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