latex - Man Page

• Compile a DVI document: latex source.tex
• Compile a DVI document, specifying an output directory: latex -output-directory=path/to/directory source.tex
• Compile a DVI document, exiting on each error: latex -halt-on-error source.tex

tldr.sh

latex [options] [&format]  [ file [ more-input ]  |  [ \more-input ]

L A T E X is a T E X macro package (format), not a modification to the compiled T E X programs, so see tex(1) for details of the command line invocation.

The L A T E X macros encourage writers to think about the content of their documents, rather than the form. The ideal, very difficult to realize, is to have no formatting commands (like “switch to italic” or “skip 2 picas”) in the document, but to use generic markup instructions: “emphasize”, “start a section”.  The L A T E X language is described in the books and documents mentioned below, among others.

The primary source of documentation for L A T E X is the L A T E X manual  referenced below.

lualatex, pdflatex, pdfcslatex, xelatex are L A T E X formats based on the respective engines. These all output PDF by default. The lualatex format is built with the luahbtex engine, the LuaT E X variant with HarfBuzz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarfBuzz) supported for glyph shaping.
platex, uplatex are Japanese L A T E X formats based on e-pT E X and e-upT E X (DVI output).
lamed is the Aleph-based L A T E X format (DVI output).
dvilualatex is LuaT E X-based and outputs DVI.
cslatex is csT E X-based (primitives integrated into pdfT E X) and outputs DVI.

On some systems, the commands latex209 and slitex may still be available for compatibility with older versions of L A T E X. These should not be used for new documents.

amstex(1), luatex(1), pdftex(1), ptex(1), tex(1), xetex(1).

Leslie Lamport, LATeX:ADocumentPreparationSystem.
Frank Mittelbach with Ulrike Fischer, TheLATeXCompanion, Addison-Wesley, 2024, ISBN 0-13-811578-8 (3rd edition). https://tug.org/l/tlc3

Package pages on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/latex, https://ctan.org/pkg/latex-base
L A T E X tutorial topic on CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/tut-latex
L A T E X reference topic on CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/ref-latex

The L A T E X home page: https://latex-project.org
Online interactive tutorial: https://learnlatex.org
Getting started page: https://tug.org/begin

Please report bugs in L A T E X following the procedure at https://www.latex-project.org/bugs.

Public discussion list for all things T E X and L A T E X: https://lists.tug.org/texhax

amstex(1), arlatex(1), bibtex(1), bibtool(1), bundledoc(1), catdoc(1), ctanify(1), dvibook(1), dviconcat(1), dviselect(1), dvitodvi(1), fig2ps(1), fig2ps2tex(1), fpclasschart(1), fpdoc(1), gpg-key2latex(1), hitex(1), jadetex(1), lacheck(1), latex2html(1), latex2rtf(1), latex-dev(1), latexminted(1), latexmk(1), linuxdoc(1), lyx(1), makeskel(1), mendex(1), musixtex(1), pdftex(1), perltex(1), ps2frag(1), pslatex(1), purifyeps(1), sgml2latex(1), tex2lyx(1), texprof(1), upmendex(1), xetex(1).

The man pages uplatex(1) and xelatex(1) are aliases of latex(1).