chktex(1)

📦
version 78219 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ chktex — the LaTeX typo-hunting bestie ✨

okay so real talk, this is the chktex manual, from the General Commands Manual section of your local man pages. it's giving "your LaTeX has problems and i'm gonna find them" energy and honestly? iconic. let's get into it. 💅

🎀 NAME 🎀

chktex — finds typographic errors in LaTeX.

like. that's the whole vibe. it hunts typos in your .tex files so you don't have to reread your thesis for the 400th time. 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

chktex [-hiqrW] [-v[0-...]] [-l <rcfile>] [-[wemn] <[1-42]|all>]
[-d[0-...]] [-p <name>] [-o <outfile>] [-[btxgI][0|1]] file1 file2 ...

ok so you run chktex, you hand it some files (file1 file2 ...), and it goes to work. everything in the brackets is optional, bestie — you can absolutely just yell chktex at your terminal with no flags at all. 🙈

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

chktex finds typographic errors in LaTeX.

that's it. that's the sentence. short, sweet, main character energy. ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

🧁 Miscellaneous options:

  • -h, --help — prints a help screen. the classic "i'm lost, pls explain" button. 🫶
  • -i, --license — shows distribution information. receipts on where this came from. 📜
  • -l, --localrc — read a local .chktexrc formatted file. yes, that exact filename, lowercase, with the dot. 💅
  • -d, --debug — debug information. give it a number, like the synopsis says: -d[0-...]. 🔍
  • -r, --reset — resets settings to default. factory reset but make it typography. 🌈

🔇 Muting warning messages:

  • -w, --warnon — makes msg # given a warning and turns it on. so you're un-muting it, but as a warning specifically. 🟡
  • -e, --erroron — makes msg # given an error and turns it on. same deal but spicier. 🔥
  • -m, --msgon — makes msg # given a message and turns it on. the chillest tier. 💬
  • -n, --nowarn — mutes msg # given. silence that little guy. 🤫
  • -L, --nolinesupp — do not allow per-line suppressions. those are TeX comments of the form % chktex ##. so like, if you were planning on sneakily hushing a line with that comment? not today. 🚫
ngl, the -L one is a whole mood: it disables the per-line suppression mechanism, so those % chktex ## comments stop working.

🎀 Output control flags:

  • -v, --verbosity — how errors are displayed. default 1, 0=Less, 2=Fancy, 3=lacheck. pick your aesthetic. ✨
  • -V, --pipeverb — how errors are displayed when stdout != tty. defaults to the same as -v. 🚰
  • -s, --splitchar — string used to split fields when doing -v0. 🪓
  • -o, --output — redirect the error report to a file. 🗂️
  • -q, --quiet — shuts up about version information. quiet queen behavior. 🤐
  • -p, --pseudoname — input file-name when reporting. so the reports can call your file something else. 🎭
  • -f, --format — format to use for output. 🖋️

🦋 Boolean switches (1 -> enables / 0 -> disables):

  • -b, --backup — backup output file. safety first, bestie. 💾
  • -x, --wipeverb — ignore contents of \verb commands. 👀
  • -g, --globalrc — read global .chktexrc file. 🌍
  • -I, --inputfiles — execute \input statements. 📥
  • -H, --headererr — show errors found in front of \begin{document}. 📄
  • -W, --version — version information. 🏷️

also, super important: if no LaTeX files are specified on the command line, we will read from stdin. 📥 and for explanation of warning/error messages, please consult the main document /usr/share/doc/chktex/ChkTeX.dvi.gz. yes that path exactly, go read it, iykyk. 📚

🌈 DISTRIBUTION 🌈

Copyright (C) 1996 Jens T. Berger Thielemann

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

translation: it's GPL, version 2 or later, and there is literally zero warranty. no cap. 💀

🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

No environment variables are used.

not a single one. nothing to export, nothing to source, nothing lurking in your shell config. peaceful. 🕊️

🍓 FILES 🍓

None.

none. zero. nada. 🫧

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Jens T. Berger Thielemann, <jensthi@ifi.uio.no>

This manual page was cobbled together by Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org>, based on the output of chktex --help and deweb(1).

shoutout to both of them honestly, cobbling a manpage together is real work. 🫡

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

go read those too, they're the friends of this page. 💫

and that's the whole page bestie!! 💖 this was the 7th Edition of the man page, dated March 30, 2001, from the chktex(1) corner of the manual. slay, go fix your LaTeX. 👑✨

📦 where this page comes from