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