texfot

TEXFOT(1)                         Karl Berry                         TEXFOT(1)

NAME
       texfot - run TeX, filtering online transcript for interesting messages

SYNOPSIS
       texfot [option]... texcmd [texarg...]

DESCRIPTION
       "texfot" invokes texcmd with the given texarg arguments, filtering the
       online output for ``interesting'' messages.  Its exit value is that of
       texcmd.  Examples:

         # Sample basic invocation:
         texfot pdflatex file.tex

         # Ordinarily all output is copied to /tmp/fot before filtering,
         # but that can be omitted:
         texfot --tee=/dev/null lualatex file.tex

         # Example of more complex engine invocation:
         texfot xelatex --recorder '\nonstopmode\input file'

       Aside from its own options, described below, "texfot" just runs the
       given command with the given arguments (same approach to command line
       syntax as "env", "nice", "time", "timeout", etc.).  Thus, "texfot"
       works with any engine and any command line options.

       "texfot" does not look at the log file or any other possible output
       file(s); it only looks at the standard output and standard error from
       the command.  stdout is processed first, then stderr.  Lines from
       stderr have an identifying prefix.  "texfot" writes all accepted lines
       to its stdout.

       The messages shown are intended to be those which likely need action by
       the author: error messages, overfull and underfull boxes, undefined
       citations, missing characters from fonts, etc.

FLOW OF OPERATION
       Here is the order in which lines of output are checked:

       1.  If the ``next line'' needs to be printed (see below), print it.

       2.  Otherwise, if the line matches the built-in list of regexps to
           ignore, or any user-supplied list of regexps to ignore (given with
           "--ignore", see below), in that order, ignore it.

       3.  Otherwise, if the line matches the list of regexps for which the
           next line (two lines in all) should be shown, show this line and
           set the ``next line'' flag for the next time around the loop.
           Examples are the common "!" and "filename:lineno:" error messages,
           which are generally followed by a line with specific detail about
           the error.

       4.  Otherwise, if the line matches the list of regexps to show, show
           it.

       5.  Otherwise, the default: if the line came from stdout, ignore it; if
           the line came from stderr, print it (to stdout).  This distinction
           is made because TeX engines write relatively few messages to
           stderr, and it's likely that any such should be considered.

           It would be easy to add more options to allow for user additions to
           the various regex lists, if that ever seems useful.  Or email me
           (see end).

       Once a particular check matches, the program moves on to process the
       next line.

       Don't hesitate to peruse the source to the script, which is essentially
       a straightforward loop matching against the different lists as above.
       You can see the exact regexps being matched in the different categories
       in the source.

       Incidentally, although nothing in this basic operation is specific to
       TeX engines, all the regular expressions included in the program are
       specific to TeX.  So in practice the program isn't useful except with
       TeX engines, although it would be easy enough to adapt it (if there was
       anything else as verbose as TeX to make that useful).

OPTIONS
       The following are the options to "texfot" itself (not the TeX engine
       being invoked; consult the TeX documentation or the engine's "--help"
       output for that).

       The first non-option terminates "texfot"'s option parsing, and the
       remainder of the command line is invoked as the TeX command, without
       further parsing.  For example, "texfot --debug tex --debug" will output
       debugging information from both "texfot" and "tex".

       Options may start with either - or --, and may be unambiguously
       abbreviated.  It is best to use the full option name in scripts,
       though, to avoid possible collisions with new options in the future.

       "--debug"
       "--no-debug"
           Output (or not) what is being done on standard error.  Off by
           default.

       "--ignore" regexp
           Ignore lines in the TeX output matching (Perl) regexp.  Can be
           repeated.  Adds to the default set of ignore regexps rather than
           replacing.  These regexps are not automatically anchored (or
           otherwise altered), simply used as-is.

       "--interactive"
       "--no-interactive"
           By default, standard input to the TeX process is closed so that
           TeX's interactive mode (waiting for input upon error, the "*"
           prompt, etc.)  is never entered.  Giving "--interactive" allows
           interaction to happen.

       "--quiet"
       "--no-quiet"
           By default, the TeX command being invoked is reported on standard
           output.  "--quiet" omits that reporting. To get a completely silent
           run, redirect standard output: "texfot ... >/dev/null". (The only
           messages to standard error should be errors from "texfot" itself,
           so it shouldn't be necessary to redirect that, but of course that
           can be done as well.)

       "--stderr"
       "--no-stderr"
           The default is for "texfot" to report everything written to stderr
           by the TeX command (on stdout).  "--no-stderr" omits that
           reporting.  (Some programs, "dvisvgm" is one, can be rather verbose
           on stderr.)

       "--tee" file
           By default, the output being filtered is "tee"-ed, before
           filtering, to "$TMPDIR/fot" ("/tmp/fot" if "TMPDIR" is not set), to
           make it easy to check the full output when the filtering seems
           suspect.  This option allows specifying a different file.  Use
           "--tee /dev/null" if you don't want the original output at all.

       "--version"
           Output version information and exit successfully.

       "--help"
           Display this help and exit successfully.

RATIONALE
       I wrote this because, in my work as a TUGboat editor
       (<http://tug.org/TUGboat>, journal submissions always welcome!), I run
       and rerun many documents, many times each. It was too easy to lose
       warnings I needed to see in the mass of unvarying and uninteresting
       output from TeX, such as style files being read and fonts being used. I
       wanted to see all and only those messages which needed some action by
       me.

       I found some other programs of a similar nature, the LaTeX package
       "silence", and plenty of other (La)TeX wrappers, but it seemed none of
       them did what I wanted.  Either they read the log file (I wanted the
       online output only), or they output more or less than I wanted, or they
       required invoking TeX differently (I wanted to keep my build process
       exactly the same, most critically the TeX invocation, which can get
       complicated).  Hence I wrote this.

       Here are some keywords if you want to explore other options:
       texloganalyser, pydflatex, logfilter, latexmk, rubber, arara, and
       searching for "log" at <https://ctan.org/search>.

       "texfot" is written in Perl, and runs on Unix, and does not work on
       Windows.

       The name comes from the "trip.fot" and "trap.fot" files that are part
       of Knuth's trip and trap torture tests, which record the online output
       from the programs.  I am not sure what "fot" stands for in trip and
       trap, but I can pretend that it stands for "filter online transcript"
       in the present case :).

AUTHORS AND COPYRIGHT
       This script and its documentation were written by Karl Berry and both
       are released to the public domain.  Email "karl@freefriends.org" with
       bug reports.  It has no home page beyond the package on CTAN:
       <https://ctan.org/pkg/texfot>.

texfot                            2019-06-30                         TEXFOT(1)