kpsetool(1)
π kpsetool β the manual page, but make it cute π
okay bestie, so this is the kpsetool(1) page from the General Commands Manual section, and honestly? it's giving "tiny script, huge main character energy." let's get into it. π
β¨ NAME β¨
kpsetool β a script that makes teTeX-style kpsetool, kpsexpand, and kpsepath available. yes, it's a script that makes a thing named the same thing available. iconic behavior, no notes. π
πΈ SYNOPSIS πΈ
kpsetool [ OPTIONS... ] COMMAND
kpsexpand [ OPTIONS... ] STRING
kpsepath [ OPTIONS... ] PATHTYPE
three whole moods, three whole invocations. pick your fighter. π¦
π DESCRIPTION π
so kpsetool is a Bourne shell script that makes a teTeX-style kpsetool, kpsexpand, and kpsepath available. that's the whole assignment and it ate. β¨
here's the tea though: kpsetool uses web2c's (new) kpsexpand binary, which means the syntax for kpsexpand is incompatible with teTeX's syntax as of version 0.4. so if you're out here copy-pasting teTeX muscle memory, bestie, it will not go how you want it to. π
π OPTIONS π
-mmode β set the Metafont mode. give it a mode, get a mode. simple as. π-nprogname β pretend to be progname to kpathsea. catfishing, but for path searching, and fully sanctioned. π-pβ act likekpsepath(1). slay by impersonation. π₯-vβ act likekpsexpand(1). more impersonation, more slay. π₯-wβ act likekpsewhich(1). the third and final disguise. π₯
π§ USAGE π§
PATHTYPE can be any of the following, and yes you need every single one, don't skip, the whole list is the point π
baseβ Metafont memory dumpbibβ BibTeX bibliography sourcebstβ BibTeX style filescnfβ Kpathsea runtime configuration filesdvips_configβ dvips config filesdvips_headerβ dvips header filesfmtβ TeX memory dumpgfβ generic font bitmapmemβ MetaPost memory dumpmfβ Metafont sourcemfpoolβ Metafont program stringsmpβ MetaPost sourcemppoolβ MetaPost program stringsmpsupportβ MetaPost support filespictβ Other kinds of figurespkβ packed bitmap fonttexβ TeX sourcetexpoolβ TeX program stringstfmβ TeX font metricstroff_fontβ troff fontsvfβ virtual font
twenty-one pathtypes. twenty-one little vibes. we love a comprehensive queen. π
π SEE ALSO π
kpsewhich(1)- Kpathsea: A library for path searching (info or DVI file)
- Web page: <http://tug.org/teTeX/>
go read your siblings, bestie, they're all connected, iykyk. π«Ά
π BUGS π
found something cursed? email bug reports to <https://lists.tug.org/tex-k> (public mailing list). it's public, so everyone gets to witness. that's community, baby. β¨
π AUTHOR π
kpsetool was written by Thomas Esser in March, 1997. and the plot twist? kpsetool is in the public domain. free real estate, fr fr. π
this manual page was written by C.M. Connelly for the Debian GNU/Linux system. it is now maintained as part of TeX Live. π
and that's the whole page, bestie!! from the TeX Live release of 8 March 2022 β mwah, go forth and search your paths responsibly π β¨π¦πΈ
π¦ where this page comes from
- alpine 3.24: texlive-doc 2026.0-r0 Β· GPL-2.0-or-later AND GPL-3.0-or-later
- arch rolling: texlive-doc 2026.1-1 Β· GPL
- centos-stream 10: texlive-texlive-scripts-extra 13:20240311-6.el10 Β· GPL-1.0-or-later AND LPPL-1.3c AND LicenseRef-Fedora-Public-Domain
- debian bookworm: texlive-extra-utils 2022.20230122-4
- debian trixie: texlive-extra-utils 2024.20250309-2
- fedora 43: texlive-texlive-scripts-extra 11:svn62517-93.fc43 Β· GPL-1.0-or-later AND LPPL-1.3c AND LicenseRef-Fedora-Public-Domain
- fedora 43: texlive-texlive-scripts-extra 11:svn62517-95.fc43.1 Β· GPL-1.0-or-later AND LPPL-1.3c AND LicenseRef-Fedora-Public-Domain
- fedora 44: texlive-texlive-scripts-extra 12:svn78162-105.fc44 Β· GPL-1.0-or-later AND LPPL-1.3c AND LicenseRef-Fedora-Public-Domain
- fedora 44: texlive-texlive-scripts-extra 12:svn78162-111.fc44 Β· GPL-1.0-or-later AND LPPL-1.3c AND LicenseRef-Fedora-Public-Domain
- opensuse-leap 16.0: texlive-scripts-extra-doc 2025.221.svn71746-160000.3.1 Β· LPPL-1.0
- ubuntu noble: texlive-extra-utils 2023.20240207-1
- ubuntu questing: texlive-extra-utils 2024.20250309-2
- ubuntu resolute: texlive-extra-utils 2025.20260124-1
- ubuntu stonking: texlive-extra-utils 2026.20260711-2
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms