mpost

MPOST(1)                    General Commands Manual                   MPOST(1)

NAME
       mpost,  pmpost,  upmpost  - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics r-
       mpost, r-pmpost, r-upmpost - restricted MetaPost

SYNOPSIS
       mpost [options] [commands]

       mpost --dvitomp dvifile[.dvi] [mpxfile[.mpx]]

DESCRIPTION
       MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript (EPS)
       or  Scalable  Vector Graphics (SVG) pictures.  The MetaPost language is
       similar to Knuth's Metafont  with  additional  features  for  including
       tex(1)  or  troff(1)  commands and accessing features of PostScript not
       found in Metafont.

       MetaPost is normally used with a set of basic macros, and it  will  use
       its executable name as the name of the preload file to use.   For exam-
       ple, when called as mpost the mpost.mp file is used, which simply reads
       plain.mp.  When the --ini option is given, preloading does not happen.

       The  commands  given  on  the  command line to the MetaPost program are
       passed to it as the first input line.  (But it is often easier to  type
       extended  arguments  as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to
       gobble up or misinterpret MetaPost's favorite symbols, like semicolons,
       unless  you  quote  them.)  The  normal  usage  is to say mpost figs to
       process the file figs.mp.  The basename  of  figs  becomes  the  ``job-
       name'', and is used in forming output file names.  If no file is named,
       the jobname becomes mpout.  The default extension, .mp, can be overrid-
       den by specifying an extension explicitly.

       When  the  --dvitomp  option is given, MetaPost acts as DVI-to-MPX con-
       verter only.  See dvitomp (1) for details.

       The pmpost program is a variant with Japanese support, and upmpost  has
       Unicode-enabled Japanese support, analogous to ptex and uptex.

       All  three variants are also installed with an `r-' prefix, that is, r-
       mpost, r-pmpost, r-upmpost, which implicitly specify  the  --restricted
       option to make MetaPost safe to run on unknown input; the tex, makempx,
       and editor commands are disabled.

       This manual page is a mere skeleton.  For a list of  all  command  line
       options, run --help.

       The main documentation for this version of MetaPost can be found in the
       User Manual that should have been installed along with the program  and
       is also available from https://tug.org/metapost.

       The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual assumes no
       knowledge of Metafont.  MetaPost does not have bitmap  output  commands
       or Metafont's online display mechanism.

FILES
       plain.mp
              The standard preload file.

       mfplain.mp
              The Metafont-compatible preload file.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
              The  standard MetaPost macros included in the original distribu-
              tion.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/*
              Various tables for handling included tex and troff.

       $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map
              Table of corresponding font names for troff and PostScript.

       psfonts.map
              Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.

       $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/*
              The MetaPost manual and tutorial source, also  including  sample
              figures

SUGGESTED READING
       Donald  E.  Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typeset-
       ting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
       TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).

SEE ALSO
       dvitomp(1), epstopdf(1), mf(1), mptopdf(1), tex(1),
       MetaPost home page <https://tug.org/metapost/>.

AUTHORS
       MetaPost was created by John D. Hobby,  incorporating  algorithms  from
       Metafont  by  Donald  E. Knuth.  It was originally implemented on Unix,
       incorporating system-dependent routines from web2c, while  not  relying
       on it except for the actual Web-to-C translator.

       Ulrik  Vieth  adapted  MetaPost  to take advantage of the advanced path
       searching features in more recent versions of web2c and worked  towards
       fully integrating MetaPost into the canonical Unix TeX distribution.

       The primary author of the current MetaPost was Taco Hoekwater, with as-
       sistance from Hans Hagen and many others.  It is  currently  maintained
       by Luigi Scarso.

BUGS
       The MetaPost home page is https://tug.org/metapost.

Web2C 2019                     31 December 2018                       MPOST(1)