---
name: "fmtutil"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "tetex-bin"
version: "2.0.2-30sarge5"
release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fmtutil/8"
---

# fmtutil(8)

utility for maintaining TeX format files

## NAME

fmtutil - utility for maintaining TeX format files

## SYNOPSIS

**fmtutil** \[ *OPTION*... \]  *COMMAND*

## DESCRIPTION

**fmtutil** is used to create or recreate format and hyphenation files or show information about format files.

*COMMAND* is one of:

-

  - **--all**

  recreate all format files

-

  - **--byfmt** *formatname*

  (re)create the format for format *formatname*

-

  - **--byhyphen** *hyphenfile*

  (re)create formats that depend on the hyphenation file *hyphenfile*

-

  - **--help**

  print a summary of commands and options

-

  - **--missing**

  create any missing format files

-

  - **--showhyphen** *formatname*

  print the name of the hyphenation file for the format *formatname*

-

  ## OPTIONS

-

  - **--cnffile** *file*

  specify the configuration *file* **fmtutil** should use

-

  - **--dolinks**

  (not implemented, just for compatibility)

-

  - **--fmtdir** *directory*

  set the destination directory for format files generated by **fmtutil** to *directory*

-

  - **--force**

  (not implemented, just for compatibility)

-

  - **--quiet**

  (not implemented, just for compatibility)

-

  - **--test**

  (not implemented, just for compatibility)

-

  ## FILES

-

  - *fmtutil.cnf*

  default configuration file

-

  ## SEE ALSO

[**kpsewhich**(1)](/kpsewhich/1.md)

Web page: \<http://tug.cs.umb.edu/tetex/\>

## BUGS

None known, but report any bugs found to \<tetex@dbs.uni-hannover.de\> (mailing list).

## AUTHOR

**fmtutil** was written by Thomas Esser  \<te@dbs.uni-hannover.de\> and is Copyright © 1998 Thomas Esser.

This manual page was written by C.M. Connelly \<c@eskimo.com\>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.  It may be used by other distributions without contacting the author.  Any mistakes or omissions in the manual page are my fault; inquiries about or corrections to this manual page should be directed to me (and not to the primary author).