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 ] [ \fB\-copyfiles\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 Do not translate child documents included via \f(CW\einclude\fR and \f(CW\einput\fR.
54 This option is useful if the child documents are generated files and/or contain many
55 commands that \fBtex2lyx\fR does not understand yet.
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. If the output file name
79 is not given it is determined automatically to avoid over-writing the input file
80 by 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 Copy all included files \fBtex2lyx\fR is
86 aware of to the output directory if the output file is located in a different
87 directory than the input file. This is useful if you want to ensure that no
88 included file is overwritten (either in roundtrip mode or by a later export
89 from LyX). Please note that the resulting document may be uncompilable. This
90 happens if it needs files that \fBtex2lyx\fR does not know about and therefore
91 does not copy to the output directory.
94 Help. Print out usage information and quit.
97 Print out the version number and build information and quit.
100 \fBtex2lyx\fR will create a LyX file with the specified name (or
101 \fIdir/foo.lyx\fR if no name was given) from the LaTeX file
104 Suffixes .tex, .ltx and .latex are supported. If \fIinputfile\fR
105 does not exist and does not have one of these suffixes, \fBtex2lyx\fR will try to
106 translate \fIinputfile.tex\fR. (This is similar to the behavior of LaTeX.)
108 The purpose of \fBtex2lyx\fR is to translate \fIwell-behaved\fR LaTeX2e into LyX. If
109 your LaTeX file doesn't compile---or if you do weird things, like redefining
110 standard LaTeX commands---it may choke. LaTeX209 will often be translated
111 correctly, but it's not guaranteed.
113 \fBtex2lyx\fR lacks a few features. However, its main goals are:
115 Get through a well-behaved LaTeX2e file without crashing
117 Translate a lot of that file.
119 Localize the parts that can't be translated and copy them in TeX mode
121 It achieves these main goals pretty well on most files.
123 Here's a more lengthy description of what you should do to translate a LaTeX
128 \fBtex2lyx\fR will inform you of its progress and give any warnings to stderr, so if
129 you don't want any output at all, try (in csh) `tex2lyx foo.tex >& /dev/null'.
130 You should \s-1NOT\s0 redirect standard output to \fIfoo.lyx\fR.
132 Run LyX (version 2.1 or later) on the resulting .lyx file.
134 In theory, most of the file will have been translated, and anything that's
135 untranslatable will be transferred to TeX code (ERT in LyX-speak). In theory, LyX will be
136 able to read in the file, and to create printed documents from it, because all
137 that untranslated ERT stuff will be passed directly back to LaTeX, which LyX
138 uses as a backend. Unfortunately, reality doesn't always reflect theory. If
139 \fBtex2lyx\fR crashes, or LyX cannot read the generated LyX file, see the \f(CWBUGS\fR section below.
141 Transform things have been inserted as TeX code manually to LyX features, if possible.
143 As mentioned above, you should be able to print out the LyX file even without
144 doing this. However, changing a command in TeX code to the corresponding LyX
145 object will allow you to take advantage of LyX's \s-1WYSIWYM\s0 editing.
147 \fBtex2lyx\fR is not guaranteed to create a LyX file which generates exactly the same
148 output as the LaTeX file, although its goal is to achieve this. \fBtex2lyx\fR will generally err
149 on the side of translating less to ensure that the resulting output files are accurate,
150 even though this leads to more TeX code and less \s-1WYSIWYM\s0.
152 \s-1PROOFREAD\s0 \s-1THE\s0 \s-1DOCUMENT\s0!!
154 I'm sure you were planning on doing this anyway, but it's particularly
155 important after translating a LaTeX document. \fBtex2lyx\fR is better
156 at \*[lq]macro-translating\*[rq] (translating the whole document) than
157 \*[lq]micro-translating\*[rq] (translating every little detail). For example, you may see
158 extra spaces or deleted spaces. Space handling has improved, but it's
160 .SS "What tex2lyx Can Handle"
161 \fBtex2lyx\fR understands many LaTeX commands. It will translate:
163 regular text, including mini-commands like ~, `', \f(CW\e@\fR, \f(CW\eTeX\fR, as well as
164 accented characters like \f(CW\e'{a}\fR, and the special cases ?` and !`
166 title commands like \f(CW\eauthor\fR, \f(CW\edate\fR, \f(CW\etitle\fR, \f(CW\ethanks\fR and the
169 heading commands like \f(CW\esection\fR including starred commands (\f(CW\esection*\fR)
171 Environments: quote, quotation, and verse; center, flushright, and flushleft
173 itemize, enumerate, and description environments, and their \f(CW\eitem\fR commands.
174 Also, well-behaved nested lists
176 cross-referencing commands: \f(CW\eref\fR, \f(CW\epageref\fR, \f(CW\elabel\fR, and \f(CW\ecite\fR
178 \f(CW\efootnote\fR and \f(CW\emargin\fR
180 font-changing commands including \f(CW\eem\fR, \f(CW\eemph\fR, \f(CW\etextit\fR, and
181 corresponding commands to change family, size, series, and shape
183 \f(CW\einput{foo}\fR (or \f(CW\einput{foo.blah}\fR) and \f(CW\einclude{foo}\fR. Plain TeX
184 \f(CW\einput\fR command \*[lq]\f(CW\einput foo.tex\fR\*[rq] is also supported.
186 tabular environment, and commands that go inside it like \f(CW\ehline\fR, \f(CW\ecline\fR,
187 and \f(CW\emulticolumn\fR (but see below)
189 float environments table and table*, as well as \f(CW\ecaption\fR commands within
192 float environments figure and figure*, as well as graphics inclusion commands
193 \eepsf, \eepsffile, \eepsfbox, \eepsfxsize, \eepsfig, \epsfig, and \eincludegraphics.
194 Both the graphics and graphicx forms of \eincludegraphics are supported.
196 thebibliography environment and \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command, as well as BibTeX's
197 \f(CW\ebibliography\fR and \f(CW\ebibliographystyle\fR commands
199 miscellaneous commands: \f(CW\ehfill\fR, \f(CW\e\fR\f(CW\e\fR, \f(CW\enoindent\fR, \f(CW\eldots\fR...
201 documentclass-specific environments (and some commands) which can be
202 translated to LyX layouts
204 arguments to certain untranslatable commands (e.g. \f(CW\embox\fR)
206 Some of this support may not be 100% yet. See below for details
208 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies math (almost) verbatim from your LaTeX file. Luckily, LyX reads
209 in LaTeX math, so (almost) any math which is supported by LyX should work just
212 \fBtex2lyx\fR will copy any preamble commands (i.e., anything before
213 \f(CW\ebegin{document}\fR) verbatim. Fancy stuff you've got in your preamble
214 should thus be conserved in printed documents, although it will not of
215 course show up in the LyX window. Check Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble to see the result.
216 .SS "What tex2lyx Can't Handle --- But it's \s-1OK\s0"
218 some spacing commands (\f(CW\ehspace\fR, \f(CW\epagebreak\fR and \f(CW\elinebreak\fR)
220 \f(CW\ecentering\fR, \f(CW\eraggedleft\fR, \f(CW\eraggedright\fR
222 \f(CW\everb\fR and verbatim environment. \fBtex2lyx\fR is careful to copy \fIexactly\fR in
223 this case, including comments and whitespace.
225 unknown (e.g., user-defined) environments and commands
227 \fBtex2lyx\fR copies unknown commands, along with their arguments, verbatim into the
228 LyX file. Also, if it sees a \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR where it doesn't recognize the
229 \*[lq]foo\*[rq] environment, it will copy verbatim until it sees \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR (unless
230 you use the \fB\-r\fR option). Most of these unknown commands
231 won't cause \fBtex2lyx\fR to break; they'll merely require you to do some editing
232 once you've loaded the file up in LyX. That should be less painful than
233 editing either the .tex or the .lyx file using a text editor.
234 .SS "What tex2lyx Handles Badly --- aka \s-1BUGS\s0"
235 Since \fBtex2lyx\fR is relatively new, it's got a number of problems. As it
236 matures, these bugs will be squished.
238 \*[lq]Exact\*[rq] copying of unknown environments and commands isn't quite exact.
239 This will yield ugly LyX, but in almost all cases the output will be the same.
240 However, most parts of the file will be copied perfectly, including whitespace
241 and comments. This includes: the LaTeX preamble, verbatim environments as well as
242 \f(CW\everb\fR commands, and skip blocks.
244 \fBtex2lyx\fR translates only a subset of the document class options to native features.
245 Other options are placed in the \*[lq]options\*[rq] field in the Document->Settings popup.
247 More importantly, \fBtex2lyx\fR doesn't translate \f(CW\enewcommands\fR, unknown
248 \f(CW\eusepackage\fR commands and other unknown code in the preamble. It
249 simply copies that into the LaTeX preamble. If you use special commands, e.g. to
250 specify the text layout in a way that that is not understood by LyX, tex2lyx won't
251 recognize it. Note that these settings will be overwritten if you modify the text
252 layout in LyX's document settings. Better remove these special options from the LaTeX
253 preamble (Document->Settings->LaTeX Preamble) and use the corresponding LyX document
254 settings, if possible.
256 The foil document class has a couple of bugs. \fBtex2lyx\fR may do weird things with optional
257 arguments to \f(CW\efoilhead\fR commands. Also, it may handle \f(CW\ebegin{dinglist}\fR
258 incorrectly (although the stuff in the environment should translate normally).
260 All known bugs of \fBtex2lyx\fR can be found on \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR.
262 \fBtex2lyx\fR is rather robust. As mentioned above, it may not translate
263 your file perfectly, but the result should be usable and it shouldn't crash. If you encounter
264 problems---and the problem is not one of those mentioned above or on
265 \fI\s-1http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome\s0\fR---please report the issue as described in the section
266 on \fIBug Reports\fR.
267 .SS "What LyX Can't Handle"
268 LyX itself is missing a couple of features, such that even if \fBtex2lyx\fR translates
269 things perfectly, LyX may still have trouble reading it. If you really need
270 these features, you can export your final document as LaTeX, and put them
271 back in. See \fI\s-1BUGS\s0\fR for more details on these bugs.
273 For a number of commands (such as \f(CW\e\e\fR), LyX does not support the optional argument.
274 \fBtex2lyx\fR will automatically discard the optional arguments with a warning to
275 stdout. LyX also ignores the width argument for the thebibliography
278 LyX support for tables isn't perfect. For complicated tables, use a \*[lq]skip\*[rq]
279 block, so that they will be copied in TeX mode.
281 LyX allows figures to have sizes in the units known to TeX, such as in, cm, etc. It also
282 translates percentages of \etextwidth, \etextheight, \ecolumnwidth, but no other lengths
283 (e.g. if you wanted to scale a figure to size \etopmargin for some reason). \fBtex2lyx\fR
284 will copy figures with untranslatable sizes in TeX mode. Again, you might be able to fix
287 tex2lyx \fB\-f\fR \fB\-r\fR \*[lq]myenv\*[rq] foo.tex
289 The above will create a file foo.lyx from foo.tex, overwriting if
290 necessary. When it finds a \f(CW\ebegin{myenv} ... \eend{myenv}\fR block, it will
291 translate the stuff within the block, but copy the \f(CW\ebegin\fR and \f(CW\eend\fR
292 commands in TeX mode.
294 tex2lyx \fB\-n\fR \fB\-c\fR \*[lq]literate-article\*[rq] foo.tex
296 The above will change a noweb document into a LyX literate-article
297 document. A user would do this if the noweb document had documentclass
301 Bugs should be reported to the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome. Additionally,
302 you can post a message to the LyX developers' mailing list. Its address is currently
303 lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org. If your message bounces, you can check the LyX home page,
304 http://www.lyx.org/. If you are running \fBtex2lyx\fR on a huge file, please do not send all of the output in
305 your bug report. Just include the last ten or twenty lines of output, along with
306 the piece of the LaTeX file it crashed on. Or, even better, attach a small but
307 complete file which causes the same problem as your original file.
309 \fBtex2lyx\fR reads a LyX layout file to know how to handle LaTeX environments and
310 commands which get translated to LyX layouts. This file will include all
311 \*[lq]normal\*[rq] non-math environments (i.e., including quote and itemize, but not
312 tabular, minipage, and some other fancy environments), and commands like
313 \f(CW\esection\fR and \f(CW\etitle\fR. If you want to tex2lyx a class that doesn't have an
314 existing layout file, then you'll have to create a layout file. But you have
315 to do this anyway, in order to LyX the file, since LyX depends on layout files
316 to know how to display and process its files. Check the LyX documentation for
317 help with this task (which can be hard or easy, depending on the class you
318 want to create a layout file for.) If your class is quite similar to a class
319 that has a layout file, then consider using the \fB\-c\fR option.
321 \fBtex2lyx\fR always reads at least one syntax file, called the default syntax file.
322 \fBtex2lyx\fR will read your personal syntax file if it exists; otherwise it will
323 read the system-wide file. \fBtex2lyx\fR will read additional syntax files if you
324 specify them with the \fB\-s\fR option. (These extra files should have the same
325 format as the default file, but will tend to be shorter, since they only have
326 to specify extra commands not found in the default file.) A syntax file tells
327 \fBtex2lyx\fR a few things.
329 First, it describes the syntax of each command, that is, how many required
330 arguments and how many optional arguments the command takes. Knowing this
331 makes it easier for \fBtex2lyx\fR to copy (in TeX mode) commands that it doesn't
332 know how to translate. The syntax file simply has a command, followed by
333 braces or brackets describing its arguments in the correct order. For example,
334 a syntax file entry \f(CW\ebibitem[]{}\fR means that the \f(CW\ebibitem\fR command takes
335 an optional argument followed by a required one, while the entry \f(CW\ebf\fR
336 means that the \f(CW\ebf\fR command takes no arguments at all. When \fBtex2lyx\fR
337 encounters a token that it doesn't know how to translate into LyX, it will
338 copy the token---along with the correct number of arguments---exactly. If the
339 token is not in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR just copies as many arguments
340 as it finds. This means that it may copy too much. But since the user can
341 specify additional syntax files, that shouldn't happen often.
343 Some commands that cannot be translated to LyX, like \f(CW\embox\fR, have as one of
344 their arguments regular LaTeX text. If the string \*[lq]translate\*[rq] is put into an
345 argument of an (untranslatable) command in the syntax file, then \fBtex2lyx\fR will
346 translate that argument instead of copying it verbatim. So, for example, the
347 default syntax file has \f(CW\eraisebox{}[][]{translate}\fR. This means that the
348 \f(CW\eraisebox\fR command and the first argument (and optional arguments if they
349 exist) are copied in TeX mode, but the last argument (which may contain math,
350 complicated LaTeX, other untranslatable commands, etc.) will be translated
351 into LyX. You can't use \*[lq]translate\*[rq] on optional arguments.
353 User-defined syntax files are allowed to define new commands and
354 their syntax, or override the number of arguments for a command given in the
355 default syntax file. (E.g., if you're using a style that gives an extra
356 argument to some command...) However, this will only be useful for commands
357 copied in TeX mode. Commands which are actually translated by \fBtex2lyx\fR (like
358 \f(CW\eitem\fR) have their argument syntax hard-coded. The hard-coded commands are
359 identified in the default syntax file.
361 Second, the syntax file describes any \*[lq]regular environments\*[rq]. Usually, an
362 entire unknown environment will be copied in TeX mode. If you define a regular
363 environment \*[lq]foo\*[rq], though, then only the \f(CW\ebegin{foo}\fR and \f(CW\eend{foo}\fR
364 commands will be copied in TeX mode; the text within the environment will be
365 treated (i.e., translated) by \fBtex2lyx\fR as regular LaTeX, rather than being
366 copied into TeX mode. Don't try to declare \*[lq]tabbing\*[rq] and \*[lq]picture\*[rq] as regular
367 environments, as the text within those environments will confuse \fBtex2lyx\fR; use
368 this capability for new environments you create that have plain text or math
369 or simple commands in them. You also can't declare unknown math environments
370 (like equation*) as regular environments, either, since the LyX math editor
371 won't understand them. The names of regular environments appear,
372 whitespace-separated, between \f(CW\ebegin{tex2lyxre}\fR and \f(CW\eend{tex2lyxre}\fR
373 statements in the syntax file. (If you have a regular environment which you
374 won't use very often, you can use the \fB\-r\fR option rather than writing a
377 Always keep a copy of your original LaTeX files either under a different
378 name or in a different directory. There are a couple ways in which using LyX
379 could lead to overwriting the original LaTeX file.
381 If you import foo.tex to create foo.lyx, then edit foo.lyx and want to
382 re-export it, note that it will overwrite the original foo.tex. (LyX will ask
383 you if you want to overwrite it.)
387 can be used to specify which system directory to use.
389 The system directory is determined by searching for the file
390 "chkconfig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order:
392 1) \-sysdir command line parameter
394 2) @LYX_DIR_VER@ environment variable
396 3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib
398 4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/
400 5) hardcoded lyx_dir (at build time: @real_pkgdatadir@)
403 can be used to specify which user directory to use.
405 The user directory is, in order of precedence:
407 1) \-userdir command line parameter
409 2) @LYX_USERDIR_VER@ environment variable
411 3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made
414 If \fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR is the system-wide LyX directory and
415 \fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR
416 is your personal LyX directory, then the following files are read by tex2lyx:
417 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
418 User's personal layout files for document classes
419 .IP "\fI\s-1MY_LYXDIR\s0\fR/syntax.default" 4
420 User's personal syntax file
421 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/layouts/*.layout" 4
422 System-wide layout files for document classes
423 .IP "\fI\s-1LIBDIR\s0\fR/lib/syntax.default" 4
424 System-wide LaTeX syntax file
426 \fIlyx@version_suffix@\fR\|(1), \fIlatex\fR\|(1)
428 tex2lyx is Copyright (c) 2003ff. by the LyX Team (lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org)
projects / lyx.git / blob