Man1 - dvipos.1

dvipos - compute positions in a DVI file

dvipos [ OPTION… ] infile[.dvi]

dvipos parses a DVI file looking for pos: specials. It currently recognizes pos:pxy, pos:pxywhd, pos:pxyplus, pos:begbox, pos:endbox, pos:beglines, and pos:endlines. It then outputs the information from those specials along with information that only a DVI postprocessor could determine, such as the current x and y location. The output looks like:

  \pospxywhd{text:54}{54}{10663sp}{8535sp}{21326sp}{34081sp}{0sp}

and is suitable for including in a *tex*(1) or *pdftex*(1) auxilliary file, such as document.tuo, to be read in by the next run of the *tex*(1) or similar typesetting engine.

-h, –help

print usage.

-W, –warning

print warnings.

-v, –verbose

print verbose output.

-d, –debug

print *dvitype*(1) debugging data.

-s, –smashchars

regard height and depth as zero.

*-o, –output=*/FILE/

send all output to FILE. Without this option, output goes to stdout.

*-b, –bbox[=*/FILE/]

send bounding box to FILE (default FILE is infile.pos).

*-f, –framed[=*/BASE/]

request copy of DVI file, BASE.dvi, with bounding boxes framed (default FILE is infile_frames.dvi). See the –framesize option.

*-m, –mag=*/INT/

override *tex*(1) magnification by INT.

*-w, –framesize=*/INT/

set frame rule size by INT (default 6554 = .1pt).

*-p, –pages=*/X:Y/

set page ranges from X to Y.

dvipos is run mostly behind the scenes by ConTeXt’s texexec*(1) between runs of *tex*(1) or *pdftex*(1), in order to provide information to and get information about positional graphics. These graphics are provided by the MetaFun interface to *mpost*(1). *dvipos is not used (or needed) in PDF-output mode but is needed for DVI-output mode. pdftex*(1) starting with version 1.40 can produce position information even in DVI mode, so once the ConTeXt macros take advantage of this feature, the need for *dvipos will fade.

Until then, here is a typical use of dvipos:

  dvipos notes.dvi

The position information that is output is collected by *texexec*(1) to include in the notes.tuo auxilliary file to use in the next run.

• Extract positions from doc.dvi, with output to doc.loc: :: dvipos -o doc.loc doc.dvi
• Same as above, but also send bbox information to doc.pos: :: dvipos -b -o doc.loc doc.dvi
• Instead send bbox information to /tmp/debug.pos: :: dvipos -b=/tmp/debug.pos -o doc.loc doc.dvi

*dvips*(1), *dvitype*(1), *mpost*(1), *pdftex*(1), *tex*(1), *texexec*(1).

For more about positional graphics, see the MetaFun documentation on the ConTeXt wiki ⟨URL: http://wiki.contextgarden.net/MetaFun ⟩.

If you specify a file for the -b option, you must join the option and name with = rather than (the more common) space:

  dvipos -b=/tmp/debug.pos notes.dvi

works, but

  dvipos -b /tmp/debug.pos notes.dvi

does not.

dvipos is written by Jin-Hwan Cho <chofchof@ktug.or.kr>. It is free software (GPLv2 or later). This manpage was written by Sanjoy Mahajan <sanjoy@mit.edu> and is in the public domain.