NAME
mpost, inimpost, virmpost - MetaPost, a system for drawing
pictures
SYNOPSIS
mpost [options] [commands]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The com-
plete documentation for this version of TeX can be found in
the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces
PostScript 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.
Like TeX and Metafont, MetaPost is normally used with a
large body of precompiled macros. This version of MetaPost
looks at its command line to see what name it was called
under. Both inimpost and virmpost are symlinks to the mpost
executable. When called as inimpost (or when the --ini
option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a
.mem file. When called as virmpost it will use the plain
mem. When called under any other name, MetaPost will use
that name as the name of the mem to use. For example, when
called as mpost the mpost mem is used, which is identical to
the plain mem. Other mems than plain are rarely used.
The commands given on the command line to the 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 first line should begin with a filename, a
\controlsequence, or a &memname.
The normal usage is to say mp figs to process the file
figs.mp. The basename of figs becomes the ``jobname'', and
is used in forming output file names. If no file is named,
the jobname becomes mpout. The default extension, .mp, can
be overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.
There is normally one output file for each picture gen-
erated, and the output files are named jobname.nnn, where
nnn is a number passed to the beginfig macro. The output
file name can also be jobname.ps if this number is negative.
The output files can be used as figures in a TeX document by
including
\special{psfile=jobname.nnn}
in the TeX document. Alternatively, one can \input epsf.tex
and then use the macro
\epsfbox{jobname.nnn}
to produce a box of the appropriate size containing the fig-
ure.
btex TeX commands etex
This causes mp to generate a MetaPost picture expres-
sion that corresponds to the TeX commands. If the TeX
commands generate more than one line of text, it must
be in a \vbox or a minipage environment.
verbatimtex TeX commands etex
This is ignored by mp except that the TeX commands are
passed on to TeX. When using LaTeX instead of TeX the
input file must start with a verbatimtex block that
gives the \documentstyle and \begin{document} commands.
You can use the `%&' construct in the first verbatimtex
block to ensure that the correct TeX format is used to
process the commands.
Since most TeX fonts have to be downloaded as bitmaps, the
btex feature works best when the output of mp is to be
included in a TeX document so that dvips(1) can download the
fonts. For self-contained PostScript output that can be
used directly or included in a troff document, start your
MetaPost input file with the command prologues:=1 and stick
to standard PostScript fonts. TeX and MetaPost use the
names in the third column of the file trfonts.map, which can
be found in the directories with support files for MetaPost.
MetaPost output can be included in a troff document via the
-m pictures macro package. In this case mp should be
invoked with the -T flag so that the commands between btex
and etex or between verbatimtex and etex are interpreted as
troff instead of TeX. (This automatically sets prologues:=1
).
OPTIONS
This version of MetaPost understands the following command
line options.
--mem mem
Use mem as the name of the mem to be used, instead of
the name by which MetaPost was called or a %& line.
--help
Print help message and exit.
--ini
Be inimpost, for dumping bases; this is implicitly true
if the program is called as inimpost.
--interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode.
The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the
corresponding commands.
--kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the
bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual for details.
--progname name
Pretend to be program name. This affects both the for-
mat used and the search paths.
-T Produce TROFF output.
--translate-file tcxname
Use the tcxname translation table.
--troff
As -T.
--version
Print version information and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specif-
ications' node) for the details of how the environment vari-
ables are use when searching. The kpsewhich utility can be
used to query the values of the variables.
If the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT is set, MetaPost
attempts to put its output files in it, if they cannot be
put in the current directory.
Here is a list of the environment variables affect the
behavior of mp:
Search path for input files.
MFINPUTS
Auxiliary search path for input files with .mf exten-
sions.
MPSUPPORT
Directory for various tables for handling included tex
and troff.
MPXCOMMAND
The name of a shell script that converts embedded
typesetting commands to a form that MetaPost under-
stands. Defaults: makempx for tex and troffmpx for
troff.
TEX The version of TeX - or LaTeX - to use when processing
btex and verbatimtex commands. Default tex. This ver-
sion of MetaPost allows you to use a `%&format' line
instead.
TROFF
The troff pipeline for btex and verbatimtex commands.
Default eqn -d\$\$ | troff
MPEDIT
A command template for invoking an editor.
A .mem file is a binary file that permits fast loading of
macro packages. mpost reads the default plain.mem unless
another .mem file is specified at the start of the first
line with an & just before it. There is also an that simu-
lates plain Metafont so that mpost can read .mf fonts.
(Plain Metafont is described in The Metafontbook).
Experts can create .mem files be invoking inimpost and giv-
ing macro definitions followed by a dump command.
The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual
A User's Manual for MetaPost assumes no knowledge of
Metafont. MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or
Metafont's online display mechanism.
FILES
mpost.pool
Encoded text of MetaPost's messages.
*.mem
Predigested MetaPost mem files.
plain.mp
The standard mem file.
mfplain.mp
The Metafont-compatible mem file. This is loaded when
virmp is invoked via a symbolic link as mfmp.
$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
The standard MetaPost macros included in the original
distribution.
$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/examples.mp
The source file for a few sample figures that are part
of a LaTeX document $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/mpintro.tex
that describes the MetaPost system in a little more
detail.
SUGGESTED READING
Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and
Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
John D. Hobby, A User's Manual for MetaPost, CSTR 162, AT&T
Bell Labs,
John D. Hobby, Drawing Graphs with MetaPost, CSTR 164, AT&T
Bell Labs,
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
SEE ALSO
tex(1), mf(1), dvips(1).
AUTHORS
MetaPost was designed by John D. Hobby, incorporating algo-
rithms from Metafont by Donald E. Knuth. It was originally
implemented on Unix, incorporating system-dependent routines
from web2c, while not relying on it exccept 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. He also updated and
extended this manual page.
TRIVIA
Unlike TeX and Metafont, MetaPost originally didn't use any
fancy logo. John Hobby says he prefers the spelling ``Meta-
Post'', yet Don Knuth has updated the Metafont logo.mf font
to be able to typeset a proper MetaPost logo similar to the
Metafont logo. Feel free to use whatever you think is more
approporiate!
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