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MPOST(1)		     General Commands Manual			MPOST(1)

NAME
     mpost,  pmpost, upmpost - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics r-mpost,
     r-pmpost, r-upmpost - restricted MetaPost

SYNOPSIS
     mpost [options] [commands]

     mpost --dvitomp dvifile[.dvi] [mpxfile[.mpx]]

DESCRIPTION
     MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript (EPS)  or
     Scalable  Vector Graphics (SVG) pictures.	The MetaPost language is similar
     to Knuth's Metafont  with	additional  features  for  including  tex(1)  or
     troff(1)  commands  and accessing features of PostScript not found in Meta-
     font.

     MetaPost is normally used with a set of basic macros, and it will	use  its
     executable name as the name of the preload file to use.   For example, when
     called  as  mpost	the  mpost.mp file is used, which simply reads plain.mp.
     When the --ini option is given, preloading does not happen.

     The commands given on the command line to the MetaPost program  are  passed
     to  it  as  the first input line.	(But it is often easier to type extended
     arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble  up  or
     misinterpret MetaPost's favorite symbols, like semicolons, unless you quote
     them.)  The  normal usage is to say mpost figs to process the file figs.mp.
     The basename of figs becomes the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output
     file names.  If no file is named, the jobname becomes mpout.   The  default
     extension, .mp, can be overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.

     When  the	--dvitomp option is given, MetaPost acts as DVI-to-MPX converter
     only.  See dvitomp (1) for details.

     The pmpost program is a variant with Japanese support, and upmpost has Uni-
     code-enabled Japanese support, analogous to ptex and uptex.

     All three variants are also installed with an  `r-'  prefix,  that  is,  r-
     mpost,  r-pmpost,	r-upmpost, which implicitly specify the --restricted op-
     tion to make MetaPost safe to run on unknown input; the tex,  makempx,  and
     editor commands are disabled.

     This  manual  page  is a mere skeleton.  For a list of all command line op-
     tions, run --help.

     The main documentation for this version of MetaPost can  be  found  in  the
     User  Manual  that should have been installed along with the program and is
     also available from https://tug.org/metapost.

     The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but	the  manual  assumes  no
     knowledge	of  Metafont.	MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or
     Metafont's online display mechanism.

FILES
     plain.mp
	    The standard preload file.

     mfplain.mp
	    The Metafont-compatible preload file.

     $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
	    The standard MetaPost macros included in the original distribution.

     $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/*
	    Various tables for handling included tex and troff.

     $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map
	    Table of corresponding font names for troff and PostScript.

     psfonts.map
	    Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.

     $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/*
	    The MetaPost manual and tutorial source, also including sample  fig-
	    ures

SUGGESTED READING
     Donald  E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typesetting),
     Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
     TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).

SEE ALSO
     dvitomp(1), epstopdf(1), mf(1), mptopdf(1), tex(1),
     MetaPost home page <https://tug.org/metapost/>.

AUTHORS
     MetaPost was created by John D. Hobby, incorporating algorithms from  Meta-
     font  by  Donald E. Knuth.  It was originally implemented on Unix, incorpo-
     rating system-dependent routines from web2c, while not relying on it except
     for the actual Web-to-C translator.

     Ulrik Vieth adapted MetaPost to take advantage of the advanced path search-
     ing features in more recent versions of web2c and worked towards fully  in-
     tegrating MetaPost into the canonical Unix TeX distribution.

     The  primary author of the current MetaPost was Taco Hoekwater, with assis-
     tance from Hans Hagen and many others.  It is currently maintained by Luigi
     Scarso.

BUGS
     The MetaPost home page is https://tug.org/metapost.

Web2C 2025			31 December 2018			MPOST(1)

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