LaTeX2HTML(1) Debian GNU/Linux manual LaTeX2HTML(1)NAMElatex2html - translate LaTeX files to HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
SYNOPSISlatex2html [options] [target [target ...]]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page explains the LaTeX2HTML utility, which is a Perl pro‐
gram that translates LaTeX document into HTML format. For each source
file given as an argument the translator will create a directory con‐
taining the corresponding HTML files. For details and examples, please
consult the online html documentation, a copy of which should be avail‐
able in /usr/share/doc/latex2html/manual.ps.gz or
/usr/share/doc/latex2html/html/
CAVEAT
This documetation has been derived from the TeX manual, and may not be
uptodate. Please refer to the online manual for authoritative documen‐
tation.
Options controlling Titles, File-Names and Sectioning
-t <top-page-title>
Same as setting: $TITLE = <top-page-title> ; Name the document
using this title.
-short_extn
Same as setting: $SHORTEXTN = 1; Use a filename prefix of .htm
for the produced HTML files. This is particularly useful for
creating pages to be stored on CD-ROM or other media, to be used
with operating systems that require a 3-character extension.
-long_titles <num>
Same as setting: $LONG_TITLES = <num>; Instead of the standard
names: node1.html, node2.html,... the filenames for each HTML
page are constructed from the first <num> words of the section
heading for that page, separated by the `_' character. Commas
and common short words (a an to by of and for the) are omitted
from both title and word-count. Warning: Use this switch with
great caution. Currently there are no checks for uniqueness of
names or overall length. Very long names can easily result from
using this feature.
-custom_titles
Same as setting: $CUSTOM_TITLES = 1; Instead of the standard
names: node1.html, node2.html, ... the filenames for each HTML
page are constructed using a Perl subroutine named cus‐
tom_title_hook . The user may define his/her own version of this
subroutine, within a .latex2html-init file say, to override the
default (which uses the standard names). This subroutine takes
the section-heading as a parameter and must return the required
name, or the empty string (default).
-dir <output-directory>
Same as setting: $DESTDIR = <output-directory> ; Redirect the
output to the specified directory. The default behaviour is to
create (or reuse) a directory having the same name as the prefix
of the document being processed.
-no_subdir
Same as setting: $NO_SUBDIR = 1; Place the generated HTML files
into the current directory. This overrides any $DESTDIR setting.
-prefix <filename-prefix>
Same as setting: $PREFIX = <filename-prefix> ; The <filename-
prefix> will be prepended to all .gif, .pl and .html files pro‐
duced, except for the top-level .html file; it may include a
(relative) directory path. This will enable multiple products of
LaTeX2HTML to peacefully coexist in the same directory. However,
do not attempt to simultaneously run multiple instances of
LaTeX2HTML using the same output directory, else various tempo‐
rary files will overwrite each other.
-auto_prefix
Same as setting: $AUTO_PREFIX = 1; Constructs the prefix as
`<title>-' to be prepended to all the files produced, where
<title> is the name of the LaTeX file being processed. (Note
the `-' in this prefix.) This overrides any $PREFIX setting.
-no_auto_link
Same as setting: $NO_AUTO_LINK = 1; If $NO_AUTO_LINK is empty
and variables $LINKPOINT and $LINKNAME are defined appropriately
(as is the default in the latex2html.config file), then a hard
link to the main HTML page is produced, using the name supplied
in $LINKNAME. Typically this is index.html; on many systems a
file of this name will be used, if it exists, when a browser
tries to view a URL which points to a directory. On other sys‐
tems a different value for $LINKNAME may be appropriate. Typi‐
cally $LINKPOINT has value $FILE.html, but this may also be
changed to match whichever HTML page is to become the target of
the automatic link. Use of the -no_auto_link switch cancels
this automatic linking facility, when not required for a partic‐
ular document.
-split <num>
Same as setting: $MAX_SPLIT_DEPTH = <num>; (default is 8) Stop
splitting sections into separate files at this depth. Specifying
-split 0 will put the entire document into a single HTML file.
See below for the different levels of sectioning. Also see the
next item for how to set a ``relative'' depth for splitting.
-split +<num>
Same as setting: $MAX_SPLIT_DEPTH = -<num>; (default is 8) The
level at which to stop splitting sections is calculated ``rela‐
tive to'' the shallowest level of sectioning that occurs within
the document. For example, if the document contains \section
commands, but no \part or \chapter commands, then -split +1 will
cause splitting at each \section but not at any deeper level;
whereas -split +2 or -split +3 also split down to \subsection
and \subsubsection commands respectively. Specifying -split +0
puts the entire document into a single HTML file.
-link <num>
Same as setting: $MAX_LINK_DEPTH = <num>; (default is 4) For
each node, create links to child nodes down to this much deeper
than the node's sectioning-level. Specifying -link 0 will show
no links to child nodes from that page, -link 1 will show only
the immediate descendents, etc. A value at least as big as that
of the -split <num> depth will produce a mini table-of-contents
(when not empty) on each page, for the tree structure rooted at
that node. When the page has a sectioning-level less than the
-split depth, so that the a mini table-of-contents has links to
other HTML pages, this table is located at the bottom of the
page, unless placed elsewhere using the \tableofchildlinks com‐
mand. On pages having a sectioning-level just less than the
-split depth the mini table-of-contents contains links to sub‐
sections etc. occurring on the same HTML page. Now the table is
located at the top of this page, unless placed elsewhere using
the \tableofchildlinks command.
-toc_depth <num>
Same as setting: $TOC_DEPTH = <num>; (default is 4) Sectioning
levels down to <num> are to be included within the Table-of-Con‐
tents tree.
-toc_stars
Same as setting: $TOC_STARS = 1; Sections created using the
starred-form of sectioning commands are included within the Ta‐
ble-of-Contents. As with LaTeX, normally such sections are not
listed.
-show_section_numbers
Same as setting: $SHOW_SECTION_NUMBERS = 1; Show section num‐
bers. By default section numbers are not shown, so as to encour‐
age the use of particular sections as stand-alone documents. In
order to be shown, section titles must be unique and must not
contain inlined graphics.
-unsegment
Same as setting: $UNSEGMENT = 1; Treat a segmented document (see
the section about document segmentation) like it were not seg‐
mented. This will cause the translator to concatenate all seg‐
ments and process them as a whole. You might find this useful to
check a segmented document for consistency. For all documents
the sectioning levels referred to above are:
0 document
1 part
2 chapter
3 section
4 subsection
5 subsubsection
6 paragraph
7 subparagraph
8 subsubparagraph
These levels apply even when the document contains no sectioning for
the shallower levels; e.g. no \part or \chapter commands is most com‐
mon, especially when using LaTeX's article document-class.
Options controlling Extensions and Special Features
The switches described here govern the type of HTML code that can be
generated, and how to choose between the available options when there
are alternative strategies for implementing portions of LaTeX code.
-html_version (2.0|3.0|3.2)[,(math|i18n|table)]*
Same as setting: $HTML_VERSION = ... ; This specifies both the
HTML version to generate, and any extra (non-standard) HTML fea‐
tures that may be required. The version number corresponds to a
published DTD for an HTML standard (although 3.0 was never
accepted and subsequently withdrawn). A corresponding Perl file
in the versions/ subdirectory is loaded; these files are named
`html<num>.pl'. Following the version number, a comma-separated
list of extensions can be given. Each corresponds to a file
`<name>.pl' also located in the versions/ subdirectory. When
such a file is loaded the resulting HTML code can no longer be
expected to validate with the specified DTD. An exception is
math when the -no_math switch is also used, which should still
validate. Currently, versions 2.0, 3.2 and 4.0 are available.
(and also 2.1, 2.2, 3.0 and 3.1, for hoistorical reasons). The
extensions i18n, tables, math correspond roughly to what used to
be called versions `2.1', `2.2', `3.1' respectively, in releases
of LaTeX2HTML up to 1996. Now these extensions can be loaded
with any of `2.0', `3.2' or `4.0' as the specified standard.
The default version is usually set to be `3.2', within
latex2html.config.
-no_tex_defs
Same as setting: $TEXDEFS = 0; (default is 1) When $TEXDEFS is
set (default) the file texdefs.perl will be read. This provides
code to allow common TEX commands like \def, \newbox, \newdimen
and others, to be recognised, especially within the document
preamble. In the case of \def, the definition may even be fully
interpreted, but this requires the pattern-matching to be not
too complicated. If $TEXDEFS is `0' or empty, then texdefs.perl
will not be loaded; the translator will make no attempt to
interpret any raw TEX commands. This feature is intended to
enable sophisticated authors the ability to insert arbitrary TEX
commands in environments that are destined to be processed by
LaTeX anyway; e.g. figures, theorems, pictures, etc. However
this should rarely be needed, as now there is better support for
these types of environment. There are now other methods to spec‐
ify which chunks of code are to be passed to LaTeX for explicit
image-generation; see the discussion of the makeimage environ‐
ment.
-external_file <filename>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_FILE = <filename> ; Specifies the
prefix of the .aux file that this document should read. The
.aux extension will be appended to this prefix to get the com‐
plete filename, with directory path if needed. This file could
contain necessary information regarding citations, figure, table
and section numbers from LaTeX and perhaps other information
also. Use of this switch is vital for document segments, pro‐
cessed separately and linked to appear as if generated from a
single LaTeX document.
-font_size <size>
Same as setting: $FONT_SIZE = <size> ; This option provides bet‐
ter control over the font size of environments made into images
using LaTeX. <size> must be one of the font sizes that LaTeX
recognizes; i.e. `10pt', `11pt', `12pt', etc. Default is `10pt',
or whatever option may have been specified on the \documentclass
or \documentstyle line. Whatever size is selected, it will be
magnified by the installation variables $MATH_SCALE_FACTOR,
$FIGURE_SCALE_FACTOR and $DISP_SCALE_FACTOR as appropriate.
Note: This switch provides no control over the size of text on
the HTML pages. Such control is subject entirely to the user's
choices of settings for the browser windows.
-scalable_fonts
Same as setting: $SCALABLE_FONTS = 1; This is used when scalable
fonts, such as PostScript versions of the TEX fonts, are avail‐
able for image-generation. It has the effect of setting
$PK_GENERATION to `1', and $DVIPS_MODE to be empty, overriding
any previous settings for these variables.
-no_math
Same as setting: $NO_SIMPLE_MATH = 1; Ordinarily simple mathe‐
matical expressions are set using the ordinary text font, but
italiced. When part of the expression can not be represented
this way, an image is made of the whole formula. This is called
``simple math''. When $NO_SIMPLE_MATH is set, then all mathemat‐
ics is made into images, whether simple or not. However, if the
math extension is loaded, using the -html_version switch
described earlier, then specifying -no_math produces a quite
different effect. Now it is the special <MATH> tags and entities
which are cancelled. In their place a sophisticated scheme for
parsing mathematical expressions is used. Images are made of
those sub-parts of a formula which cannot be adequately
expressed using (italiced) text characters and <SUB> and <SUP>
tags. See the subsection on mathematics for more details.
-local_icons
Same as setting: $LOCAL_ICONS = 1; A copy of each of the icons
actually used within the document is placed in the directory
along with the HTML files and generated images. This allows the
whole document to be fully self-contained, within this direc‐
tory; otherwise the icons must be retrieved from a (perhaps
remote) server. The icons are normally copied from a subdirec‐
tory of the
$LATEX2HTMLDIR,
set within latex2html.config. An alternative set of icons can
be used by specifying a (relative) directory path in $ALTERNA‐
TIVE_ICONS to where the customised images can be found.
-init_file <file>
Load the specified initialisation file. This Perl file will be
loaded after loading $HOME/.latex2html-init, or .latex2html-init
in the local directory, if either file exists. It is read at the
time the switch is processed, so the contents of the file may
change any of the values of any of the variables that were pre‐
viously established, as well as any default options. More than
one initialisation file can be read in this way.
[change_begin]98.1
-no_fork
Same as setting: $NOFORK = 1; When set this disables a feature
in the early part of the processing whereby some memory-inten‐
sive operations are performed by `forked' child processes. Some
single-task operating systems, such as DOS, do not support this
feature. Having $NOFORK set then ensures that unnecessary file-
handles that are needed with the forked processes, are not con‐
sumed unnecessarily, perhaps resulting in a fatal Perl error.
-iso_language <type>
This enables you to specify a different language type than 'EN'
to be used in the DTD entries of the HTML document, e.g.
'EN.US'. [change_end] 98.1
-short_index
Same as setting: $SHORT_INDEX = 1; Creates shorter Index list‐
ings, using codified links; this is fully compatible with the
makeidx package.
-no_footnode
Same as setting: $NO_FOOTNODE = 1; Suppresses use of a separate
file for footnotes; instead these are placed at the bottom of
the HTML pages where the references occur. When this option is
used, it is frequently desirable to change the style of the
marker used to indicate the presence of a footnote. This is done
as in LaTeX, using code such as follows. \renewcommand{\the‐
footnote}{\arabic{footnote}} All the styles \arabic, \alph,
\roman, \Alph and \Roman are available. [change_begin]98.1
-numbered_footnotes
Same as setting: $NUMBERED_FOOTNOTES = 1; If this is set you
will get every footnote applied with a subsequent number, to
ease readability. [change_end] 98.1
-address <author-address>
Same as setting: $ADDRESS = <author-address> ; Sign each page
with this address. See latex2html.config for an example using
Perl code to automatically include the date. A user-defined
Perl subroutine called &custom_address can be used instead, if
defined; it takes the value of $ADDRESS as a parameter, which
may be used or ignored as desired. At the time when this subrou‐
tine will be called, variables named $depth, $title, $file hold
the sectioning-level, title and filename of the HTML page being
produced; $FILE holds the name of the filename for the title-
page of the whole document.
-info <string>
Same as setting: $INFO = <string> ; Generate a new section
``About this document'' containing information about the docu‐
ment being translated. The default is to generate such a section
with information on the original document, the date, the user
and the translator. An empty string (or the value `0') disables
the creation of this extra section. If a non-empty string is
given, it will be placed as the contents of the ``About this
document'' page instead of the default information.
Switches controlling Image Generation
These switches affect whether images are created at all, whether old
images are reused on subsequent runs or new ones created afresh, and
whether anti-aliasing effects are used within the images themselves.
-ascii_mode
Same as setting: $ASCII_MODE = $EXTERNAL_IMAGES = 1; Use only
ASCII characters and do not include any images in the final out‐
put. With -ascii_mode the output of the translator can be used
on character-based browsers, such as lynx, which do not support
inlined images (via the <IMG> tag).
-nolatex
Same as setting: $NOLATEX = 1; Disable the mechanism for passing
unknown environments to LaTeX for processing. This can be
thought of as ``draft mode'' which allows faster translation of
the basic document structure and text, without fancy figures,
equations or tables. (This option has been superseded by the
-no_images option, see below.)
-external_images
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_IMAGES = 1; Instead of including any
generated images inside the document, leave them outside the
document and provide hypertext links to them.
-ps_images
Same as setting: $PS_IMAGES = $EXTERNAL_IMAGES = 1; Use links to
external PostScript files rather than inlined images in the cho‐
sen graphics format.
-discard
Same as setting: $DISCARD_PS = 1; The temporary PostScript files
are discarded immediately after they have been used to create
the image in the desired graphics format.
-no_images
Same as setting: $NO_IMAGES = 1; Do not attempt to produce any
inlined images. The missing images can be generated ``off-line''
by restarting LaTeX2HTML with the option -images_only .
-images_only
Same as setting: $IMAGES_ONLY = 1; Try to convert any inlined
images that were left over from previous runs of LaTeX2HTML.
-reuse <reuse_option>
Same as setting: $REUSE = <reuse_option>; This switch specifies
the extent to which image files are to be shared or recycled.
There are three valid options: [*] 0 Do not ever share or recy‐
cle image files. This choice also invokes an interactive ses‐
sion prompting the user about what to do about a pre-existing
HTML directory, if it exists. [*] 1 Recycle image files from a
previous run if they are available, but do not share identical
images that must be created in this run. [*] 2 Recycle image
files from a previous run and share identical images from this
run. This is the default. A later section provides additional
information about image-reuse.
-no_reuse
Same as setting: $REUSE = 0; Do not share or recycle images gen‐
erated during previous translations. This is equivalent to -re‐
use 0 . (This will enable the initial interactive session during
which the user is asked whether to reuse the old directory,
delete its contents or quit.)
-antialias
Same as setting: $ANTI_ALIAS = 1; (Default is 0.) Generated
images of figure environments and external PostScript files
should use anti-aliasing. By default anti-aliasing is not used
with these images, since this may interfere with the contents of
the images themselves.
-antialias_text
Same as setting: $ANTI_ALIAS_TEXT = 1; (Default is 1.) Gener‐
ated images of typeset material such as text, mathematical for‐
mulas, tables and the content of makeimage environments, should
use anti-aliasing effects. The default is normally to use anti-
aliasing for text, since the resulting images are much clearer
on-screen. However the default may have been changed locally.
-no_antialias
Same as setting: $ANTI_ALIAS = 0; (Default is 0.) Generated
images of figure environments and external PostScript files
should not use anti-aliasing with images, though the local
default may have been changed to use it.
-no_antialias_text
Same as setting: $ANTI_ALIAS_TEXT = 0; (Default is 1.) Gener‐
ated images of typeset material should not use anti-aliasing
effects. Although on-screen images of text are definitely
improved using anti-aliasing, printed images can be badly
blurred, even at 300dpi. Higher resolution printers do a much
better job with the resulting grey-scale images.
[change_begin]98.1
-white Same as setting: $WHITE_BACKGROUND = 1; (Default is 1.) Ensures
that images of figure environments have a white background.
Otherwise transparency effects may not work correctly.
-no_white
Same as setting: $WHITE_BACKGROUND = ''; (Default is 1.) Can‐
cels the requirement that figure environments have a white back‐
ground.
-ldump Same as setting: $LATEX_DUMP = 1; (Default is 0.) Use this if
you want to speed up image processing during the 2nd and subse‐
quent runs of LaTeX2HTML on the same document. The translator
now produces a LaTeX format-dump of the preamble to images.tex
which is used on subsequent runs. This significantly reduces the
startup time when LaTeX reads the images.tex file for image-gen‐
eration. This process actually consumes additional time on the
first run, since LaTeX is called twice -- once to create the
format-dump, then again to load and use it. The pay-off comes
with the faster loading on subsequent runs. Approximately 1 Meg
of disk space is consumed by the dump file. [change_end] 98.1
Switches controlling Navigation Panels
The following switches govern whether to include one or more navigation
panels on each HTML page, also which buttons to include within such a
panel.
-no_navigation
Same as setting: $NO_NAVIGATION = 1; Disable the mechanism for
putting navigation links in each page. This overrides any set‐
tings of the $TOP_NAVIGATION, $BOTTOM_NAVIGATION and $AUTO_NAVI‐
GATION variables.
-top_navigation
Same as setting: $TOP_NAVIGATION = 1; Put navigation links at
the top of each page.
-bottom_navigation
Same as setting: $BOTTOM_NAVIGATION = 1; Put navigation links at
the bottom of each page as well as the top.
-auto_navigation
Same as setting: $AUTO_NAVIGATION = 1; Put navigation links at
the top of each page. Also put one at the bottom of the page, if
the page exceeds $WORDS_IN_PAGE number of words (default = 450).
-next_page_in_navigation
Same as setting: $NEXT_PAGE_IN_NAVIGATION = 1; Put a link to the
next logical page in the navigation panel.
-previous_page_in_navigation
Same as setting: $PREVIOUS_PAGE_IN_NAVIGATION = 1; Put a link to
the previous logical page in the navigation panel.
-contents_in_navigation
Same as setting: $CONTENTS_IN_NAVIGATION = 1; Put a link to the
table-of-contents in the navigation panel if there is one.
-index_in_navigation
Same as setting: $INDEX_IN_NAVIGATION = 1; Put a link to the
index-page in the navigation panel if there is an index.
Switches for Linking to other documents
When processing a single stand-alone document, the switches described
in this section should not be needed at all, since the automatically
generated navigation panels, described on the previous page should gen‐
erate all the required navigation links. However if a document is to be
regarded as part of a much larger document, then links from its first
and final pages, to locations in other parts of the larger (virtual)
document, need to be provided explicitly for some of the buttons in the
navigation panel. The following switches allow for such links to other
documents, by providing the title and URL for navigation panel hyper‐
links. In particular, the ``Document Segmentation'' feature necessarily
makes great use of these switches. It is usual for the text and targets
of these navigation hyperlinks to be recorded in a Makefile, to avoid
tedious typing of long command-lines having many switches.
-up_url <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_UP_LINK = <URL> ; Specifies a univer‐
sal resource locator (URL) to associate with the ``UP'' button
in the navigation panel(s).
-up_title <string>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_UP_TITLE = <string> ; Specifies a
title associated with this URL.
-prev_url <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_PREV_LINK = <URL> ; Specifies a URL
to associate with the ``PREVIOUS'' button in the navigation
panel(s).
-prev_title <string>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_PREV_TITLE = <string> ; Specifies a
title associated with this URL.
-down_url <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_DOWN_LINK = <URL> ; Specifies a URL
for the ``NEXT'' button in the navigation panel(s).
-down_title <string>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_DOWN_TITLE = <string> ; Specifies a
title associated with this URL.
-contents <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_CONTENTS = <URL> ; Specifies a URL
for the ``CONTENTS'' button, for document segments that would
not otherwise have one.
-index <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_INDEX = <URL> ; Specifies a URL for
the ``INDEX'' button, for document segments that otherwise would
not have an index.
-biblio <URL>
Same as setting: $EXTERNAL_BIBLIO = <URL> ; Specifies the URL
for the bibliography page to be used, when not explicitly part
of the document itself. Warning: On some systems it is diffi‐
cult to give text-strings <string> containing space characters,
on the command-line or via a Makefile. One way to overcome this
is to use the corresponding variable. Another way is to replace
the spaces with underscores (_).
Switches for Help and Tracing
The first two of the following switches are self-explanatory. When
problems arise in processing a document, the switches -debug and -ver‐
bosity will each cause LaTeX2HTML to generate more output to the
screen. These extra messages should help to locate the cause of the
problem.
-tmp <path>
Define a temporary directory to use for image generation. If
<path> is 0, the standard temporary directory /tmp is used.
-h(elp)
Print out the list of all command-line options.
-v Print the current version of LaTeX2HTML.
-debug Same as setting: $DEBUG = 1; Run in debug-mode, displaying mes‐
sages and/or diagnostic information about files read, and utili‐
ties called by LaTeX2HTML. Shows any messages produced by these
calls. More extensive diagnostics, from the Perl debugger, can
be obtained by appending the string `-w-' to the 1st line of the
latex2html (and other) Perl script(s).
-verbosity <num>
Same as setting: $VERBOSITY = <num>; Display messages revealing
certain aspects of the processing performed by LaTeX2HTML on the
provided input file(s). The <num> parameter can be an integer in
the range 0 to 8. Each higher value adds to the messages pro‐
duced.
0. No special tracing; as for versions of LaTeX2HTML prior to
V97.1.
1. (This is the default.) Show section-headings and the correspond‐
ing HTML file names, and indicators that major stages in the
processing have been completed.
2. Print environment names and identifier numbers, and new theorem-
types. Show warnings as they occur, and indicators for more
stages of processing. Print names of files for storing auxiliary
data arrays.
3. Print command names as they are encountered and processed; also
any unknown commands encountered while pre-processing. Show
names of new commands, environments, theorems, counters and
counter-dependencies, for each document partition.
4. Indicate command-substitution the pre-process of math-environ‐
ments. Print the contents of unknown environments for processing
in LaTeX, both before and after reverting to LaTeX source. Show
all operations affecting the values of counters. Also show
links, labels and sectioning keys, at the stages of processing.
5. Detail the processing in the document preamble. Show substitu‐
tions of new environments. Show the contents of all recognised
environments, both before and after processing. Show the
cached/encoded information for the image keys, allowing two
images to be tested for equality.
6. Show replacements of new commands, accents and wrapped commands.
7. Trace the processing of commands in math mode; both before and
after.
8. Trace the processing of all commands, both before and after.
The command-line option sets an initial value only. During pro‐
cessing the value of $VERBOSITY can be set dynamically using the
\htmltracing{...} command, whose argument is the desired value,
or by using the more general \HTMLset command as follows:
\HTMLset{VERBOSITY}{<num>}.
Other Configuration Variables, without switches
The configuration variables described here do not warrant having a com‐
mand-line switch to assign values. Either they represent aspects of
LaTeX2HTML that are specific to the local site, or they govern proper‐
ties that should apply to all documents, rather than something that
typically would change for the different documents within a particular
sub-directory. Normally these variables have their value set within
the latex2html.config file. In the following listing the defaults are
shown, as the lines of Perl code used to establish these values. If a
different value is required, then these can be assigned from a local
.latex2html-init initialisation file, without affecting the defaults
for other users, or documents processed from other directories.
$dd holds the string to be used in file-names to delimit directo‐
ries; it is set internally to `/', unless the variable has
already been given a value within latex2html.config . Note:
This value cannot be set within a .latex2html-init initialisa‐
tion file, since its value needs to be known in order to find
such a file.
$LATEX2HTMLDIR
Read by the install-test script from latex2html.config, its
value is inserted into the latex2html Perl script as part of the
installation process.
$LATEX2HTMLSTYLES = $LATEX2HTMLDIR/styles ;
Read from the latex2html.config file by install-test, its value
is checked to locate the styles/ directory.
$LATEX2HTMLVERSIONS = $LATEX2HTMLDIR/versions ;
The value of this variable should be set within latex2html.con‐
fig to specify the directory path where the version and exten‐
sion files can be found.
$ALTERNATIVE_ICONS = '';
This may contain the (relative) directory path to a set of cus‐
tomised icons to be used in conjunction with the -local_icons
switch.
$TEXEXPAND = $LATEX2HTMLDIR/texexpand ;
Read by the install-test Perl script from latex2html.config, its
value is used to locate the texexpand Perl script.
$PSTOIMG = $LATEX2HTMLDIR/pstoimg ;
Read by the install-test Perl script from latex2html.config, its
value is used to locate the pstoimg Perl script.
$IMAGE_TYPE = '<image-type>';
Set in latex2html.config, the currently supported <image-type>s
are: gif and png.
$DVIPS = 'dvips';
Read from latex2html.config by install-test, its value is
checked to locate the dvips program or script. There could be
several reasons to change the value here: o add a switch
-P<printer> to load a specific configuration-file; e.g. to use a
specific set of PostScript fonts, for improved image-generation.
o to prepend a path to a different version of dvips than nor‐
mally available as the system default (e.g. the printing
requirements are different). o to append debugging switches, in
case of poor quality images; one can see which paths are being
searched for fonts and other resources. o to prepend commands
for setting path variables that dvips may need in order to
locate fonts or other resources. If automatic generation of
fonts is required, using Metafont, the following configuration
variables are important.
$PK_GENERATION = 1;
This variable must be set, to initiate font-generation;
otherwise fonts will be scaled from existing resources on
the local system. In particular this variable must not
be set, if one wishes to use PostScript fonts or other
scalable font resources (see the -scalable_fonts switch).
$DVIPS_MODE = 'toshiba';
The mode given here must be available in the modes.mf
file, located with the Metafont resource files, perhaps
in the misc/ subdirectory.
$METAFONT_DPI = 180;
The required resolution, in dots-per-inch, should be
listed specifically within the MakeTeXPK script, called
by dvips to invoke Metafont with the correct parameters
for the required fonts.
$LATEX = 'latex';
Read from latex2html.config by install-test, its value is
checked to locate the latex program or script. If LaTeX is hav‐
ing trouble finding style-files and/or packages, then the
default command can be prepended with other commands to set
environment variables intended to resolve these difficulties;
e.g. $LATEX = 'setenv TEXINPUTS <path to search> ; latex' .
There are several variables to help control exactly which files
are read by LaTeX2HTML and by LaTeX when processing images:
$TEXINPUTS
This is normally set from the environment variable of the
same name. If difficulties occur so that styles and pack‐
ages are not being found, then extra paths can be speci‐
fied here, to resolve these difficulties.
$DONT_INCLUDE
This provides a list of filenames and extensions to not
include, even if requested to do so by an \input or
\include command. (Consult latex2html.config for the
default list.)
$DO_INCLUDE = '';
List of exceptions within the $DONT_INCLUDE list. These
files are to be read if requested by an \input or
\include command.
$ICONSERVER = '<URL>';
This is used to specify a URL to find the standard icons, as
used for the navigation buttons. Names for the specific images
size, as well as size information, can be found in
latex2html.config. The icons themselves can be replaced by cus‐
tomised versions, provided this information is correctly updated
and the location of the customised images specified as the value
of $ICONSERVER. When the -local_icons switch is used, so that a
copy of the icons is placed with the HTML files and other gener‐
ated images, the value of $ICONSERVER is not needed within the
HTML files themselves. However it is needed to find the original
icons to be copied to the local directory.
$NAV_BORDER = <num>;
The value given here results in a border, measured in points,
around each icon. A value of `0' is common, to maintain strict
alignment of inactive and active buttons in the control panels.
$LINKNAME = '"index.$EXTN"';
This is used when the $NO_AUTO_LINK variable is empty, to allow
a URL to the working directory to be sufficient to reach the
main page of the completed document. It specifies the name of
the HTML file which will be automatically linked to the direc‐
tory name. The value of $EXTN is .html unless $SHORTEXTN is
set, in which case it is .htm .
$LINKPOINT = '"$FILE$EXTN"';
This specifies the name of the HTML file to be duplicated, or
symbolically linked, with the name specified in $LINKNAME. At
the appropriate time the value of $FILE is the document name,
which usually coincides with the name of the working directory.
$CHARSET = 'iso_8859_1';
This specifies the character set used within the HTML pages pro‐
duced by LaTeX2HTML. If no value is set in a configuration or
initialisation file, the default value will be assumed. The low‐
ercase form $charset is also recognised, but this is overridden
by the uppercase form.
$ACCENT_IMAGES = 'large';
Accented characters that are not part of the ISO-Latin fonts can
be generated by making an image using LaTeX. This variable con‐
tains a (comma-separated) list of LaTeX commands for setting the
style to be used when these images are made. If the value of
this variable is empty then the accent is simply ignored, using
an un-accented font character (not an image) instead. Within
the color.perl package, the following variables are used to
identify the names of files containing specifications for named
colors. Files having these names are provided, in the
$LATEX2HTMLSTYLES directory, but they could be moved elsewhere,
or replaced by alternative files having different names. In
such a case the values of these variables should be altered
accordingly.
$RGBCOLORFILE = 'rgb.txt';
$CRAYOLAFILE = 'crayola.txt'; The following variables may well
be altered from the system defaults, but this is best done using
a local .latex2html-init initialisation file, for overall con‐
sistency of style within documents located at the same site, or
sites in close proximity.
$default_language = 'english';
This establishes which language code is to be placed within the
<!DOCTYPE ... > tag that may appear at the beginning of the HTML
pages produced. Loading a package for an alternative language
can be expected to change the value of this variable. See also
the $TITLES_LANGUAGE variable, described next.
$TITLES_LANGUAGE = 'english';
This variable is used to specify the actual strings used for
standard document sections, such as ``Contents'', ``Refer‐
ences'', ``Table of Contents'', etc. Support for French and
German titles is available in corresponding packages. Loading
such a package will normally alter the value of this variable,
as well as the $default_language variable described above.
$WORDS_IN_NAVIGATION_PANEL_TITLES = 4;
Specifies how many words to use from section titles, within the
textual hyperlinks which accompany the navigation buttons.
$WORDS_IN_PAGE = 450;
Specifies the minimum page length required before a navigation
panel is placed at the bottom of a page, when the $AUTO_NAVIGA‐
TION variable is set.
$CHILDLINE = <BR><HR>;
This gives the HTML code to be placed between the child-links
table and the ordinary contents of the page on which it occurs.
$NETSCAPE_HTML = 0;
When set, this variable specifies that HTML code may be present
which does not conform to any official standard. This restricts
the contents of any <!DOCTYPE ... > tag which may be placed at
the beginning of the HTML pages produced.
$BODYTEXT = '';
The value of this variable is used within the <BODY ... > tag;
e.g. to set text and/or background colors. It's value is over‐
ridden by the \bodytext command, and can be added-to or parts
changed using the \htmlbody command or \color and \pagecolor
from the color package.
$INTERLACE = 1;
When set, interlaced images should be produced. This requires
graphics utilities to be available to perform the interlacing
operation.
$TRANSPARENT_FIGURES = 1;
When set, the background of images should be made transparent;
otherwise it is white. This requires graphics utilities to be
available which can specify the color to be made transparent.
$FIGURE_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.6;
Scale factor applied to all images of figure and other environ‐
ments, when being made into an image. Note that this does not
apply to recognised mathematics environments, which instead use
the contents of $MATH_SCALE_FACTOR and $DISP_SCALE_FACTOR to
specify scaling.
$MATH_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.6;
Scale factor applied to all images of mathematics, both inline
and displayed. A value of 1.4 is a good alternative, with anti-
aliased images.
$DISP_SCALE_FACTOR = 1;
Extra scale factor applied to images of displayed math environ‐
ments. When set, this value multiplies $MATH_SCALE_FACTOR to
give the total scaling. A value of `1.2' is a good choice to
accompany $MATH_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.4;.
$EXTRA_IMAGE_SCALE
This may hold an extra scale factor that can be applied to all
generated images. When set, it specifies that a scaling of
$EXTRA_IMAGE_SCALE be applied when images are created, but to
have their height and width recorded as the un-scaled size. This
is to coax browsers into scaling the (usually larger) images to
fit the desired size; when printed a better quality can be
obtained. Values of `1.5' and `2' give good print quality at
600dpi.
$PAPERSIZE = 'a5';
Specifies the size of a page for typesetting figures or dis‐
played math, when an image is to be generated. This affects the
lengths of lines of text within images. Since images of text or
mathematics should use larger sizes than when printed, else
clarity is lost at screen resolutions, then a smaller paper-size
is generally advisable. This is especially so if both the
$MATH_SCALE_FACTOR and $DISP_SCALE_FACTOR scaling factors are
being used, else some images may become excessively large,
including a lot of blank space.
$LINE_WIDTH = 500;
Formerly specified the width of an image, when the contents were
to be right- or center-justified. (No longer used.)
The following variables are used to access the utilities required dur‐
ing image-generation. File and program locations on the local system
are established by the configure-pstoimg Perl script and stored within
$LATEX2HTMLDIR/local.pm as Perl code, to be read by pstoimg when
required. After running the configure-pstoimg Perl script it should
not be necessary to alter the values obtained. Those shown below are
what happens on the author's system; they are for illustration only and
do not represent default values.
$GS_LIB = '/usr/local/share/ghostscript/4.02';
$PNMCAT = '/usr/local/bin/pnmcat';
$PPMQUANT = '/usr/local/bin/ppmquant';
$PNMFLIP = '/usr/local/bin/pnmflip';
$PPMTOGIF = '/usr/local/bin/ppmtogif';
$HOWTO_TRANSPARENT_GIF = 'netpbm';
$GS_DEVICE = 'pnmraw';
$GS = '/usr/local/bin/gs';
$PNMFILE = '/usr/local/bin/pnmfile';
$HOWTO_INTERLACE_GIF = 'netpbm';
$PBMMAKE = '/usr/local/bin/pbmmake';
$PNMCROP = '/usr/local/bin/pnmcrop';
$TMP = '/usr/var/tmp'; The following variables are no longer needed,
having been replaced by the more specific information obtained using
the Perl script configure-pstoimg.
$USENETPBM = 1;
$PBMPLUSDIR = '/usr/local/bin';
SEE ALSOlatex(1)AUTHOR
Nikos Drakos, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds
<nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk>. Several people have contributed suggestions,
ideas, solutions, support and encouragement. The current maintainer is
Ross Moore. This manual page was written by Manoj Srivastava <sri‐
vasta@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system, based on the LaTeX
documentation accompanying the program.
Debian March 1 2000 LaTeX2HTML(1)
