NAME
          virtex - virgin TeX for production typesetting

     DESCRIPTION
          virtex is a version of the TeX program that has no preloaded
          macro packages, but is capable of loading a special
          preformatted binary file, called a format (.fmt) file
          produced by the initex(1) program.

          Preprocessing of large macro files and font definitions by
          initex makes it possible to rapidly load complex packages,
          like plain TeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX, or LaTeX, without the
          overhead of macro parsing and file opening that would
          otherwise be experienced.

          virtex can be invoked directly, providing it with a name of
          a format file specially prefixed by an ampersand:
               virtex '&plain' filename
          This causes it to load the binary file named plain.fmt from
          a directory in the standard TEXINPUTS search path, and then
          load the text file filename and process it.  The quotes are
          needed to protect the ampersand from Unix shell
          interpretation.

          Because this need occurs frequently, Unix virtex provides a
          convenient shorthand.  If it is invoked under a name other
          than virtex, such as footex, it will behave as if it had
          been invoked as virtex '&footex' and first load a file named
          footex.fmt.  Thus, amslatex, amstex, lamstex, latex, slitex,
          tex, texinfo, and others can all be file system links to
          virtex, without requiring additional disk space.

     SEE ALSO
          initex(1), tex(1).