kpsetool(1)

📦 version 2026.0, in alpine 3.24

💖 kpsetool — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

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. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

kpsetool — 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. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kpsetool  [ OPTIONS... ] COMMAND

kpsexpand [ OPTIONS... ] STRING

kpsepath  [ OPTIONS... ] PATHTYPE

three whole moods, three whole invocations. pick your fighter. 🦋

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

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. ✨

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. 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -m mode — set the Metafont mode. give it a mode, get a mode. simple as. 🎀
  • -n progname — pretend to be progname to kpathsea. catfishing, but for path searching, and fully sanctioned. 🙈
  • -p — act like kpsepath(1). slay by impersonation. 🔥
  • -v — act like kpsexpand(1). more impersonation, more slay. 🔥
  • -w — act like kpsewhich(1). the third and final disguise. 🔥

🧚 USAGE 🧚

PATHTYPE can be any of the following, and yes you need every single one, don't skip, the whole list is the point 💖
  • base — Metafont memory dump
  • bib — BibTeX bibliography source
  • bst — BibTeX style files
  • cnf — Kpathsea runtime configuration files
  • dvips_config — dvips config files
  • dvips_header — dvips header files
  • fmt — TeX memory dump
  • gf — generic font bitmap
  • mem — MetaPost memory dump
  • mf — Metafont source
  • mfpool — Metafont program strings
  • mp — MetaPost source
  • mppool — MetaPost program strings
  • mpsupport — MetaPost support files
  • pict — Other kinds of figures
  • pk — packed bitmap font
  • tex — TeX source
  • texpool — TeX program strings
  • tfm — TeX font metrics
  • troff_font — troff fonts
  • vf — virtual font

twenty-one pathtypes. twenty-one little vibes. we love a comprehensive queen. 👑

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read your siblings, bestie, they're all connected, iykyk. 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

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. ✨

👑 AUTHOR 👑

kpsetool was written by Thomas Esser in March, 1997. and the plot twist? kpsetool is in the public domain. free real estate, fr fr. 💖

this manual page was written by C.M. Connelly for the Debian GNU/Linux system. it is now maintained as part of TeX Live. 🎀

and that's the whole page, bestie!! from the TeX Live release of 8 March 2022 — mwah, go forth and search your paths responsibly 💅✨🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from