(kpathsea.info)Auxiliary tasks

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

5.6.3 Auxiliary tasks
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Kpsewhich provides some features in addition to path lookup as such:

'--debug=NUM'
     Set debugging options to NUM.  Note: Debugging.

'--expand-braces=STRING'
     Output variable, tilde, and brace expansion of STRING, which is
     assumed to be a single path element.  Note: Path expansion.

'--expand-path=STRING'
     Output the complete expansion of STRING, with each element
     separated by the usual path separator on the current system (';' on
     Windows, ':' otherwise).  This may be useful to construct a custom
     search path for a format not otherwise supported.  To retrieve the
     search path for a format that is already supported, see
     '--show-path'.

     Nonexistent directories are culled from the output:

          $ kpsewhich --expand-path '/tmp'
          => /tmp
          $ kpsewhich --expand-path '/nonesuch'
          =>

     For one-shot uses of an arbitrary (not built in to Kpathsea) path,
     see '--path' (Note: Path searching options).

'--expand-var=STRING'
     Output the variable and tilde expansion of STRING.  For example,
     with the usual 'texmf.cnf', 'kpsewhich --expand-var='$TEXMF''
     returns the TeX system hierarchy root(s).  Note: Path expansion.

'--help-formats'
     Output information about each supported format (Note: Supported
     file formats), including the names and abbreviations, variables
     looked for, and the original path.

'--safe-in-name=NAME'
'--safe-out-name=NAME'
     Exit successfully if NAME is safe to open for reading or writing,
     respectively, else unsuccessfully.  No output is written.  These
     tests take account of the related Kpathsea configuration settings
     (Note: Calling sequence).

'--show-path=NAME'
     Show the path that would be used for file lookups of file type
     NAME.  Either a filename extension ('pk', '.vf', etc.)  or an
     integer can be used, just as with '--format', described in the
     previous section.

'--var-brace-value=VARIABLE'
     Like '--var-value' (next), but also expands '{...}' constructs.
     (Note: Brace expansion).  Thus, the value is assumed to possibly
     be several path elements, and '~' is expanded at the beginning of
     each.  The path separator is changed to that of the current system
     in the expansion.

     Example: 'FOO='.;~' kpsewhich --var-brace-value=FOO' outputs (on a
     Unix-ish system) '.:/home/karl', supposing the latter is the
     current user's home directory.  Note that the ';' in the source
     value, as commonly used in 'texmf.cnf', has changed to a ':', as
     the normal path separator on the current system.  (On a Windows-ish
     system, the ';' would remain.)

'--var-value=VARIABLE'
     Outputs the value of VARIABLE (a simple identifier like
     'TEXMFDIST', with no '$' or other constructs), expanding '$' (Note:
     Variable expansion) and '~' (Note: Tilde expansion) constructs
     in the value.  '~' expansion happens at the beginning of the
     overall value and at the beginning of a variable expansion, but not
     arbitrarily within the string.  Braces are not expanded.

     Example: '--var-value=texmf_casefold_search' outputs (if the
     default is not changed) '1'.

     Example to contrast with '--var-brace-value': 'FOO='.;~' kpsewhich
     --var-value=FOO' outputs '.;~', i.e., the same as the input value.