---
name: "therion"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "therion"
version: "6.3.4-2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/therion"
---

# therion(1)

program to draw cave surveys

## NAME

Therion — program to draw cave surveys

## SYNOPSIS

**therion** \[**-q**\] \[**-L**\] \[**-l** *log-file*\]\
         \[**-s** *source-file*\] \[**-p** *search-path*\]\
         \[**-b**\|**--bezier**\] \[**--use-extern-libs**\]\
         \[**-g**\|**-u**\] \[**-i**\]\
         \[**-d**\] \[**-x**\] \[**--use-extern-libs**\] \[config-file\]

**therion** \[**-h**\|**--help**\]\
         \[**-v**\|**--version**\]\
         \[**--print-encodings**\]\
         \[**--print-environment**\]\
         \[**--print-init-file**\]\
         \[**--print-library-src**\]\
         \[**--print-symbols**\]\
         \[**--print-tex-encodings**\]\
         \[**--print-xtherion-src**\]

## DESCRIPTION

This manual page briefly documents **Therion** and provides an overview of  the package.

**Therion** is a program that processes Therion data files to produce cave  surveys. The data files are usually .th files which contain survey data (largely equivalent to Survex .svx files), .th2 files which contain drawing data, and thconfig files which control the data files to be used and the maps to be output.

**Therion** outputs PDF and SVG files for drawings, Survex .3d files, Compass .PLT files and VRML files for 3D models.

**Therion** uses a number of helper programs to do its   job. **Survex** is used to process the centreline data,   **MetaPost** is used to draw cave symbols, and   **pdfTeX** generates the final maps.

In order to make the entering of drawing data practical, and to make the   editing of survey files easier, a graphical editor **XTherion**   is included. This also includes a 'compiler' function which runs Therion on the   data to produce output. This is implemented using Tcl/Tk.

The Therion data files describe the cave as text in terms of objects so   the corresponding graphical representations are only inserted at output generation  time. This means that a survey can be produced using whichever symbol set you   require by specifying the relevant set of MetaPost macros. Currently the UIS symbol   set is supported.

Multiple languages and character sets are supported — currently ISO-8859-1,   ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-5, ISO-8859-7, UTF-8, ASCII and CP1250.

## ARGUMENTS

therion takes only one argument — a *config-file*. If no file is  specified then the default *thconfig* file in the current directory will  be used. A new default file can be created using the **-g** option.

## OPTIONS

This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax,  with long options starting with two dashes ("--").  A summary of  options is included below.  For a complete description, see  **The Therion Book**.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Show summary of options.

- **-v**, **--version**

  Show version information.

- **-q**

  Quiet mode — minimise output.

- **-g**

  Generate a new configuration file. This will be the given config-file if  specified, or **thconfig** in the current directory if not. If the file  already exists, it will be overwritten.

- **-i**

  Ignore comments when writing (-g\|-u) configuration file.

- **-L**

  Do not create a log-file. Normally all messages are written  into a **therion.log** file.

- **-l log-file**

  Change the name of the log file.

- **-p search-path**

  This option is used to set the search path (or list of paths,   separated by colon), which therion will use to find its source  files (if it doesn't find them in the working directory).

- **-q**

  Run therion in quiet mode. It will print only warning  and error messages (to STDERR).

- **--print-encodings**

  Print a list of all supported encodings.

- **--print-init-file**

  Print a default initialisation file. For more details  see the Initialisation section in the Appendix of the Therion Book.

- **-s**

  Set the name of the source file.

- **-u**

  Upgrade the configuration file.

- **-d**

  Turn on debugging mode. The current implementation creates a   temporary directory named **thTMPDIR** (in your system temporary   directory) and does not delete any temporary files.

## SEE ALSO

[loch(1)](/loch/1.md), [xtherion(1)](/xtherion/1.md)

For full information see The Therion Book (/usr/share/doc/therion-doc/thbook.pdf) which describes Therion and its use in detail.

## AUTHORS

Stacho Mudrak and Martin Budaj. This manual page was originally written by Wookey wookey@debian.org for the **Debian** system. Modified by MB.

Copyright Wookey 2003, Martin Budaj 2003. This file is licensed under the GNU General Public License.