBtex2lyx\fR
277 will copy figures with untranslatable sizes in TeX mode. Again, you might be able to fix
280 tex2lyx \fB\-f\fR \fB\-r\fR \*[lq]myenv\*[rq] foo.tex
282 The above will create a file foo.lyx from foo.tex, overwriting if
283 necessary. When it finds a \f(CW\ebegin{myenv} ... \eend{myenv}\fR block, it will
284 translate the stuff within the block, but copy the \f(CW\ebegin\fR and \f(CW\eend\fR
285 commands in TeX mode.
287 tex2lyx \fB\-n\fR \fB\-c\fR \*[lq]literate-article\*[rq] foo.tex
289 The above will change a noweb document into a LyX literate-article
290 document. A user would do this if the noweb document had documentclass
294 Bugs should be reported to the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome. Additionally,
295 you can post a message to the LyX developers' mailing list. Its address is currently
296 lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org. If your message bounces, you can check the LyX home page,
297 http://www.lyx.org/. If you are running \fBtex2lyx\fR on a huge file, please do not send all of the output in
298 your bug report. Just include the last ten or twenty lines of output, along with
299 the piece of the LaTeX file it crashed on. Or, even better, attach a small but
300 complete file which causes the same problem as your original file.
302 \fBtex2lyx\fR reads a LyX layout file to know how to handle LaTeX environments and
303 commands which get translated to LyX layouts. This file will include all
304 \*[lq]normal\*[rq] non-math environments (i.e., including quote and itemize, but not
305 tabular, minipage, and some other fancy environments), and commands like
306 \f(CW\esection\fR and \f(CW\etitle\fR. If you want to tex2lyx a class that doesn't have an
307 existing layout file, then you'll have to create a layout file. But you have
308 to do this anyway, in order to LyX the file, since LyX depends on layout files
309 to know how to display and process its files. Check the LyX documentation for
310 help with this task (which can be hard or easy, depending on the class you
311 want to create a layout file for.) If your class is quite similar to a class
312 that has a layout file, then consider using the \fB\-c\fR option.
314 \fBtex2lyx\fR always reads at least one syntax file, called the default syntax file.
315 \fBtex2lyx\fR will read your personal syntax file if it exists; otherwise it will
316 read the system-wide file. \fBtex2lyx\fR will read additional syntax files if you
317 specify them with the \fB\-s\fR option. (These extra files should have the same
318 format as the default file, but will tend to be shorter, since they only have
319 to specify extra commands not found in the default file.) A syntax file tells
320 \fBtex2lyx\fR a few things.
322 First, it describes the syntax of each command, that is, how many required
323 arguments and how many optional arguments the command takes. Knowing this
324 makes it easier for \fBtex2lyx\fR to copy (in TeX mode) commands that it doesn't
325 know how to translate. The syntax file simply has a command, followed by
326 braces or brackets describing its arguments in the correct order. For example,
327 a syntax file entry \f(CW\ebibitem[]{}\fR means that the \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command takes
328 an optional argument followed by a required one, while the entry \f(CW\ebf\fR
329 means that the \f(CW\ebf\fR command takes no arguments at all. When \fBtex2lyx\fR
330 encounters a token that it doesn't know how to translate into LyX, it will
331 copy the token---along with the correct number of arguments---exactly. If the
332 token is not in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR just copies as many arguments
333 as it finds. This means that it may copy too much. But since the user can
334 specify additional syntax files, that shouldn't happen often.
336 Some commands that cannot be translated to LyX, like \f(CW\embox\fR, have as one of
337 their arguments regular LaTeX text. If the string \*[lq]translate\*[rq] is put into an
338 argument of an (untranslatable) command in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR will
339 translate that argument instead of copying it verbatim. So, for example, the
340 default syntax file has \f(CW\eraisebox{}[][]{translate}\fR. This means that the
341 \f(CW\eraisebox\fR command and the first argument (and optional arguments if they
342 exist) are copied in TeX mode, but the last argument (which may contain math,
343 complicated LaTeX, other untranslatable commands, etc.) will be translated
344 into LyX. You can't use \*[lq]translate\*[rq] on optional arguments.
346 User-defined syntax files are allowed to define new commands and
347 their syntax, or override the number of arguments for a command given in the
348 default syntax file. (E.g., if you're using a style that gives an extra
349 argument to some command...) However, this will only be useful for commands
350 copied in TeX mode. Commands which are actually translated by \fBtex2lyx\fR (like
351 \f(CW\eitem\fR) have their argument syntax hard-coded. The hard-coded commands are
352 identified in the default syntax file.
354 Second, the syntax file describes any \*[lq]regular environments\*[rq]. Usually, an
355 entire unknown environment will be copied in TeX mode. If you define a regular
356 environment \*[lq]foo\*[rq], though, then only the \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR and \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR
357 commands will be copied in TeX mode; the text within the environment will be
358 treated (i.e., translated) by \fBtex2lyx\fR as regular LaTeX, rather than being
359 copied into TeX mode. Don't try to declare \*[lq]tabbing\*[rq] and \*[lq]picture\*[rq] as regular
360 environments, as the text within those environments will confuse \fBtex2lyx\fR; use
361 this capability for new environments you create that have plain text or math
362 or simple commands in them. You also can't declare unknown math environments
363 (like equation*) as regular environments, either, since the LyX math editor
364 won't understand them. The names of regular environments appear,
365 whitespace-separated, between \f(CW\ebegin{tex2lyxre}\fR and \f(CW\eend{tex2lyxre}\fR
366 statements in the syntax file. (If you have a regular environment which you
367 won't use very often, you can use the \fB\-r\fR option rather than writing a
370 Always keep a copy of your original LaTeX files either under a different
371 name or in a different directory. There are a couple ways in which using LyX
372 could lead to overwriting the original LaTeX file.
374 If you import foo.tex to create foo.lyx, then edit foo.lyx and want to
375 re-export it, note that it will overwrite the original foo.tex. (LyX will ask
376 you if you want to overwrite it.)
380 can be used to specify which system directory to use.
382 The system directory is determined by searching for the file
383 "chkconfig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order:
385 1) \-sysdir command line parameter
387 2) @LYX_DIR_VER@ environment variable
389 3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib
391 4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/
393 5) hardcoded lyx_dir (at build time: @real_pkgdatadir@)
396 can be used to specify which user directory to use.
398 The user directory is, in order of precedence:
400 1) \-userdir command line parameter
402 2) @LYX_USERDIR_VER@ environment variable
404 3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made
407 If \fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR is the system-wide LyX directory and
408 \fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR
409 is your personal LyX directory, then the following files are read by tex2lyx:
410 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
411 User's personal layout files for document classes
412 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/syntax.default" 4
413 User's personal syntax file
414 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
415 System-wide layout files for document classes
416 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/lib/syntax.default" 4
417 System-wide LaTeX syntax file
419 \fIlyx@version_suffix@\fR\|(1), \fIlatex\fR\|(1)
421 tex2lyx is Copyright (c) 2003ff. by the LyX Team (lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org)
projects / lyx.git / blob