NAME
          initex - initial TeX for making format (.fmt) files

     DESCRIPTION
          initex is a special version of the TeX program that has no
          preloaded macro packages, but is capable of converting a
          macro package into a special preformatted binary file,
          called a format (.fmt) file.  That format file can
          subsequently be read at high speed by virtex.

          Major macro packages may require TeX to process many
          thousands of lines of macros, and open and read scores of
          font files, all of which would contribute to a sizable
          startup overhead if the job had to be done every time TeX
          was run.  initex allows TeX to do the job once, and then
          save the results in a binary format file that can be later
          loaded more rapidly by virtex.

          initex is normally required only at the time TeX is
          installed, or whenever major macro packages are updated.
          Thus, it will be rare for anyone but system installers to
          invoke it.  Nevertheless, it is just a normal program
          without special privileges, so ordinary users can use it to
          prepare a private format file.

          Here is how you can ask initex to prepare format files for
          several major packages:

          For plain tex:
               initex 'plain \dump'
               mv plain.fmt tex.fmt
               The single quotes are necessary to protect the
               backslash from interpretation as a Unix shell escape
               character.

          For amstex:
               initex '&tex amstex \dump'
               The single quotes around the first argument protect the
               ampersand from interpretation as a Unix shell
               background request.

          For etex:
               initex '&tex eplain \dump'
               mv eplain.fmt etex.fmt

          For lamstex:
               initex '&tex amstexl \input lamstex \dump'
               mv amstexl.fmt lamstex.fmt

          For latex:
               initex 'lplain \dump'
               mv lplain.fmt latex.fmt

          For slitex:
               initex 'splain \dump'
               mv splain.fmt slitex.fmt

          For texinfo:
               initex '&tex texinfo @dump'
               The last argument is different from the previous
               examples because texinfo redefines the TeX escape
               character from backslash to at-sign.  As for amstex,
               the file tex.fmt must already be available.

          Note that several of these require that the format file for
          plain TeX be available, since the first argument word &tex
          asks for the loading of the file tex.fmt.

          It does not matter whether the command-line arguments are
          passed as a single argument, or as separate arguments, since
          TeX reconstructs the command line anyway.

     SEE ALSO
          amslatex(1), amstex(1), lamstex(1), latex(1), slitex(1),
          tex(1), virtex(1).