.TH OMEGA 1 "27 December 1997" "Web2C @VERSION@"
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.\"=====================================================================
.SH NAME
omega, iniomega, viromega \- extended unicode TeX
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B omega
.RI [ options ]
[\fB&\fR \fIformat\fR ]
[ \fIfile\fR | \fB\e\fR \fIcommands\fR ]
.\"=====================================================================
.SH DESCRIPTION
Run the Omega typesetter on
.IR file ,
usually creating
.IR file.dvi .
If the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. 
Instead of a filename, a set of Omega commands can be given, the first
of which must start with a backslash.
With a 
.BI & format
argument Omega uses a different set of precompiled commands,
contained in
.IR format.fmt ;
it is usually better to use the
.B -fmt
.I format
option instead.
.PP
Omega is a version of the \*(TX program modified for multilingual
typesetting.  It uses unicode, and has additional primitives for
(among other things) bidirectional typesetting.
.PP
The
.B iniomega
and
.B viromega
commands are Omega's analogues to the
.B initex
and
.B virtex
commands.  In this installation, they are symlinks to the
.B omega
executable.
.PP
Omega's command line options are similar to those of \*(TX.
.PP
Omega is experimental software.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH OPTIONS
This version of Omega understands the following command line options.
.TP
.BI --oft \ format
.rb
Use
.I format
as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which
Omega was called or a
.I %&
line.
.TP
.B -halt-on-error
.rb
Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during processing.
.TP
.B --help
.rb
Print help message and exit.
.TP
.B --ini
.rb
Be
.BR iniomega ,
for dumping formats; this is implicitly true if the program is called
as
.BR iniomega .
.TP
.BI --interaction \ mode
.rb
Sets the interaction mode.  The mode can be one of
.IR batchmode ,
.IR nonstopmode ,
.IR scrollmode ,
and
.IR errorstopmode .
The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding
\ecommands.
.TP
.B --ipc
.rb
Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.  Whether
this option is available is the choice of the installer.
.TP
.B --ipc-start
.rb
As
.BR --ipc ,
and starts the server at the other end as well.  Whether this option
is available is the choice of the installer.
.TP
.BI --kpathsea-debug \ bitmask
.rb
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.  See the
.I Kpathsea
manual for details.
.TP
.BI --maketex \ fmt
.rb
Enable
.RI mktex fmt ,
where
.I fmt
must be one of
.I tex
or
.IR tfm .
.TP
.BI --no-maketex \ fmt
.rb
Disable
.RI mktex fmt ,
where
.I fmt
must be one of
.I tex
or
.IR tfm .
.TP
.BI --output-comment \ string
.rb
Use
.I string
for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
.TP
.BI -output-directory \ directory
.rb Write output files in
.I directory
instead of the current directory.  Look up input files in
.I directory
first, the along the normal search path.
.TP
.B --parse-first-line
.rb
If the first line of the main input file begins with
.I %&
parse it to look for a dump name.
.TP
.BI --progname \ name
.rb
Pretend to be program
.IR name .
This affects both the format used and the search paths.
.TP
.B --recorder
.rb
Enable the filename recorder.  This leaves a trace of the files opened
for input and output in a file with extension
.IR .ofl .
(This option is always on.)
.TP
.B --shell-escape
.rb
Enable the
.BI \ewrite18{ command }
construct.  The
.I command
can be any Bourne shell command.  This construct is normally
disallowed for security reasons.
.TP
.B --version
.rb
Print version information and exit.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
The
.B kpsewhich
utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
.PP
One caveat: In most Omega formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
give directly to Omega, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
expanded, not taken as part of the filename.  Other programs, such as
\*(MF, do not have this problem.
.PP
.TP
TEXMFOUTPUT
Normally, Omega puts its output files in the current directory.  If
any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it in the
directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
There is no default value for that variable.  For example, if you say
.I tex paper
and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has
the value
.IR /tmp ,
Omega attempts to create
.I /tmp/paper.log
(and
.IR /tmp/paper.dvi ,
if any output is produced.)
.TP
TEXINPUTS
Search path for
.I \einput
and
.I \eopenin
files.
This should probably start with ``.'', so
that user files are found before system files.  An empty path
component will be replaced with the paths defined in the
.I texmf.cnf
file.  For example, set TEXINPUTS to ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend the
current direcory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
.TP
TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor.  The default, usually
.BR vi ,
is set when Omega is compiled.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH FILES
The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to
system.  Use the
.B kpsewhich
utility to find their locations.
.TP
.I omega.pool
Encoded text of Omega's messages.
.TP
.I *.oft
Predigested Omega format (.\|oft) files.
.br
.\"=====================================================================
.SH NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The complete
documentation for this version of Omega can be found in the info
manual
.IR "Web2C: A TeX implementation" .
.\"=====================================================================
.SH BUGS
This version of Omega implements a number of optional extensions.
In fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser
extent with the definition of Omega.  When such extensions are
enabled, the banner printed when Omega starts is changed to print
.B Omegak
instead of
.BR Omega .
.PP
This version of Omega fails to trap arithmetic overflow when
dimensions are added or subtracted.  Cases where this occurs are rare,
but when it does the generated
.I DVI
file will be invalid.
.PP
The
.I DVI
files produced by Omega may use extensions which make them incompatible
with most software designed to handle
.I DVI
files.  In order to print or preview them, you should use
.B odvips
to generate a PostScript file.
.PP
Omega is experimental software, and if you are an active user it is
strongly recommended that you subscribe to the Omega mailing list.
Visit the Omega website
.B http://omega.cse.unsw.edu.au
for information on how to subscribe.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR tex (1),
.BR mf (1),
.RB odvips (1),
.\"=====================================================================
.SH AUTHORS
The primary authors of Omega are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous.