Model TeX format creation files

This bundle provides a collection of model .ini files for creating TeX formats. These files are commonly used to introduced distribution-dependent variations in formats. They are also used to allow existing format source files to be used with newer engines, for example to adapt the plain ε-TeX source file to work with XeTeX and LuaTeX.

Shared configuration

The file pdftexconfig.tex contains common settings for pdfTeX and LuaTeX, most of which are concerned with direct PDF output. This file is designed to be loaded directly by pdfTeX and can be parsed by the luatexconfig.tex to allow the same settings to be used by LuaTeX directly. The format of the file pdftexconfig.tex is strictly

<pdfTeX primitive> = <value>

for all non-comment non-blank lines.

The LuaTeX loader recognise the marker control sequence \dvimode. If this is defined, the loaders will set the format to produce DVI file, and otherwise will select direct PDF output. The loader will then undefine \dvimode.

History

The use of .ini files for building formats has developed over some time. The initial versions of the files collected here were taken from TeX Live 2015, and thus carry forward long-standing behaviours from this system. Initial modifications were made to allow for significant changes in LuaTeX primitive support between TeX Live 2015 and TeX Live 2016.

The files provided here are designed to work with other support files and engines available from late 2015 onward, in particular:

• pdfTeX v1.40+
• LuaTeX v0.80+
• XeTeX v0.99992+
• LaTeX2ε 2015-01-01 onward
• unicode-data v1.0+

Major changes:

• 2016-02-27 First version of bundle
• 2016-04-14 Do not assume ε-TeX availability in pdftexconfig.tex
• 2016-04-15 New approach to loading shared pdfTeX/LuaTeX data
• 2023-11-15 Align setting of interaction mode across LaTeX .ini files
• 2023-11-17 Add luatexiniconfig.tex

A full history of this bundle is available from https://github.com/latex3/tex-ini-files

Legal

The files provided here were originally written by various authors and are all marked as public domain.