NAME
rubber - a building system for LaTeX documents
SYNOPSIS
rubber [options] sources ...
rubber-pipe [options]
DESCRIPTION
Rubber is a wrapper for LaTeX and companion programs. Its purpose is,
given a LaTeX source to process, to compile it enough times to resolve
all references, possibly running satellite programs such as BibTeX,
makeindex, Metapost, etc. to produce appropriate data files.
The command rubber builds the specified documents completely. The
source files may be either LaTeX sources (in which case the suffix .tex
may be omitted) or documents in a format Rubber knows how to translate
into LaTeX (this currently means CWEB or Literate Haskell documents).
If one compilation fails, the whole process stops, including the
compilation of the next documents on the command line, and rubber
returns a non-zero exit code.
The command rubber-pipe does the same for one document but it reads the
LaTeX source from standard input and dumps the compiled document on
standard output.
Some information cannot be extracted from the LaTeX sources. This is
the case, for instance, with the search paths (which can be specified
in environment variables like TEXINPUTS), or the style to be used with
Makeindex. To address this problem, one can add information for Rubber
in the comments of the LaTeX sources, see section DIRECTIVES.
OPTIONS
The options are used either to choose the action to be performed or to
configure the building process. They are mostly the same in rubber and
rubber-pipe. Options are parsed using GNU Getopt conventions.
--cache
Use the experimental cache system. This uses a file named
rubber.cache in the current directory to store the results of
parsing and dependency analysis, so that subsequent compilations
are faster.
--clean
Remove all files produced by the compilation, instead of
building the document. This option is present in rubber only.
It applies to the compilation as it would be done with the other
options of the command line, i.e. saying "rubber --clean foo"
will not delete foo.ps, while saying "rubber --ps --clean foo"
will.
-c, --command <command>
Execute the specified command (or directive) before parsing the
input files. See section DIRECTIVES for details.
-e, --epilogue <command>
Execute the specified command (or directive) after parsing the
input files. See section DIRECTIVES for details.
-f, --force
Force at least one compilation of the source. This may be
useful, for instance, if some unusual dependency was modified
(e.g. a package in a system directory). This option is
irrelevant in rubber-pipe.
-z, --gzip
Compress the final document (in gzip format). This is
equivalent to saying -o gz after all other options.
-h, --help
Display the list of all available options and exit nicely.
--inplace
Go to the directory of the source files before compiling, so
that compilation results are in the same place as their sources.
--into <directory>
Go to the specified directory before compiling, so that all
files are produced there and not in the current directory.
-k, --keep
This option is used in rubber-pipe only. With this option, the
temporary files will not be removed after compiling the document
and dumping the results on standard output. The temporary
document is named rubtmpX.tex, where X is a number such that no
file of that name exists initially.
-l, --landscape
Specify that the final document should use landscape
orientation. This is relevant only when using dvips or dvipdfm.
-n, --maxerr <num>
Set the maximum number of displayed errors. By default, up to
10 errors are reported, saying -n -1 displays all errors.
-m, --module <module>[:<args>]
Use the specified module in addition to the document’s packages.
Arguments can be passed to the package by adding them after a
colon, they correspond to the package options in LaTeX. The
module is loaded before parsing the document’s sources.
--only <sources>
Compile the document partially, including only the specified
sources. This works by inserting a call to \includeonly on the
command line. The argument is a comma-separated list of file
names.
-o, --post <module>[:<args>]
Use the specified module as a post-processor. This is similar
to the -m options except that the module is loaded after parsing
the document.
-d, --pdf
Produce PDF output. When this option comes after --ps (for
instance in the form -pd) it is a synonym for -o ps2pdf,
otherwise it acts as -m pdftex, in order to use pdfLaTeX instead
of LaTeX.
-p, --ps
Process the DVI produced by the process through dvips(1) to
produce a PostScript document. This option is a synonym for
-o dvips, it cannot come after --pdf.
-q, --quiet
Decrease the verbosity level. This is the reverse of -v.
-r, --read <file>
Read additional directives from the specified file (see also the
directive "read").
-s, --short
Display LaTeX’s error messages in a compact form (one error per
line).
-I, --texpath <directory>
Add the specified directory to TeX’s search path.
-v, --verbose
Increase the verbosity level. Levels between 0 and 4 exist, the
default level is 1 for rubber and 0 for rubber-pipe. Beware,
saying -vvv makes Rubber speak a lot.
--version
Print the version number and exit nicely.
-W, --warn <type>
Report information of the given type if there was no error
during compilation. The available types are: boxes (overfull
and underfull boxes), refs (undefined or multiply defined
references), misc (other warnings) and all to report all
warnings.
MODULES
Rubber’s action is influenced by modules. Modules take care of the
particular features of packages and external programs.
Packages
For every package that a document uses, Rubber looks for a module of
the same name to perform the tasks that this package my require apart
from the compilation by LaTeX. Modules can be added to the ones
provided by default to include new features (this is the point of the
module system). The standard modules are the following:
beamer This module handles Beamer’s extra files the same way as other
tables of contents.
bibtex Takes care of processing the document’s bibliography with BibTeX
when needed. This module is automatically loaded if the
document contains the macro \bibliography (see also in
DIRECTIVES for options).
combine
The combine package is used to gather several LaTeX documents
into a single one, and this module handles the dependencies in
this case.
epsfig This modules handles graphics inclusion for the documents that
use the old style \psfig macro. It is actually an interface for
the graphics module, see this one for details.
graphics, graphicx
These modules identify the graphics included in the document and
consider them as dependencies for compilation. They also use
standard rules to build these files with external programs. See
the info documentation for details.
hyperref
Handle the extra files that this package produces in some cases.
index, makeidx
Process the document’s index (or indexes) with makeindex(1) when
needed (see section DIRECTIVES for options).
minitoc, minitoc-hyper
On cleaning, remove additional files that produced to make
partial tables of contents.
moreverb, verbatim
Adds the files included with \verbatiminput and similar macros
to the list of dependencies.
multibib
Handles the extra bibliographies that this package creates, and
removes the extra files on cleaning.
natbib May cause an extra compilation to solve references.
xr Add additional .aux files used for external references to the
list of dependencies, so recompiling is automatic when
referenced document are changed.
Pre-processing
The following modules are provided for using programs that generate a
LaTeX source from a different file format:
cweb This module’s purpose is to run cweave(1) if needed before the
compiling process to produce the LaTeX source. This module is
automatically loaded if the file specified on the command line
has .w as its suffix.
lhs2TeX
This module uses the lhs2TeX preprocessor to generate the LaTeX
source from a Literate Haskell program. It is automatically
triggered if the input file’s name ends with .lhs.
Post-processing
The following modules are provided to support different kinds of post-
processings. Note that the order matters when using these modules: if
you want to use a processing chain like
foo.tex -> foo.dvi -> foo.ps -> foo.pdf -> foo.pdf.gz
you have to load the modules dvips, ps2pdf and gz in that order, for
instance using the command line
rubber -p -o ps2pdf -z foo.tex
dvipdfm
Runs dvipdfm(1) at the end of compilation to produce a PDF
document.
dvips Runs dvips(1) at the end of compilation to produce a PostScript
document. This module is also loaded by the command line option
--ps.
expand Produce an expanded LaTeX source by replacing \input macros by
included files, bibliography macros by the bibliography produced
by bibtex(1), and local classes and packages by their source.
If the main file is foo.tex then then expanded file will be
named foo-final.tex. See the info documentation for details.
gz Produce a version of the final file compressed with gzip(1).
ps2pdf Assuming that the compilation produces a PostScript document
(for instance using module dvips), convert this document to PDF
using ps2pdf(1).
Compiler choice
The following modules are used to change the LaTeX compiler:
aleph Use the Aleph compiler instead of TeX, i.e. compiles the
document using lamed(1) instead of latex.
etex Instructs Rubber to use elatex(1) instead of latex.
omega Use the Omega compiler instead of TeX, i.e. compiles the
document using lambda(1) instead of latex. If the module dvips
is used too, it will use odvips(1) to translate the DVI file.
Note that this module is triggered automatically when the
document uses the package omega.
pdftex Instructs Rubber to use pdflatex(1) instead of latex(1) to
compile the document. By default, this produces a PDF file
instead of a DVI, but when loading the module with the option
dvi (for instance by saying -m pdftex:dvi) the document is
compiled into DVI using pdflatex. This module is also loaded by
the command line option --pdf.
vtex Instructs Rubber to use the VTeX compiler. By default this uses
vlatex as the compiler to produce PDF output. With the option
ps (e.g. when saying "rubber -m vtex:ps foo.tex") the compiler
used is vlatexp and the result is a PostScript file.
DIRECTIVES
The automatic behavior of Rubber is based on searching for macros in
the LaTeX sources. When this is not enough, directives can be added in
the comments of the sources. A directive is a line like
% rubber: cmd args
The line must begin with a "%", then any sequence of "%" signs and
spaces, then the text "rubber:" followed by spaces and a command name,
possibly followed by spaces and arguments.
General directives
alias <name1> <name2>
Pretend that the LaTeX macro name1 is equivalent to name2. This
can be useful when defining wrappers around supported macros.
clean <file>
Indicates that the specified file should be removed when
cleaning using --clean.
depend <file>
Consider the specified file as a dependency, so that its
modification time will be checked.
make <file> [<options>]
Declare that the specified file has to be generated. Options
can specify the way it should be produced, the available options
are from <file> to specify the source and with <rule> to specify
the conversion rule. For instance, saying "make foo.pdf from
foo.eps" indicates that foo.pdf should be produced from foo.eps,
with any conversion rule that can do it. See the info
documentation for details on file conversion.
module <module> [<options>]
Loads the specified module, possibly with options. This is
equivalent to the command-line option --module.
onchange <file> <command>
Execute the specified shell command after compiling if the
contents of the specified file have changed. The file name ends
at the first space.
paper <options>
Specify options related to paper size. Currently they are used
to give -t options to dvips and -p options to dvipdfm.
path <directory>
Adds the specified directory to the search path for TeX (and
Rubber). The name of the directory is everything that follows
the spaces after "path".
read <file>
Read the specified file of directives. The file must contain
one directive per line. Empty lines and lines that begin with
"%" are ignored.
rules <file>
Read extra conversion rules from the specified file. The format
of this file is the same as that of rules.ini, see the info
documentation for details.
set <name> <value>
Set the value of a variable. For details on the existing
variables and their meaning, see the info documentataion.
watch <file>
Watch the specified file for changes. If the contents of this
file has changed after a compilation, then another compilation
is triggered. This is useful in the case of tables of contents,
for instance.
Module-specific directives
If a command has the form foo.bar, it is considered a command bar for
the module foo. If this module is not registered when the directive is
found, then the command is silently ignored. For the standard modules,
the directives are the following:
bibtex.path <directory>
Adds the specified directory to the search path for BibTeX
databases (.bib files).
bibtex.sorted <boolean>
If the argument is true, yes or 1, declare that the bibliography
is sorted (this is the default), otherwise declare that the
citations appear in the same order as in the text. This may
require additional calls to bibtex.
bibtex.stylepath <directory>
Adds the specified directory to the search path for BibTeX
styles (.bst files).
dvipdfm.options <options>
Pass the specified command-line switches to dvipdfm.
dvips.options <options>
Pass the specified command-line switches to dvips.
index.tool (index) <name>
Specifies which tool is to be used to process the index. The
currently supported tools are makeindex(1) (the default choice)
and xindy(1). The argument index is optional, it may be used to
specify the list of indexes the command applies to. When
present, it must be enclosed in parentheses; the list is comma-
separated. When the argument is not present, the command
applies to all indices.
index.language (index) <language>
Selects the language used for sorting the index. This only
applies when using xindy(1) as the indexing tool. The optional
argument has the same semantics as above.
index.modules (index) <module>...
Specify which modules to use when processing an index with
xindy(1). The optional argument has the same semantics as
above.
index.order (index) <options>
Modifies the sorting options for the indexes. The arguments are
words (separated by spaces) among standard, german and letter.
This only applies when using makeindex(1). The optional
argument has the same semantics as above.
index.path (index) <directory>
Adds the specified directory to the search path for index styles
(.ist files). The optional argument has the same semantics as
above.
index.style (index) <style>
Specifies the index style to be used. The optional argument has
the same semantics as above.
makeidx.language, .modules, .order, .path, .style, .tool
These directives are the same as for the index module, except
that they don’t accept the optional argument.
BUGS
There are surely a some...
This page documents Rubber version 1.1. The program and this man-page
are maintained by Emmanuel Beffara <manu@beffara.org>. The homepage
for Rubber can be found at
http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~beffara/soft/rubber/.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for rubber is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If the info and rubber programs are properly installed at your site,
the command
info rubber
should give you access to the complete manual.