mtx-tools(1)

📦 version 2026.0, in alpine 3.24

okay bestie, so this is mtx-tools(1) — it lives in the Some File Related Goodies corner of the manual-verse, and it's genuinely just a lil grab-bag of file-flavoured party tricks 💅 no cap, the entire description is literally "Some File Related Goodies" and honestly? iconic. it knows what it is.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mtxrun --script tools [ OPTIONS ...  ] [ FILENAMES ]

so you call it through mtxrun --script tools, you can throw a pile of OPTIONS at it, and you can hand it FILENAMES. that's the whole vibe 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Some File Related Goodies.

(no fr, that is the entire official description and I respect the confidence 🎀)

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • --disarmutfbom — takes the utf bom and disarms it, if there even is one present. bye bom 👋
  • --force — removes indeed. like, actually does the removal, no half-measures.
  • --dirtoxml — globs a whole directory into xml. directory in, xml out, slay ✨
  • --pattern — the glob pattern to match on. default is * (yes, literally everything).
  • --url — sets a url attribute. no processing, it just gets plopped in there as-is 🪄
  • --root — the root of the globbed path. default is . (the current directory, main character of your filesystem).
  • --output — the output filename. by default it goes to the console, so nothing gets written unless you tell it to.
  • --recurse — recurses into subdirectories. deep dive energy 🌀
  • --stripname — takes the pathpart of the given pattern. strips it right off.
  • --longname — sets name attributes to the full path name. long name, long hello 💖
  • --downcase — lowercases names. no more SHOUTING.
  • --showstring — shows the unicode characters in the given string 🔍
  • --showfile — shows the unicode characters in the given file 🍓
  • --pattern — glob pattern again, bestie. default: *. yeah, it's listed twice in the original and I'm keeping both because I do not gatekeep and I do not edit the source. iykyk 🧚
  • --recurse — recurse into subdirectories, again. yes. twice. it loves recursing so much it recursed its own option list 💀
  • --force — downcases indeed. this is the second --force and it means something different from the first one (that one was about removing). same flag, different mood, choose your context wisely 🌈
fr fr though — --pattern, --recurse and --force each show up twice on this page with different descriptions. that's just how the page is. don't @ me, @ the original 🙈

💜 AUTHOR 💜

want more lore about ConTeXt and the tools that come bundled with it? the receipts are all here:

maillist: ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

webpage: http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net

wiki: http://contextgarden.net

okay that's the whole thing, go forth and glob 🦋✨

version 1.01 · 01-01-2026 · and yes, it really does sign itself mtx-tools(1) — cute lil self-reference, we love a consistent footer 💖🎀

📦 where this page comes from