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\-f\fR ] [ \fB\-n\fR ] [ \fB\-c\fR \fItextclass\fR ]
24 [ \fB\-e\fR \fIencoding\fR ]
25 [ \fB\-fixedenc\fR \fIencoding\fR ]
26 [\ \fB\-m\fR \fImodule1\fR[,\fImodule2\fR...]]
27 [\ \fB\-s\fR\ \fIsfile1\fR[,\fIsfile2\fR...]] [ \fB\-skipchildren\fR ] [
28 \fB\-roundtrip\fR ] [ \fB\-copyfiles\fR ] \fIinputfile\fR [ \fIoutputfile\fR ]
30 .\" \fBtex2lyx\fR [ \fB\-userdir\fR \fIuserdir\fR ] [ \fB\-systemdir\fR \fIsystemdir\fR ]
31 .\" [\ \fB\-r\fR\ \fIrenv1\fR[,\fIrenv2\fR...]] [\ \fB\-s\fR\ \fIsfile1\fR[,\fIsfile2\fR...]]
32 .\" \fIinputfiles\fR \fB\-p\fR \fB\-c\fR \fItextclass\fR
36 Class. By default, when \fBtex2lyx\fR sees a \f(CW\edocumentclass{foo}\fR command, it
37 creates a file of textclass \*[lq]foo\*[rq] and reads the LyX layout file for that class
38 (something like /usr/local/share/lyx/layouts/foo.layout \s-1OR\s0
39 \fB\s-1HOME\s0\fR/.lyx/layouts/foo.layout). Use \fB\-c\fR to declare a different textclass
40 (and read a different layout file).
42 This option is needed if the input file is a LaTeX fragment, with no preamble
43 matter or \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR command. LyX files created by
44 \fBtex2lyx\fR from partial files can be included in an existing LyX file using
45 the \*[lq]Include LyX File\*[rq] command from LyX's Insert menu.
48 Module. Load the given modules. This is useful if \fBtex2lyx\fR does not
49 automatically detect a given module, but you know the modules that provide
50 some commands or environments that are used in the imported file. The modules
51 are loaded in the given order. If a module \fIfoo\fR depends on a module
52 \fIbar\fR, \fIbar\fR must be given before \fIfoo\fR.
55 Force. \fBtex2lyx\fR will not run if the .lyx file it would generate already exists.
56 Use the \fB\-f\fR option (carefully) to clobber any existing files.
59 Specify the default encoding using the LaTeX name as defined in the encodings
60 file. \fBtex2lyx\fR will use this encoding, but switch if it finds any encoding
61 changing commands in the input.
64 Specify the encoding using the LaTeX name as defined in the encodings file.
65 \fBtex2lyx\fR will ignore any encoding changing commands in the input.
68 Noweb. Translate a noweb (aka literate programming) file. This should be
69 (almost?) equivalent to running \*[lq]noweb2lyx foo.tex foo.lyx\*[rq]. This option
70 requires the \fB\-c\fR option.
73 Do not translate child documents included via \f(CW\einclude\fR and \f(CW\einput\fR.
74 This option is useful if the child documents are generated files and/or contain many
75 commands that \fBtex2lyx\fR does not understand yet.
78 Syntax files. Input (one or more quoted, comma-separated) syntax files to read
79 in addition to the default. (see the section on \fISyntax Files\fR for details).
82 Specify a system directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX system directory is
83 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
86 Specify a user directory. Normally, you shouldn't need this. Your LyX user directory is
87 chosen. Cf. the section \f(CWFILES\fR for details.
90 Call LyX to re-export the created output file to LaTeX. If the output file name
91 is not given it is determined automatically to avoid over-writing the input file
92 by accident: If the input file is named \fIfoo.tex\fR the output file will be
93 named \fIfoo.lyx.lyx\fR, and the re-exported file will be named
97 Copy all included files \fBtex2lyx\fR is
98 aware of to the output directory if the output file is located in a different
99 directory than the input file. This is useful if you want to ensure that no
100 included file is overwritten (either in roundtrip mode or by a later export
101 from LyX). Please note that the resulting document may be uncompilable. This
102 happens if it needs files that \fBtex2lyx\fR does not know about and therefore
103 does not copy to the output directory.
106 Help. Print out usage information and quit.
109 Print out the version number and build information and quit.
112 \fBtex2lyx\fR will create a LyX file with the specified name (or
113 \fIdir/foo.lyx\fR if no name was given) from the LaTeX file
116 Suffixes .tex, .ltx and .latex are supported. If \fIinputfile\fR
117 does not exist and does not have one of these suffixes, \fBtex2lyx\fR will try to
118 translate \fIinputfile.tex\fR. (This is similar to the behavior of LaTeX.)
120 The purpose of \fBtex2lyx\fR is to translate \fIwell-behaved\fR LaTeX2e into LyX. If
121 your LaTeX file doesn't compile---or if you do weird things, like redefining
122 standard LaTeX commands---it may choke. LaTeX209 will often be translated
123 correctly, but it's not guaranteed.
125 \fBtex2lyx\fR lacks a few features. However, its main goals are:
127 Get through a well-behaved LaTeX2e file without crashing
129 Translate a lot of that file.
131 Localize the parts that can't be translated and copy them in TeX mode
133 It achieves these main goals pretty well on most files.
135 Here's a more lengthy description of what you should do to translate a LaTeX
140 \fBtex2lyx\fR will inform you of its progress and give any warnings to stderr, so if
141 you don't want any output at all, try (in csh) `tex2lyx foo.tex >& /dev/null'.
142 You should \s-1NOT\s0 redirect standard output to \fIfoo.lyx\fR.
144 Run LyX (version 2.1 or later) on the resulting .lyx file.
146 In theory, most of the file will have been translated, and anything that's
147 untranslatable will be transferred to TeX code (ERT in LyX-speak). In theory, LyX will be
148 able to read in the file, and to create printed documents from it, because all
149 that untranslated ERT stuff will be passed directly back to LaTeX, which LyX
150 uses as a backend. Unfortunately, reality doesn't always reflect theory. If
151 \fBtex2lyx\fR crashes, or LyX cannot read the generated LyX file, see the \f(CWBUGS\fR section below.
153 Transform things have been inserted as TeX code manually to LyX features, if possible.
155 As mentioned above, you should be able to print out the LyX file even without
156 doing this. However, changing a command in TeX code to the corresponding LyX
157 object will allow you to take advantage of LyX's \s-1WYSIWYM\s0 editing.
159 \fBtex2lyx\fR is not guaranteed to create a LyX file which generates exactly the same
160 output as the LaTeX file, although its goal is to achieve this. \fBtex2lyx\fR will generally err
161 on the side of translating less to ensure that the resulting output files are accurate,
162 even though this leads to more TeX code and less \s-1WYSIWYM\s0.
164 \s-1PROOFREAD\s0 \s-1THE\s0 \s-1DOCUMENT\s0!!
166 I'm sure you were planning on doing this anyway, but it's particularly
167 important after translating a LaTeX document. \fBtex2lyx\fR is better
168 at \*[lq]macro-translating\*[rq] (translating the whole document) than
169 \*[lq]micro-translating\*[rq] (translating every little detail). For example, you may see
170 extra spaces or deleted spaces. Space handling has improved, but it's
172 .SS "What tex2lyx Can Handle"
173 \fBtex2lyx\fR understands many LaTeX commands. It will translate:
175 regular text, including mini-commands like ~, `', \f(CW\e@\fR, \f(CW\eTeX\fR, as well as
176 accented characters like \f(CW\e'{a}\fR, and the special cases ?` and !`
178 title commands like \f(CW\eauthor\fR, \f(CW\edate\fR, \f(CW\etitle\fR, \f(CW\ethanks\fR and the
181 heading commands like \f(CW\esection\fR including starred commands (\f(CW\esection*\fR)
183 Environments: quote, quotation, and verse; center, flushright, and flushleft
185 itemize, enumerate, and description environments, and their \f(CW\eitem\fR commands.
186 Also, well-behaved nested lists
188 cross-referencing commands: \f(CW\eref\fR, \f(CW\epageref\fR, \f(CW\elabel\fR, and \f(CW\ecite\fR
190 \f(CW\efootnote\fR and \f(CW\emargin\fR
192 font-changing commands including \f(CW\eem\fR, \f(CW\eemph\fR, \f(CW\etextit\fR, and
193 corresponding commands to change family, size, series, and shape
195 \f(CW\einput{foo}\fR (or \f(CW\einput{foo.blah}\fR) and \f(CW\einclude{foo}\fR. Plain TeX
196 \f(CW\einput\fR command \*[lq]\f(CW\einput foo.tex\fR\*[rq] is also supported.
198 tabular environment, and commands that go inside it like \f(CW\ehline\fR, \f(CW\ecline\fR,
199 and \f(CW\emulticolumn\fR (but see below)
201 float environments table and table*, as well as \f(CW\ecaption\fR commands within
204 float environments figure and figure*, as well as graphics inclusion commands
205 \eepsf, \eepsffile, \eepsfbox, \eepsfxsize, \eepsfig, \epsfig, and \eincludegraphics.
206 Both the graphics and graphicx forms of \eincludegraphics are supported.
208 thebibliography environment and \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command, as well as BibTeX's
209 \f(CW\ebibliography\fR and \f(CW\ebibliographystyle\fR commands
211 miscellaneous commands: \f(CW\ehfill\fR, \f(CW\e\fR\f(CW\e\fR, \f(CW\enoindent\fR, \f(CW\eldots\fR...
213 documentclass-specific environments (and some commands) which can be
214 translated to LyX layouts
216 arguments to certain untranslatable commands (e.g. \f(CW\embox\fR)
218 Some of this support may not be 100% yet. See below for details
220 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies math (almost) verbatim from your LaTeX file. Luckily, LyX reads
221 in LaTeX math, so (almost) any math which is supported by LyX should work just
224 \fBtex2lyx\fR will copy any preamble commands (i.e., anything before
225 \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR) verbatim. Fancy stuff you've got in your preamble
226 should thus be conserved in printed documents, although it will not of
227 course show up in the LyX window. Check Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble to see the result.
228 .SS "What tex2lyx Can't Handle --- But it's \s-1OK\s0"
230 some spacing commands (\f(CW\ehspace\fR, \f(CW\epagebreak\fR and \f(CW\elinebreak\fR)
232 \f(CW\ecentering\fR, \f(CW\eraggedleft\fR, \f(CW\eraggedright\fR
234 \f(CW\everb\fR and verbatim environment. \fBtex2lyx\fR is careful to copy \fIexactly\fR in
235 this case, including comments and whitespace.
237 unknown (e.g., user-defined) environments and commands
239 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies unknown commands, along with their arguments, verbatim into the
240 LyX file. Also, if it sees a \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR where it doesn't recognize the
241 \*[lq]foo\*[rq] environment, it will copy verbatim until it sees \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR (unless
242 you use the \fB\-r\fR option). Most of these unknown commands
243 won't cause \fBtex2lyx\fR to break; they'll merely require you to do some editing
244 once you've loaded the file up in LyX. That should be less painful than
245 editing either the .tex or the .lyx file using a text editor.
246 .SS "What tex2lyx Handles Badly --- aka \s-1BUGS\s0"
247 Since \fBtex2lyx\fR is relatively new, it's got a number of problems. As it
248 matures, these bugs will be squished.
250 \*[lq]Exact\*[rq] copying of unknown environments and commands isn't quite exact.
251 This will yield ugly LyX, but in almost all cases the output will be the same.
252 However, most parts of the file will be copied perfectly, including whitespace
253 and comments. This includes: the LaTeX preamble, verbatim environments as well as
254 \f(CW\everb\fR commands, and skip blocks.
256 \fBtex2lyx\fR translates only a subset of the document class options to native features.
257 Other options are placed in the \*[lq]options\*[rq] field in the Document->Settings popup.
259 More importantly, \fBtex2lyx\fR doesn't translate \f(CW\enewcommands\fR, unknown
260 \f(CW\eusepackage\fR commands and other unknown code in the preamble. It
261 simply copies that into the LaTeX preamble. If you use special commands, e.g. to
262 specify the text layout in a way that that is not understood by LyX, tex2lyx won't
263 recognize it. Note that these settings will be overwritten if you modify the text
264 layout in LyX's document settings. Better remove these special options from the LaTeX
265 preamble (Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble) and use the corresponding LyX document
266 settings, if possible.
268 The foil document class has a couple of bugs. \fBtex2lyx\fR may do weird things with optional
269 arguments to \f(CW\efoilhead\fR commands. Also, it may handle \f(CW\ebegin{dinglist}\fR
270 incorrectly (although the stuff in the environment should translate normally).
272 All known bugs of \fBtex2lyx\fR can be found on \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR.
274 \fBtex2lyx\fR is rather robust. As mentioned above, it may not translate
275 your file perfectly, but the result should be usable and it shouldn't crash. If you encounter
276 problems---and the problem is not one of those mentioned above or on
277 \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR---please report the issue as described in the section
278 on \fIBug Reports\fR.
279 .SS "What LyX Can't Handle"
280 LyX itself is missing a couple of features, such that even if \fBtex2lyx\fR translates
281 things perfectly, LyX may still have trouble reading it. If you really need
282 these features, you can export your final document as LaTeX, and put them
283 back in. See \fI\s-1BUGS\s0\fR for more details on these bugs.
285 For a number of commands (such as \f(CW\e\e\fR), LyX does not support the optional argument.
286 \fBtex2lyx\fR will automatically discard the optional arguments with a warning to
287 stdout. LyX also ignores the width argument for the thebibliography
290 LyX support for tables isn't perfect. For complicated tables, use a \*[lq]skip\*[rq]
291 block, so that they will be copied in TeX mode.
293 LyX allows figures to have sizes in the units known to TeX, such as in, cm, etc. It also
294 translates percentages of \etextwidth, \etextheight, \ecolumnwidth, but no other lengths
295 (e.g. if you wanted to scale a figure to size \etopmargin for some reason). \fBtex2lyx\fR
296 will copy figures with untranslatable sizes in TeX mode. Again, you might be able to fix
299 tex2lyx \fB\-f\fR \fB\-r\fR \*[lq]myenv\*[rq] foo.tex
301 The above will create a file foo.lyx from foo.tex, overwriting if
302 necessary. When it finds a \f(CW\ebegin{myenv} ... \eend{myenv}\fR block, it will
303 translate the stuff within the block, but copy the \f(CW\ebegin\fR and \f(CW\eend\fR
304 commands in TeX mode.
306 tex2lyx \fB\-n\fR \fB\-c\fR \*[lq]literate-article\*[rq] foo.tex
308 The above will change a noweb document into a LyX literate-article
309 document. A user would do this if the noweb document had documentclass
313 Bugs should be reported to the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome. Additionally,
314 you can post a message to the LyX developers' mailing list. Its address is currently
315 lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org. If your message bounces, you can check the LyX home page,
316 http://www.lyx.org/. If you are running \fBtex2lyx\fR on a huge file, please do not send all of the output in
317 your bug report. Just include the last ten or twenty lines of output, along with
318 the piece of the LaTeX file it crashed on. Or, even better, attach a small but
319 complete file which causes the same problem as your original file.
321 \fBtex2lyx\fR reads a LyX layout file to know how to handle LaTeX environments and
322 commands which get translated to LyX layouts. This file will include all
323 \*[lq]normal\*[rq] non-math environments (i.e., including quote and itemize, but not
324 tabular, minipage, and some other fancy environments), and commands like
325 \f(CW\esection\fR and \f(CW\etitle\fR. If you want to tex2lyx a class that doesn't have an
326 existing layout file, then you'll have to create a layout file. But you have
327 to do this anyway, in order to LyX the file, since LyX depends on layout files
328 to know how to display and process its files. Check the LyX documentation for
329 help with this task (which can be hard or easy, depending on the class you
330 want to create a layout file for.) If your class is quite similar to a class
331 that has a layout file, then consider using the \fB\-c\fR option.
333 \fBtex2lyx\fR always reads at least one syntax file, called the default syntax file.
334 \fBtex2lyx\fR will read your personal syntax file if it exists; otherwise it will
335 read the system-wide file. \fBtex2lyx\fR will read additional syntax files if you
336 specify them with the \fB\-s\fR option. (These extra files should have the same
337 format as the default file, but will tend to be shorter, since they only have
338 to specify extra commands not found in the default file.) A syntax file tells
339 \fBtex2lyx\fR a few things.
341 First, it describes the syntax of each command, that is, how many required
342 arguments and how many optional arguments the command takes. Knowing this
343 makes it easier for \fBtex2lyx\fR to copy (in TeX mode) commands that it doesn't
344 know how to translate. The syntax file simply has a command, followed by
345 braces or brackets describing its arguments in the correct order. For example,
346 a syntax file entry \f(CW\ebibitem[]{}\fR means that the \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command takes
347 an optional argument followed by a required one, while the entry \f(CW\ebf\fR
348 means that the \f(CW\ebf\fR command takes no arguments at all. When \fBtex2lyx\fR
349 encounters a token that it doesn't know how to translate into LyX, it will
350 copy the token---along with the correct number of arguments---exactly. If the
351 token is not in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR just copies as many arguments
352 as it finds. This means that it may copy too much. But since the user can
353 specify additional syntax files, that shouldn't happen often.
355 Some commands that cannot be translated to LyX, like \f(CW\embox\fR, have as one of
356 their arguments regular LaTeX text. If the string \*[lq]translate\*[rq] is put into an
357 argument of an (untranslatable) command in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR will
358 translate that argument instead of copying it verbatim. So, for example, the
359 default syntax file has \f(CW\eraisebox{}[][]{translate}\fR. This means that the
360 \f(CW\eraisebox\fR command and the first argument (and optional arguments if they
361 exist) are copied in TeX mode, but the last argument (which may contain math,
362 complicated LaTeX, other untranslatable commands, etc.) will be translated
363 into LyX. You can't use \*[lq]translate\*[rq] on optional arguments.
365 User-defined syntax files are allowed to define new commands and
366 their syntax, or override the number of arguments for a command given in the
367 default syntax file. (E.g., if you're using a style that gives an extra
368 argument to some command...) However, this will only be useful for commands
369 copied in TeX mode. Commands which are actually translated by \fBtex2lyx\fR (like
370 \f(CW\eitem\fR) have their argument syntax hard-coded. The hard-coded commands are
371 identified in the default syntax file.
373 Second, the syntax file describes any \*[lq]regular environments\*[rq]. Usually, an
374 entire unknown environment will be copied in TeX mode. If you define a regular
375 environment \*[lq]foo\*[rq], though, then only the \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR and \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR
376 commands will be copied in TeX mode; the text within the environment will be
377 treated (i.e., translated) by \fBtex2lyx\fR as regular LaTeX, rather than being
378 copied into TeX mode. Don't try to declare \*[lq]tabbing\*[rq] and \*[lq]picture\*[rq] as regular
379 environments, as the text within those environments will confuse \fBtex2lyx\fR; use
380 this capability for new environments you create that have plain text or math
381 or simple commands in them. You also can't declare unknown math environments
382 (like equation*) as regular environments, either, since the LyX math editor
383 won't understand them. The names of regular environments appear,
384 whitespace-separated, between \f(CW\ebegin{tex2lyxre}\fR and \f(CW\eend{tex2lyxre}\fR
385 statements in the syntax file. (If you have a regular environment which you
386 won't use very often, you can use the \fB\-r\fR option rather than writing a
389 Always keep a copy of your original LaTeX files either under a different
390 name or in a different directory. There are a couple ways in which using LyX
391 could lead to overwriting the original LaTeX file.
393 If you import foo.tex to create foo.lyx, then edit foo.lyx and want to
394 re-export it, note that it will overwrite the original foo.tex. (LyX will ask
395 you if you want to overwrite it.)
399 can be used to specify which system directory to use.
401 The system directory is determined by searching for the file
402 "chkconfig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order:
404 1) \-sysdir command line parameter
406 2) @LYX_DIR_VER@ environment variable
408 3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib
410 4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/
412 5) hardcoded lyx_dir (at build time: @real_pkgdatadir@)
415 can be used to specify which user directory to use.
417 The user directory is, in order of precedence:
419 1) \-userdir command line parameter
421 2) @LYX_USERDIR_VER@ environment variable
423 3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made
426 If \fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR is the system-wide LyX directory and
427 \fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR
428 is your personal LyX directory, then the following files are read by tex2lyx:
429 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
430 User's personal layout files for document classes
431 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/syntax.default" 4
432 User's personal syntax file
433 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/encodings" 4
434 User's personal encoding definition file
435 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
436 System-wide layout files for document classes
437 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/lib/syntax.default" 4
438 System-wide LaTeX syntax file
439 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/lib/encodings" 4
440 System-wide encoding definition file
442 \fIlyx@version_suffix@\fR\|(1), \fIlatex\fR\|(1)
444 tex2lyx is Copyright (c) 2003ff. by the LyX Team (lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org)
projects / lyx.git / blob