texdoc(1) · carta

Usage

texdoc [OPTION] ... NAME ...

texdoc [OPTION] ... ACTION

Overview

Try to find appropriate TeX documentation for the specified NAME(s). Alternatively, perform the given ACTION and exit.

Options

-w, --view: Use view mode: start a viewer. (default)

-m, --mixed: Use mixed mode (view or list).

-l, --list: Use list mode: show a list of results.

-s, --showall: Use showall mode: show also "bad" results.

-i, --interact: Use interactive menus. (default)

-I, --nointeract: Use plain lists, no interaction required.

-M, --machine: Machine-readable output for lists (implies -I).

-q, --quiet: Suppress warnings and most error messages.

-v, --verbose: Print additional information (e.g., viewer command).

-D, --debug: Activate all debug output (equal to "--debug=all").

-d LIST, --debug=LIST: Activate debug output restricted to the categories specified in LIST.
Available categories: config, files, search, docfile, score, texdocs, tlpdb, version, view, and all to activate all of these.

-c NAME=VALUE: Set configuration item NAME to VALUE.

Actions

-h, --help: Print this help message.

-V, --version: Print the version number.

-f, --files: Print the list of configuration files used.

--just-view FILE: Display FILE, given with full path (no searching).

--print-completion SHELL: Print SHELL completion.

Environment

The following environment variables can be split by colon and used to set viewers:

BROWSER, BROWSER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for HTML documents.

DVIVIEWER, DVIVIEWER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for DVI documents.

MDVIEWER, MDVIEWER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for Markdown documents.

PAGER, PAGER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for text documents.

PDFVIEWER, PDFVIEWER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for PDF documents.

PSVIEWER, PSVIEWER_texdoc: Set the command to be used for PS documents.

The following environment variables are also used:

LANG, LC_ALL, LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE_texdoc: Set the locale, which will influence on the search results.

TEXDOCS: In addition to the documents included in the TeX Live database, Texdoc also searches documentation under TEXMF trees specified by the kpathsea variable TEXDOCS.

Files

<texmf>/texdoc/texdoc.cnf, see output of the --files option.

Exit status

The texdoc command exists with one of the following values:

0: Success.

1: Internal error.

2: Usage error.

3: No documentation found.

History

Arch Linux 2026-11-01 to Debian 13 (Trixie): the text shown here
Debian 12 (Bookworm)
Debian 11 (Bullseye)
Debian 10 (Buster)
Debian 9 (Stretch) to Debian 7 (Wheezy)
Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
Debian 5.0 (Lenny)
Debian 4.0 (Etch)
Debian 3.1 (Sarge)
Debian 3.0 (Woody)
Debian 2.2 (Potato)
Debian 2.1 (Slink)

--debug since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --interact since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --list since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); --machine since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --mixed since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --nointeract since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --quiet since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --showall since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --verbose since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --view since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -D since Debian 10 (Buster); -I since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -M since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -c since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -d since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -i since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -l since Debian 3.0 (Woody); -m since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -q since Debian 7 (Wheezy); -s since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -v since Debian 3.0 (Woody); -w since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze).

--alias until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --extensions until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --files until Debian 9 (Stretch); --help until Debian 9 (Stretch); --just-view until Debian 9 (Stretch); --noalias until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --regex until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --search until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); --verbosity until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --version until Debian 9 (Stretch); -A until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -S until Debian 5.0 (Lenny); -V until Debian 9 (Stretch); -a until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -dLIST until Debian 10 (Buster); -e until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); -f until Debian 9 (Stretch); -h until Debian 9 (Stretch); -r until Debian 6.0 (Squeeze).