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LYX(1) LyX 2.4.5 LYX(1) NAME LyX - A Document Processor SYNOPSIS lyx [ command-line switches ] [ name[.lyx] ... ] DESCRIPTION LyX is too complex to be described completely in the "man" page format. If your system is properly configured, you can access the full documentation within LyX under the Help menu. LyX is a document preparation system. It excels at letting you create com- plex technical and scientific articles with mathematics, cross-references, bibliographies, indices, etc. It is very good at documents of any length in which the usual processing abilities are required: automatic sectioning and pagination, spellchecking, and so forth. It can also be used to write a letter to your mom, though granted, there are probably simpler programs available for that. It is definitely not the best tool for creating ban- ners, flyers, or advertisements, though with some effort all these can be done, too. Some examples of what it is used for: memos, letters, disserta- tions and theses, lecture notes, seminar notebooks, conference proceedings, software documentation, books (on PostgreSQL, remote sensing, cryptology, fictional novels, poetry, and even a children's book or two), articles in refereed scientific journals, scripts for plays and movies, business pro- posals... you get the idea. Currently, LyX uses the Qt library as a toolkit. LyX should run everywhere, where this library runs. This is on all major Unix platforms as well as Windows and macOS (which actually is a unix platform). OPTIONS LyX supports the following command-line switches. -help summarizes LyX usage -version provides version information on the build of LyX. -sysdir directory sets system directory. Normally not needed. -userdir directory sets user directory. Needed if you want to use LyX with different lyxrc settings. -geometry WxH+X+Y set geometry of the main window. -dbg feature[,feature...] where feature is a name or number. Use "lyx -dbg" to see the list of available debug features. -x [--execute] command where command is a lyx command. -e [--export] fmt where fmt is the export format of choice (latex, pdflatex, luatex, xetex, xhtml, text, lyx, ps, pdf, ...). Note that the order of -e and -x switches matters. -E [--export-to] fmt filename where fmt is the export format of choice (see --export), and filename is the destination filename. Note that any additional external file needed by filename (such as image files) will be exported as well to the folder containing filename (preserving the relative path embedded within the original LyX document, if any). -i [--import] fmt file.xxx where fmt is the import format of choice and file.xxx is the file to be imported. -f [--force-overwrite] what where what is is either "all", "main" or "none". Specify "all" to allow overwriting all files during a batch export, "main" to allow overwriting the main file only, or "none" to disallow overwriting any file. When this switch is followed by anything else other than "all", "main" or "none", the behavior is as if "all" was specified, but what follows is left on the command line for further processing. --ignore-error-message which allows you to ignore specific LaTeX error messages. Do not use for final documents! Currently supported values: "missing_glyphs" Fontspec "missing glyphs" error. -n [--no-remote] open documents passed as arguments in a new instance, even if another instance of LyX is already running. -r [--remote] by using the lyxpipe, ask an already running instance of LyX to open the documents passed as arguments and then exit. If the lyxpipe is not set up or is not working, a new instance is created and execution continues normally. -v [--verbose] print on terminal all spawned external commands. -batch causes LyX to run the given commands without opening a GUI window. Thus, something like: lyx -batch -x "buffer-print printer default dvips" myfile.lyx will cause LyX to print myfile.lyx to the default printer, using dvips and the default print settings (which, of course, have to have been configured already). QT OPTIONS LyX is a Qt-based application and thus recognizes common options imple- mented by Qt itself (notably -platform, -style, -geometry, -session, -dis- play, etc). Please consult Qt documentation for further details, e.g.: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qapplication.html#QApplication https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qguiapplication.html#supported-command-line-options ENVIRONMENT LYX_DIR_24x can be used to specify which system directory to use. The system directory is determined by searching for the file "chkcon- fig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order: 1) -sysdir command line parameter 2) LYX_DIR_24x environment variable 3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib 4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/ 5) hardcoded lyx_dir (at build time: /usr/local/share/lyx) LYX_USERDIR_24x can be used to specify which user directory to use. The user directory is, in order of precedence: 1) -userdir command line parameter 2) LYX_USERDIR_24x environment variable 3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made LYX_LOCALEDIR can be used to tell LyX where to look for the translations of its GUI strings in other languages. LYX_FORCE_OVERWRITE can be used to change the default behavior when exporting from com- mand line. By default, LyX overwrites the main file when exporting from command line but not the ancillary files. This behavior can be changed by setting this environment variable, which relieves the need of using the -f switch. Al- lowed values are either "all", "main" or "none", with same meaning as for the -f switch. FILES LIBDIR is the system defaults directory. This was at the build time /usr/local/share/lyx. Most settings can be modified by user by following structure from system defaults in: ~/.lyx/ Most important files/directories: ~/.lyx/preferences Personal configuration file ~/.lyx/lyxrc.defaults Personal autodetected configuration file ~/.lyx/*.dict User-saved words from continuous spell-check ~/.lyx/session Automatically generated session settings ~/.lyx/cache/ Document images converted for preview in editing window LIBDIR/bind/ Keybindings LIBDIR/citeengines/ Definitions for various citation tools LIBDIR/doc/ Documentation in LyX format LIBDIR/examples/ Example documents LIBDIR/images/ Images used as icons or in popups LIBDIR/kbd/ Keyboard mappings LIBDIR/layouts/ Layout descriptions LIBDIR/lyx2lyx/ Scripts for converting between major versions of .lyx files LIBDIR/scripts/ Conversion scripts used in background LIBDIR/templates/ Templates for documents LIBDIR/ui/ Menus, context menus LIBDIR/xtemplates/ Templates for conversion from external tools LIBDIR/configure.py Updates LyX if systen configuration has changed LIBDIR/autocorrect Database for autocorrection substitutions LIBDIR/languages Supported languages and associated definitions LIBDIR/latexfonts Internally supported fonts for typesetting LIBDIR/layouttranslations Translations missing in LaTeX for typesetting LIBDIR/symbols Symbols supported by mathed, xHTML/DocBook LIBDIR/unicodesymbols Unicode -> LaTeX commands database LIBDIR/RELEASE-NOTES Important changes for major LyX release SEE ALSO tex2lyx(1), latex(1). Full documentation is in LyX manuals in either native LyX format or can be exported to PDF. Some versions can also be directly downloaded from https://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Manuals. BUGS/LIMITATIONS There are still some bugs in LyX. To report one, read if possible the In- troduction found under the Help menu in LyX. You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there. If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers mailing list lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org, or use the LyX bug tracker at http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome. Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with! LaTeX import is still not perfect and may produce buggy *.lyx files. Con- sult the tex2lyx documentation. AUTHORS LyX is Copyright (C) 1995 by Matthias Ettrich, 1995-2025 LyX Team Version 2.4.5 2026-02-13 LYX(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | QT OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | SEE ALSO | BUGS/LIMITATIONS | AUTHORS
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