A Directory Structure for TEX Files
TUG Working Group on a TEX Directory Structure (TWG-TDS)
version 1.1 June 23, 2004
Copyright c 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004 TEX Users Group.
Permission to use, copy, and distribute this document without modification for any purpose andwithout fee is hereby granted, provided that this notice appears in all copies. It is provided “asis” without expressed or implied warranty.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this document under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the modifications are clearly marked and the document
is not represented as the official one.
This document is available on any CTAN host (see Appendix D). Please send questions orsuggestions by email to tds@tug.org. We welcome all comments. This is version 1.1.

Contents
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A
B

C

D
E

Introduction
1.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 The role of the TDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General
2.1 Subdirectory searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Rooting the tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Local additions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Duplicate filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Top-level directories
3.1 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Non-font METAFONT files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 METAPOST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5 BIBTEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.6 Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.7 Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary
4.1 Documentation tree summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Unspecified pieces
A.1 Portable filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Implementation issues
B.1 Adoption of the TDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B.2 More on subdirectory searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B.3 Example implementation-specific trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Is there a better way?
C.1 Macro structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C.2 Font structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
C.3 Documentation structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Related references
Contributors
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TDS version 1.1

1 Introduction
TEX is a powerful, flexible typesetting system used by many people around the world. It isextremely portable and runs on virtually all operating systems. One unfortunate side effect ofTEX’s flexibility, however, is that there has been no single “right” way to install it. This has
resulted in many sites having different installed arrangements.
The primary purpose of this document is to describe a standard TEX Directory Structure (TDS):a directory hierarchy for macros, fonts, and the other implementation-independent TEX systemfiles. As a matter of practicality, this document also suggests ways to incorporate the rest of the
TEX files into a single structure. The TDS has been designed to work on all modern systems.
In particular, the Technical Working Group (TWG) believes it is usable under MacOS, MS-DOS,
OS/2, Unix, VMS, and Windows NT. We hope that administrators and developers of both freeand commercial TEX implementations will adopt this standard.
This document is intended both for the TEX system administrator at a site and for people
preparing TEX distributions—everything from a complete runnable system to a single macro or
style file. It may also help TEX users find their way around systems organized this way. It is
not a tutorial: we necessarily assume knowledge of the many parts of a working TEX system. If
you are unfamiliar with any of the programs or file formats we refer to, consult the references inAppendix D.

1.1 History
Version 1.0 of the TDS was released in February 2003.
Version 1.1 was released in June 2004, with the following non-editorial changes:
•
•
•
•
•

Inputs for TEX extensions included under tex, instead of in their own top-level directories(Section 3.1.1)
New top-level directory scripts (Section 3.6).
New subdirectories lig, opentype, truetype, and type3 under fonts (Section 3.2).
enc, lig, and map all use hsyntax i/hpackagei subdirectories (Section 3.2).
pfm files specified to go under type1, and inf files under afm (Section 3.2).

1.2 The role of the TDS
The role of the TDS is to stabilize the organization of TEX-related software packages that are
installed and in use, possibly on multiple platforms simultaneously.
At first glance, it may seem that the Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (CTAN) fulfills atleast part of this role, but this is not the case. The role of CTAN is to simplify archiving anddistribution, not installation and use.
In fact, the roles of the TDS and CTAN are frequently in conflict, as we will see. For distribution, many different types of files must be combined into a single unit; for use, it is traditional
to segregate files (even similar files) from a single package into separate, occasionally distant,directories.

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1.3 Conventions
In this document, “/” is used to separate filename components; for example, texmf/fonts. Thisis the Unix convention but the ideas are in no way Unix-specific.
In this document, “TEX” generally means the TEX system, including METAFONT, DVI drivers,
utilities, etc., not just the TEX program itself.
The word “package” in this document has its usual meaning: a set of related files distributed,
installed, and maintained as a unit. This is not a LATEX 2ε package, which is a style file supplementing a document class.
We use the following typographic conventions:
literal Literal text such as filename is typeset in typewriter type.
hreplaceablei Replaceable text such as hpackagei, identifying a class of things, is typeset initalics inside angle brackets.

2 General
This section describes common properties throughout the TDS tree.

2.1 Subdirectory searchingOlder TEX installations store large numbers of related files in single directories, for example, all
TFM files and/or all TEX input files.
This monolithic arrangement hinders maintenance of a TEX system: it is difficult to determine
what files are used by what packages, what files need to be updated when a new version is
installed, or what files should be deleted if a package is removed. It is also a source of error if
two or more packages happen to have input files with the same name.
Therefore, the TWG felt each package should be in a separate directory. But we recognized that
explicitly listing all directories to be searched would be unbearable. A site may wish to install
dozens of packages. Aside from anything else, listing that many directories would produce searchpaths many thousands of characters long, overflowing the available space on some systems.
Also, if all directories are explicitly listed, installing or removing a new package would meanchanging a path as well as installing or removing the actual files. This would be a time-consuming
and error-prone operation, even with implementations that provide some way to specify the
directories to search at runtime. On systems without runtime configuration, it would require
recompiling software, an intolerable burden.
As a result, the TWG concluded that a comprehensive TDS requires implementations to support
some form of implicit subdirectory searching. More precisely, implementations must make itpossible to specify that TEX, METAFONT, and their companion utilities search in both a specified
directory and recursively through all subdirectories of that directory when looking for an input
file. Other forms of subdirectory searching, for example recursive-to-one-level searches, may also
be provided. We encourage implementors to provide subdirectory searching at the option of theinstaller and user for all paths.
The TDS does not specify a syntax for specifying recursive searching, but we encourage implementors to provide interoperability (see Section B.2).
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TDS version 1.1

2.2 Rooting the tree
In this document, we shall designate the root TDS directory by ‘texmf’ (for “TEX and METAFONT”). We recommend using that name where possible, but the actual name of the directory is
up to the installer. On PC networks, for example, this could map to a logical drive specificationsuch as T:.
Similarly, the location of this directory on the system is site-dependent. It may be at the root of
the file system; on Unix systems, /usr/local/share, /usr/local, /usr/local/lib, and /opt
are common choices.
The name texmf was chosen for several reasons: it reflects the fact that the directory contains files
pertaining to an entire TEX system (including METAFONT, METAPOST, BIBTEX, etc.), not justTEX itself; and it is descriptive of a generic installation rather than a particular implementation.
A site may choose to have more than one TDS hierarchy installed (for example, when installingan upgrade). This is perfectly legitimate.

2.3 Local additions
The TDS cannot specify precisely when a package is or is not a “local addition”. Each site must
determine this according to its own conventions. At the two extremes, one site might wish toconsider “nonlocal” all files not acquired as part of the installed TEX distribution; another site
might consider “local” only those files that were actually developed at the local site and not
distributed elsewhere.
We recognize two common methods for local additions to a distributed texmf tree. Both havetheir place; in fact, some sites employ both simultaneously:1.

A completely separate tree which is a TDS structure itself; for example, /usr/local/umbtex
at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. This is another example of the multiple texmf
hierarchies mentioned in the previous section.

2.

A directory named ‘local’ at any appropriate level, for example, in the hformati, hpackagei,
and hsupplier i directories discussed in the following sections. The TDS reserves the directory
name local for this purpose.
We recommend using local for site-adapted configuration files, such as language.dat for
the Babel package or graphics.cfg for the graphics package. Unmodified configuration
files from a package should remain in the package directory. The intent is to separate locallymodified or created files from distribution files, to ease installing new releases.

One common case of local additions is dynamically generated files, e.g., PK fonts by the mktexpk
script (which originated in Dvips as MakeTeXPK). A site may store the generated files directly in
any of:••••their standard location in the main TDS tree (if it can be made globally writable);an alternative location in the main TDS tree (for example, under texmf/fonts/tmp);
a second complete TDS tree (as outlined above);
any other convenient directory (perhaps under /var, for example /var/spool/fonts).

No one solution will be appropriate for all sites.

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2.4 Duplicate filenames
Different files by the same name may exist in a TDS tree. The TDS generally leaves unspecified which of two files by the same name in a search path will be found, so generally the only
way to reliably find a given file is for it to have a unique name. However, the TDS requires
implementations to support the following exceptions:•Names of TEX input files must be unique within each first-level subdirectory of texmf/tex
and texmf/tex/generic, but not within all of texmf/tex; i.e., different TEX formats may
have files by the same name. (Section 3.1 discusses this further.) Thus, no single formatindependent path specification, such as a recursive search beginning at texmf/tex specifying
no other directories, suffices. So implementations must provide format-dependent path
specifications, for example via wrapper scripts or configuration files.

•

Many font files will have the same name (e.g., cmr10.pk), as discussed in Section 3.2.2.
Implementations must distinguish these files by mode and resolution.

All implementations we know of already have these capabilities.
One place where duplicate names are likely to occur is not an exception:•

Names of METAFONT input files (as opposed to bitmaps) must be unique within all of
texmf/fonts. In practice, this is a problem with some variants of Computer Modern whichcontain slightly modified files named punct.mf, romanl.mf, and so on. We believe the only
feasible solution is to rename the derivative files to be unique.

3 Top-level directories
The directories under the texmf root identify the major components of a TEX system (see Section 4 for a summary). A site may omit any unneeded directories.
Although the TDS by its nature can specify precise locations only for implementation-independent
files, we recognize that installers may well wish to place other files under texmf to simplify
administration of the TEX tree, especially if it is maintained by someone other than the systemadministrator. Therefore, additional top-level directories may be present.
The top-level directories specified by the TDS are:tex

for TEX files (Section 3.1).
for font-related files (Section 3.2).

fonts

metafont

for METAFONT files which are not fonts (Section 3.3).

metapost

for METAPOST files (Section 3.4).

bibtexfor BIBTEX files (Section 3.5).

scripts

for platform-independent executables (Section 3.6).

doc

for user documentation (Section 3.7).

source for sources. This includes both traditional program sources (for example, Web2C
sources go in texmf/source/web2c) and, e.g., LATEX dtx sources (which go in texmf/
source/latex). The TDS leaves unspecified any structure under source.

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source is intended for files which are not needed at runtime by any TEX program; itshould not be included in any search path. For example, plain.tex does not belong under
texmf/source, even though it is a “source file” in the sense of not being derived fromanother file. (It goes in texmf/tex/plain/base, as explained in Section 3.1).
himplementationi for implementations (examples: emtex, vtex, web2c), to be used for whatever
purpose deemed suitable by the implementor or TEX administrator. That is, files thatcannot be shared between implementations, such as pool files (tex.pool) and memory
dump files (plain.fmt) go here, in addition to implementation-wide configuration files.
See Section B.3 for examples of real himplementationi trees.
Such implementation-specific configuration files should not be located using the main TEX
input search path (e.g., TEXINPUTS). This must be reserved for files actually read by a TEX
engine. See Section 3.1.1.
hprogrami for program-specific input and configuration files for any TEX-related programs (examples: mft, dvips). In fact, the tex, metafont, metapost, and bibtex items above may
all be seen as instances of this case.

3.1 Macros
TEX macro files shall be stored in separate directories, segregated by TEX format and package
name (we use ‘format’ in its traditional TEX sense to mean a usefully \dump-able package):
texmf/tex/hformati/hpackagei/
hformati

is a format name (examples: amstex, latex, plain, texinfo).

The TDS allows distributions that can be used as either formats or packages (e.g., Texinfo,
Eplain) to be stored at either level, at the option of the format author or TEX administrator.
We recommend that packages used as formats at a particular site be stored at the hformati
level: by adjusting the TEX inputs search path, it will be straightforward to use them as
macro packages under another format, whereas placing them in another tree completely
obscures their use as a format.
The TDS reserves the following hformati names:•

generic, for input files that are useful across a wide range of formats (examples:null.tex, path.sty). Generally, this means any format that uses the category codesof Plain TEX and does not rely on any particular format. This is in contrast to thosefiles which are useful only with Plain TEX (which go under texmf/tex/plain), e.g.,
testfont.tex and plain.tex itself.

•

local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.

Thus, for almost every format, it is necessary to search at least the hformati directory andthen the generic directory (in that order). Other directories may need to be searched aswell, depending on the format. When using AMS-TEX, for example, the amstex, plain,and generic directories should be searched, because AMS-TEX is compatible with Plain.
hpackagei is a TEX package name (examples: babel, texdraw).
In the case where a format consists of only a single file and has no auxiliary packages,that file can simply be placed in the hformati directory, instead of hformati/base. For
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example, Texinfo may go in texmf/tex/texinfo/texinfo.tex, not texmf/tex/texinfo/
base/texinfo.tex.
The TDS reserves the following hpackagei names:
•

•

3.1.1

base, for the base distribution of each format, including files used by INITEX when
dumping format files. For example, in the standard LATEX distribution, the ltx files
created during the build process. Another example: the .ini driver files for formats
used by TEX Live and other distributions.
hyphen, for hyphenation patterns, including the original American English hyphen.
tex. These are typically used only by INITEX. In most situations, this directory needexist only under the generic format.

•

images, for image input files, such as Encapsulated PostScript figures. Although it
is somewhat non-intuitive for these to be under a directory named “tex”, TEX needs
to read these files to glean bounding box or other information. A mechanism forsharing image inputs between TEX and other typesetting programs (e.g., Interleaf,
FrameMaker) is beyond the scope of the TDS. In most situations, this directory needexist only under the generic format.

•

local, for local additions and configuration files. See Section 2.3.

•

misc, for packages that consist of a single file. An administrator or package maintainer
may create directories for single-file packages at their discretion, instead of using misc.

Extensions

TEX has spawned many companion and successor programs (“engines”), such as PDFTEX, Omega,and others. The TDS specifies that the input files for such programs (using a TEX-like syntax) be
placed within the top-level tex directory, either at the top level or within a format subdirectory,
even though the original TEX program may not be able to read them. For example:
texmf/tex/aleph
texmf/tex/enctex
This is a change from TDS 1.0, which specified top-level hextensioni directories for each suchprogram. We felt the new approach is preferable, because:•

Authors of relevant packages typically make their code detect the engine being used, andissue error messages or adapt to circumstances appropriately. Furthermore, as a package
matures, it may support multiple engines. Thus, a package could conceivably be placedin any of several top-level directories, at different times. Putting all packages under the
top-level tex directory provides a stable location over time.

•

Users need to be able to switch between engines, and configuring different search paths foreach engine is difficult and error-prone.

Thus, in practice, having different top-level directories caused difficulties for everyone involved—
users, package authors, site administrators, and system distributors.
Please contrast this approach with the himplementationi top-level subdirectory (Section 3), whichis to be used for configuration files that (presumably) do not use TEX syntax and in any caseshould not be found along the main TEX input search path.

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3.2 Fonts
Font files are stored in separate directories, segregated by file type, and then (in most cases) fontsupplier and typeface. PK and GF files need additional structure, as detailed in the next section.
texmf/fonts/htypei/hsupplier i/htypefacei/
texmf/fonts/enc,lig,map/hsubpathi/
htypei is the type of font file. The TDS reserves the following htypei names for common TEX
file types:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

afm, for Adobe font metrics, and inf files.
gf, for generic font bitmap files.
opentype, for OpenType fonts.
pk, for packed bitmap files.
source, for font sources (METAFONT files, property lists, etc.).
tfm, for TEX font metric files.
truetype, for TrueType fonts.
type1, for PostScript Type 1 fonts (in pfa, pfb, or any other format), and pfm files.
type3, for PostScript Type 3 fonts.
vf, for virtual fonts.

The TDS also reserves the names enc, lig, and map for font encoding, ligature, and mapping
files, respectively. All of these directories are structured the same way, with hsyntax i
subdirectories, and then hpackagei subsubdirectories. Each of these file types is intended
to be searched along its own recursively-searched path. The names of the actual files must
be unique within their subtree, as usual. Examples:
fonts/map/dvipdfm/updmap/dvipdfm.map
fonts/map/dvips/lm/lm.map
fonts/enc/dvips/base/8r.enc
The Fontname and Dvips packages have more examples of the enc and map types. The
afm2pl program uses lig files.
pfm files are included in the type1 directory, instead of being given their own directory,
for two reasons: 1) a .pfm file is always an adjunct to a given .pfb file; 2) they must be
installed from the same directory for Windows programs other than TEX to use them.
inf files are included in the afm directory, since an inf and afm file can be used to generatea pfm. (Unfortunately, Adobe Type Manager and perhaps other software requires that the
pfb be in the same directory as afm and inf for installation.)
As usual, a site may omit any of these directories that are unnecessary. gf is a particularly
likely candidate for omission.
hsupplier i is a name identifying font source (examples: adobe, ams, public). The TDS reserves
the following hsupplier i names:•

ams, for the American Mathematical Society’s AMS-fonts collection.

•

local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.

•

public, for freely redistributable fonts where the supplier neither (1) requested theirown directory (e.g., ams), nor (2) also made proprietary fonts (e.g., adobe). It does

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not contain all extant freely distributable fonts, nor are all files therein necessarily
strictly public domain.
•tmp, for dynamically-generated fonts, as is traditional on some systems. It may beomitted if unnecessary, as usual.

htypefacei is the name of a typeface family (examples: cm, euler, times). The TDS reserves
the following htypefacei names:•

cm (within public), for the 75 fonts defined in Computers and Typesetting, Volume E.

•

latex (within public), for those fonts distributed with LATEX in the base distribution.

•

local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.

Some concrete examples:
texmf/fonts/source/public/pandora/pnr10.mf
texmf/fonts/tfm/public/cm/cmr10.tfm
texmf/fonts/type1/adobe/utopia/putr.pfa
For complete supplier and typeface name lists, consult Filenames for TEX fonts (see Appendix D).
3.2.1

Font bitmaps

Font bitmap files require two characteristics in addition to the above to be uniquely identifiable:(1) the type of device (i.e., mode) for which the font was created; (2) the resolution of the bitmap.
Following common practice, the TDS segregates fonts with different device types into separate
directories. See modes.mf in Appendix D for recommended mode names.
Some printers operate at more than one resolution (e.g., at 300 dpi and 600 dpi), but each such
resolution will necessarily have a different mode name. Nothing further is needed, since implicitin the TEX system is the assumption of a single target resolution.
Two naming strategies are commonly used to identify the resolution of bitmap font files. On
systems that allow long filenames (and in the original METAFONT program itself), the resolution
is included in the filename (e.g., cmr10.300pk). On systems which do not support long filenames,
fonts are generally segregated into directories by resolution (e.g., dpi300/cmr10.pk).
Because the TDS cannot require long filenames, we must use the latter scheme for naming fonts.
So we have two more subdirectory levels under pk and gf:
texmf/fonts/pk/hmodei/hsupplier i/htypefacei/dpihnnni/
texmf/fonts/gf/hmodei/hsupplier i/htypefacei/dpihnnni/
hmodei is a name which identifies the device type (examples: cx, ljfour, modeless). Usually,
this is the name of the METAFONT mode used to build the PK file. For fonts renderedas bitmaps by a program that does not distinguish between different output devices, thehmodei name shall be simply modeless. The hmodei level shall not be omitted, even if onlya single mode happens to be in use.
dpihnnni specifies the resolution of the font (examples: dpi300, dpi329). ‘dpi’ stands for dots
per inch, i.e., pixels per inch. We recognize that pixels per millimeter is used in many partsof the world, but dpi is too traditional in the TEX world to consider changing now.

9TDS version 1.1

The integer hnnni is to be calculated as if using METAFONT arithmetic and then rounded;i.e., it is the integer METAFONT uses in its output gf filename. We recognize small differences in the resolution are a common cause of frustration among users, however, and recommend implementors follow the level 0 DVI driver standard (see Appendix D) in bitmap
font searches by allowing a fuzz of ±0.2% (with a minimum of 1) in the hdpi i.
Implementations may provide extensions to the basic naming scheme, such as long filenames (asin the original METAFONT) and font library files (as in emTEX’s .fli files), provided that thebasic scheme is also supported.
3.2.2

Valid font bitmaps

The TWG recognizes that the use of short filenames has many disadvantages. The most vexingis that it results in the creation of dozens of different files with the same name. At a typical site,
cmr10.pk will be the filename for Computer Modern Roman 10 pt at 5–10 magnifications for 2–3
modes. (Section 2.4 discusses duplicate filenames in general.)
To minimize this problem, we strongly recommend that PK files contain enough information to
identify precisely how they were created: at least the mode, base resolution, and magnification
used to create the font.
This information is easy to supply: a simple addition to the local modes used for building
the fonts with METAFONT will automatically provide the required information. If you havebeen using a local modes file derived from (or that is simply) modes.mf (see Appendix D), therequired information is already in your PK files. If not, a simple addition based on the code foundin modes.mf can be made to your local modes file and the PK files rebuilt.

3.3 Non-font METAFONT files
Most METAFONT input files are font programs or parts of font programs and are thus covered by
the previous section. However, a few non-font input files do exist. Such files shall be stored in:texmf/metafont/hpackagei/
hpackagei is the name of a METAFONT package (for example, mfpic).
The TDS reserves the following hpackagei names:•

base, for the standard METAFONT macro files as described in The METAFONTbook, suchas plain.mf and expr.mf.

•

local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.

•

misc, for METAFONT packages consisting of only a single file (for example, modes.mf). An
administrator or package maintainer may create directories for single-file packages at theirdiscretion, instead of using misc.

3.4 METAPOSTMETAPOST is a picture-drawing language developed by John Hobby, derived from Knuth’s METAFONT. Its primary purpose is to output Encapsulated PostScript instead of bitmaps.
METAPOST input files and the support files for METAPOST-related utilities shall be stored in:
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texmf/metapost/hpackagei/
hpackagei is the name of a METAPOST package. At the present writing none exist, but the TWG
thought it prudent to leave room for contributed packages that might be written in the future.
The TDS reserves the following hpackagei names:•

base, for the standard METAPOST macro files, such as plain.mp, mfplain.mp, boxes.mp,
and graph.mp. This includes files used by INIMP when dumping mem files containing
preloaded macro definitions.

•

local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.

•

misc, for METAPOST packages consisting of only a single file. An administrator or package
maintainer may create directories for single-file packages at their discretion, instead of using
misc.

•

support, for additional input files required by METAPOST utility programs, including afont map, a character adjustment table, and a subdirectory containing low-level METAPOST
programs for rendering some special characters.

3.5 BIBTEXBIBTEX-related files shall be stored in:texmf/bibtex/bib/hpackagei/
texmf/bibtex/bst/hpackagei/
The bib directory is for BIBTEX database (.bib) files, the bst directory for style (.bst) files.
hpackagei is the name of a BIBTEX package. The TDS reserves the following hpackagei names(the same names are reserved under both bib and bst):•••

base, for the standard BIBTEX databases and styles, such as xampl.bib, plain.bst.
local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.
misc, for BIBTEX packages consisting of only a single file. An administrator or package
maintainer may create directories for single-file packages at their discretion, instead ofusing misc.

3.6 Scripts
The top-level scripts directory is for platform-independent executables, such as Perl, Python,and shell scripts, and Java class files. Subdirectories under scripts are package names. This eases
creating distributions, by providing a common place for such platform-independent programs.
The intent is not for all such directories to be added to a user’s command search path, which
would be quite impractical. Rather, these executables are primarily for the benefit of wrapper
scripts in whatever executable directory a distribution may provide (which is not specified by the
TDS).
Truly auxiliary scripts which are invoked directly by other programs, rather than wrapper scripts,
may also be placed here. That is, scripts also serves as a platform-independent analog of thestandard Unix libexec directory.

11

TDS version 1.1

We recommend using extensions specifying the language (such as .pl, .py, .sh) on these files,
to help uniquely identify the name. Since the intent of the TDS is for programs in scripts not
to be invoked directly by users, this poses no inconvenience.
For example, in the TEX Live distribution, the ConTEXt user-level program texexec can exist asa small wrapper script in each bin/hplatformi/texexec (which is outside the texmf tree), whichmerely finds and calls texmf/scripts/context/perl/texexec.pl.
Examples:
scripts/context/perl/texexec.pl
scripts/context/ruby/examplex.rb
scripts/thumbpdf/thumbpdf.pl
The TDS does not specify a location for platform-dependent binary executables, whether auxiliary
or user-level.

3.7 Documentation
Most packages come with some form of documentation: user manuals, example files, programming
guides, etc. In addition, many independent files not part of any macro or other package havebeen created to describe various aspects of the TEX system.
The TDS specifies that these additional documentation files shall be stored in a structure thatparallels to some extent the fonts and tex directories, as follows:
texmf/doc/hcategoryi/...
hcategoryi identifies the general topic of documentation that resides below it; for example, a TEX
format name (latex), program name (bibtex, tex), language (french, german), a file format(info, man), or other system components (web, fonts).
One possible arrangement is to organize doc by language, with all the other category types below
that. This helps users find documentation in the language(s) in which they are fluent. Neither
this nor any other particular arrangement is required, however.
Within each hcategoryi tree for a TEX format, the directory base is reserved for base documentation distributed by the format’s maintainers.
The TDS reserves the following category names:• general, for standalone documents not specific to any particular program (for example,
Joachim Schrod’s Components of TEX ).
• help, for meta-information, such as FAQ’s, the TEX Catalogue, etc.
•

info, for processed Texinfo documents. (Info files, like anything else, may also be stored
outside the TDS, at the installer’s option.)• local, for local additions. See Section 2.3.
The doc directory is intended for implementation-independent and operating system-independent
documentation files. Implementation-dependent files are best stored elsewhere, as provided forby the implementation and/or TEX administrator (for example, VMS help files under texmf/
vms/help).
The documentation directories may contain TEX sources, DVI files, PostScript files, text files,
example input files, or any other useful documentation format(s).
See Section 4.1 for a summary.
12

TDS version 1.1

4 Summary
A skeleton of a TDS texmf directory tree. This is not to imply these are the only entries allowed.
For example, local may occur at any level.
bibtex/BIBTEX input files
bib/
BIBTEX databases
base/
base distribution (e.g., xampl.bib)
misc/single-file databases
hpackagei/
name of a package
bst/
BIBTEX style files
base/base distribution (e.g., plain.bst, acm.bst)
misc/
single-file styles
hpackagei/
name of a package
doc/
see Section 3.7 and the summary below
fonts/
font-related files
htypei/file type (e.g., pk)
hmodei/type of output device (for pk and gf only)
hsupplier i/name of a font supplier (e.g., public)
htypefacei/
name of a typeface (e.g., cm)
dpihnnni/ font resolution (for pk and gf only)
himplementationi/
TEX implementations, by name (e.g., emtex)
local/
files created or modified at the local site
metafont/
METAFONT (non-font) input files
base/base distribution (e.g., plain.mf)
misc/
single-file packages (e.g., modes.mf)
hpackagei/
name of a package (e.g., mfpic)
metapost/
METAPOST input and support files
base/base distribution (e.g., plain.mp)
misc/
single-file packages
hpackagei/
name of a package
support/support files for METAPOST-related utilities
mft/
MFT inputs (e.g., plain.mft)
hprogrami/
TEX-related programs, by name (e.g., dvips)
source/program source code by name (e.g., latex, web2c)tex/
TEX input files
henginei/name of an engine (e.g., aleph); can also be lower
hformati/
name of a format (e.g., plain)base/base distribution for format (e.g., plain.tex)
misc/
single-file packages (e.g., webmac.tex)
local/
local additions to or local configuration files for hformati
hpackagei/
name of a package (e.g., graphics, mfnfss)
generic/
format-independent packages
hyphen/hyphenation patterns (e.g., hyphen.tex)
images/image input files (e.g., Encapsulated PostScript)
misc/
single-file format-independent packages (e.g., null.tex).
hpackagei/
name of a package (e.g., babel)
13

TDS version 1.1

4.1 Documentation tree summary
An example skeleton of a TDS directory tree under texmf/doc. This is not to imply these are
the only entries allowed, or that this structure must be followed precisely for the entries listed.
As mentioned, the texmf/doc tree may be organized by language, so that all documentation in
French, say, is in a french subdirectory. In that case, the example structure here would be in agiven language directory.
ams/
amsfonts/
amslatex/amstex/bibtex/base/
fonts/
fontname/oldgerm/hformati/
base/
misc/
hpackagei/
general/errata/texcomp/
help/
ctan/
faq/
info/
latex/
base/graphics/
local/
man/
hprogrami/
metafont/
metapost/
tex/
web/

amsfonts.faq, amfndoc
amslatex.faq, amsldoc
amsguide, joyerr
BIBTEX
btxdoc.tex
Filenames for TEX fonts
corkpaprname of a TEX format (e.g., generic, latex)
for the base distribution
for contributed single-file package documentation
for package
across programs, generalities
errata, errata[1-8]Components of TEX
meta-information
info about CTAN mirror sites
FAQs of comp.text.tex, etc.
GNU Info files, made from Texinfo sources
example of hformati
ltnews*, *guide, etc.
grfguidesite-specific documentation
Unix man pages
TEX-related programs, by name (examples follow)
mfbook.tex, metafont-for-beginners, etc.
mpman, manfig, etc.
texbook.tex, A Gentle Introduction to TEX, etc.
webman, cwebman

14

TDS version 1.1

A Unspecified pieces
The TDS cannot address the following aspects of a functioning TEX system:
1.

The location of executable programs: this is too site-dependent even to recommend a location, let alone require one. A site may place executables outside the texmf tree altogether(e.g., /usr/local/bin), in a platform-dependent directory within texmf, or elsewhere.

2.

Upgrading packages when new releases are made: we could find no way of introducing
version specifiers into texmf that would do more good than harm, or that would be practicalfor even a plurality of installations.

3.

The location of implementation-specific files (e.g., TEX .fmt files): by their nature, thesemust be left to the implementor or TEX maintainer. See Section B.3.

4.

Precisely when a package or file should be considered “local”, and where such local files are
installed. See Section 2.3 for more discussion.

A.1 Portable filenames
The TDS cannot require any particular restriction on filenames in the tree, since the names ofmany existing TEX files conform to no standard scheme. For the benefit of people who wish
to make a portable TEX distribution or installation, however, we outline here the necessary
restrictions. The TDS specifications themselves are compatible with these.
ISO-9660 is the only universally acceptable file system format for CD-ROMs. A subset thereof

meets the stringent limitations of all operating systems in use today. It specifies the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•

File and directory names, not including any directory path or extension part, may notexceed eight characters.
Filenames may have a single extension. Extensions may not exceed three characters. Directory names may not have an extension.
Names and extensions may consist of only the characters A–Z, 0–9, and underscore. Lowercase letters are excluded.
A period separates the filename from the extension and is always present, even if the nameor extension is missing (e.g., FILENAME. or .EXT).
A version number, ranging from 1–32767, is appended to the file extension, separated by asemicolon (e.g., FILENAME.EXT;1).
Only eight directory levels are allowed, including the top-level (mounted) directory (seeSection 2.2). Thus, the deepest valid ISO-9660 path is:
texmf/L2/L3/L4/L5/L6/L7/L8/FOO.BAR;1
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8The deepest TDS path needs only seven levels:
texmf/fonts/pk/cx/public/cm/dpi300/cmr10.pk
1
2
3 4 5
6 7

Some systems display a modified format of ISO-9660 names, mapping alphabetic characters tolowercase, removing version numbers and trailing periods, etc.
Before the December 1996 release, LATEX used mixed-case names for font descriptor files. Fortunately, it never relied on case alone to distinguish among the files. Nowadays, it uses only
monocase names.
15

TDS version 1.1

B Implementation issues
We believe that the TDS can bring a great deal of order to the current anarchic state of many
TEX installations. In addition, by providing a common frame of reference, it will ease the burdenof documenting administrative tasks. Finally, it is a necessary part of any reasonable system oftrue “drop-in” distribution packages for TEX.

B.1 Adoption of the TDS[This section is retained for historical purposes; the TDS is now quite firmly entrenched in mostTEX distributions.]
We recognize that adoption of the TDS will not be immediate or universal. Most TEX administrators will not be inclined to make the final switch until:•••

Clear and demonstrable benefits can be shown for the TDS.
TDS-compliant versions of all key programs are available in ported, well-tested forms.
A “settling” period has taken place, to flush out problems. The public release of the firstdraft of this document was the first step in this process.

Consequently, most of the first trials of the TDS will be made by members of the TDS committee
and/or developers of TEX-related software. This has already taken place during the course ofour deliberations (see Appendix D for a sample tree available electronically). They will certainly
result in the production of a substantial number of TDS-compliant packages. Indeed, the teTEX
and TEX Live distributions are TDS-compliant and in use now at many sites.
Once installable forms of key TDS-compliant packages are more widespread, some TEX administrators will set up TDS-compliant trees, possibly in parallel to existing production directories.
This testing will likely flush out problems that were not obvious in the confined settings of thedevelopers’ sites; for example, it should help to resolve system and package dependencies, package
interdependencies, and other details not addressed by this TDS version.
After most of the dust has settled, hopefully even conservative TEX administrators will begin to
adopt the TDS. Eventually, most TEX sites will have adopted the common structure, and mostpackages will be readily available in TDS-compliant form.
We believe that this process will occur relatively quickly. The TDS committee spans a wide range
of interests in the TEX community. Consequently, we believe that most of the key issues involved
in defining a workable TDS definition have been covered, often in detail. TEX developers havebeen consulted about implementation issues, and have been trying out the TDS arrangement.
Thus, we hope for few surprises as implementations mature.
Finally, there are several (current or prospective) publishers of TEX CD-ROMs. These publishers
are highly motivated to work out details of TDS implementation, and their products will provide
inexpensive and convenient ways for experimentally-minded TEX administrators to experimentwith the TDS.

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TDS version 1.1

B.2 More on subdirectory searching
Recursive subdirectory searching is the ability to specify a search not only of a specified directory
hd i, but recursively of all directories below hd i.
Since the TDS specifies precise locations for most files, with no extra levels of subdirectories
allowed, true recursive searching is not actually required for a TDS-compliant implementation.
We do, however, strongly recommend recursive searching as the most user-friendly and natural
approach to the problem, rather than convoluted methods to specify paths without recursion.
This feature is already supported by many implementations of TEX and companion utilities, forexample DECUS TEX for VMS, Dvips(k), emTEX (and its drivers), PubliC TEX, Web2C, Xdvi(k),and Y&YTEX. The Kpathsea library is a reusable implementation of subdirectory searching for
TEX, used in a number of the above programs.
Even if your TEX implementation does not directly support subdirectory searching, you may findit useful to adopt the structure if you do not use many fonts or packages. For instance, if you
only use Computer Modern and AMS fonts, it would be feasible to store them in the TDS layout
and list the directories individually in configuration files or environment variables.
The TWG recognizes that subdirectory searching places an extra burden on the system and may
be the source of performance bottlenecks, particularly on slower machines. Nevertheless, wefeel that subdirectory searching is imperative for a well-organized TDS, for the reasons statedin Section 2.1. Implementors are encouraged to provide enhancements to the basic principle ofsubdirectory searching to avoid performance problems, e.g., the use of a filename cache (this canbe as simple as a recursive directory listing) that is consulted before disk searching begins. If amatch is found in the database, subdirectory searching is not required, and performance is thus
independent of the number of subdirectories present on the system.
Different implementations specify subdirectory searching differently. In the interest of typographic clarity, the examples here do not use the hreplaceablei font.
Dvips: via a separate TEXFONTS_SUBDIR environment variable.
emTEX: t:\subdir!!; t:\subdir! for a single level of searching.
Kpathsea: texmf/subdir//
VMS: texmf:[subdir...]Xdvi (patchlevel 20): texmf/subdir/**; texmf/subdir/* for a single level of searching. Version 20.50 and above support the // notation.
Y&Y TEX: t:/subdir// or t:\subdir\\.

B.3 Example implementation-specific trees
The TDS cannot specify a precise location for implementation-specific files, such as texmf/ini,because a site may have multiple TEX implementations.
Nevertheless, for informative purposes, we provide here the default locations for some implementations. Please contact us with additions or corrections. These paths are not definitive, may not
match anything at your site, and may change without warning.
We recommend all implementations have default search paths that start with the current directory(e.g., ‘.’). Allowing users to include the parent directory (e.g., ‘..’) is also helpful.
17

TDS version 1.1

B.3.1

AmiWeb2c 2.0(Email scherer@physik.rwth-aachen.de to contact the maintainer of this implementation.)
AmiWeb2c 2 is compatible with Web2c 7 to the greatest possible extent, so only the very few
differences are described in this section. Detailed information about the basic concepts is givenin the section for Web2c 7 below.
Thanks to the SELFAUTO mechanism of Kpathsea 3.0 no specific location for the installation of
AmiWeb2c is required as long as the general structure of the distribution is preserved.
In addition to Kpathsea’s // notation recursive path search may also be started by hDEVICE i:/,e.g., TeXMF:/ will scan this specific device completely.
Binaries coming with the AmiWeb2c distribution are installed in the directory bin/amiweb2c/
outside the common TDS tree share/texmf/. In addition to the set of AmiWeb2c binaries you
will find two subdirectories local/ and pastex/ with auxiliary programs.
A stripped version of the PasTEX system (used by kind permission of Georg Heßmann) is comingwith AmiWeb2c, pre-installed in its own share/texmf/amiweb2c/pastex/ directory. If you want
to use PasTEX you have to assign the name TeX: to this place.
Documentation files in AmigaGuide format should be stored at doc/guide/ similar to doc/info/.
B.3.2

Public DECUS TEX

If another VMS implementation besides Public DECUS TEX appears, the top level implementation
directory name will be modified to something more specific (e.g., vms decus).
texmf/
vms/
exe/
common/axp/
vax/
formats/
help/
mgr/
B.3.3

VMS implementation specific files

end-user commands
command procedures, command definition files, etc.
binary executables for Alpha AXP
binary executables for VAX
pool files, formats, bases
VMS help library, and miscellaneous help sources
command procedures, programs, docs, etc., for system management

Web2c 7All implementation-dependent TEX system files (.pool, .fmt, .base, .mem) are stored by default
directly in texmf/web2c. The configuration file texmf.cnf and various subsidiary MakeTeX...
scripts used as subroutines are also stored there.
Non-TEX specific files are stored following the GNU coding standards. Given a root directory
hprefix i (/usr/local by default), we have default locations as follows:

18

TDS version 1.1

hprefix i/
bin/
man/
info/
lib/
share/
texmf/
web2c/

installation root (/usr/local by default)
executables
man pages
info files
libraries (libkpathsea.*)architecture-independent files
TDS root
implementation-dependent files (.pool, .fmt, texmf.cnf, etc.)

See http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards toc.html for the rationale behind and descriptionsof this arrangement. A site may of course override these defaults; for example, it may put
everything under a single directory such as /usr/local/texmf.

C Is there a better way?
Defining the TDS required many compromises. Both the overall structure and the details of
the individual directories were arrived at by finding common ground among many opinions.
The driving forces were feasibility (in terms of what could technically be done and what could
reasonably be expected from developers) and regularity (files grouped together in an arrangementthat “made sense”).
Some interesting ideas could not be applied due to implementations lacking the necessary support:•

Path searching control at the TEX level. If documents could restrict subdirectory searching
to a subdirectory via some portable syntax in file names, restrictions on uniqueness offilenames could be relaxed considerably (with the cooperation of the formats), and the TEX
search path would not need to depend on the format.

•

Multiple logical texmf trees. For example, a site might have one (read-only) location forstable files, and a different (writable) location for dynamically-created fonts or other files. It
would be reasonable for two such trees to be logically merged when searching. See Michael
Downes’ article in the references for how this can work in practice with Web2C.

C.1 Macro structure
The TWG settled on the hformati/hpackagei arrangement after long discussion about how best
to arrange the files.
The primary alternative to this arrangement was a scheme which reversed the order of these
directories: hpackagei/hformati. This reversed arrangement has a strong appeal: it keeps all of
the files related to a particular package in a single place. The arrangement actually adopted tends
to spread files out into two or three places (macros, documentation, and fonts, for example, arespread into different sections of the tree right at the top level).
Nevertheless, the hformati/hpackagei structure won for a couple of reasons:•

It is closer to current practice; in fact, several members of the TWG have already implemented the TDS hierarchy. The alternative is not in use at any known site, and the TWG
felt it wrong to mandate something with which there is no practical experience.

19

TDS version 1.1•

The alternative arrangement increases the number of top-level directories, so the files thatmust be found using subdirectory searching are spread out in a wide, shallow tree. This
could have a profound impact on the efficiency of subdirectory searching.

C.2 Font structure
The TWG struggled more with the font directory structure than anything else. This is not
surprising; the need to use the proliferation of PostScript fonts with TEX is what made theprevious arrangement with all files in a single directory untenable, and therefore what initiatedthe TDS effort.
C.2.1

Font file type location

We considered the supplier-first arrangement in use at many sites:
texmf/fonts/hsupplier i/htypefacei/htypei/
This improves the maintainability of the font tree, since all files comprising a given typeface arein one place, but unless all the programs that search this tree employ some form of caching,
there are serious performance concerns. For example, in order to find a TFM file, the simplest
implementation would require TEX to search through all the directories that contain PK files inall modes and at all resolutions.
In the end, a poll of developers revealed considerable resistance to implementing sufficient cachingmechanisms, so this arrangement was abandoned. The TDS arrangement allows the search tree
to be restricted to the correct type of file, at least. Concerns about efficiency remain, but there
seems to be no more we can do without abandoning subdirectory searching entirely.
We also considered segregating all font-related files strictly by file type, so that METAFONT
sources would be in a directory texmf/fonts/mf, property list files in texmf/fonts/pl, thevarious forms of Type 1 fonts separated, and so on. Although more blindly consistent, we feltthat the drawback of more complicated path constructions outweighed this. The TDS merges
file types (mf and pl under source, pfa and pfb and gsf under type1) where we felt this wasbeneficial.
C.2.2

Mode and resolution location

We considered having the mode at the bottom of the font tree:
texmf/fonts/pk/hsupplier i/htypefacei/hmodei/hdpi i/
In this case, however, it is difficult to limit subdirectory searching to the mode required for aparticular device.
We then considered moving the dpihnnni up to below the mode:
texmf/fonts/pk/hmodei/hdpi i/hsupplier i/htypefacei/
But then it is not feasible to omit the dpihnnni level altogether on systems which can and dochoose to use long filenames.

20

TDS version 1.1

C.2.3

Modeless bitmaps

The TDS specifies using a single directory modeless/ as the mode name for those utilities which
generate bitmaps, e.g., texmf/fonts/modeless/times/. This has the considerable advantage of
not requiring each such directory name to be listed in a search path.
An alternative was to use the utility name below which all such directories could be gathered.
That has the advantage of separating, say, gsftopk-generated bitmaps from ps2pk-generated
ones. However, we decided this was not necessary; most sites will use only one program for the
purpose. Also, PK and GF fonts generally identify their creator in the font comment following
the PK ID byte.
We are making an implicit assumption that METAFONT is the only program producing modedependent bitmaps. If this becomes false we could add an abbreviation for the program tomode names, as in mfcx vs. xyzcx for a hypothetical program Xyz, or we could at that time
add an additional program name level uniformly to the tree. It seemed more important toconcisely represent the current situation than to worry about hypothetical possibilities that may
never happen.

C.3 Documentation structure
We considered placing additional documentation files in the same directory as the source files
for the packages, but we felt that users should be able to find documentation separately fromsources, since most users have no interest in sources.
We hope that a separate, but parallel, structure for documentation would (1) keep the documentation together and (2) make it as straightforward as possible for users to find the particular
documentation they were after.

D Related references
This appendix gives pointers to related files and other documents. For CTAN references, we use
http://www.ctan.org as the top-level domain only to make the links be live in this document.
See http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/CTAN.sites for a complete list of CTAN sites; there
are mirrors worldwide.
•
•
•
•
•
•

This document, in many formats (tex, dvi, info, pdf):
http://tug.org/tds/
The TDS mailing list archives:
http://tug.org/mail-archives/twg-tds/
The level 0 DVI driver standard:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/dviware/driv-standard/level-0/
Filenames for TEX fonts, with lists of recommended supplier and typeface names:
http://tug.org/fontname/ISO-9660 CD-ROM file system standard:
http://www.iso.ch/cate/cat.html
Components of TEX, a paper by Joachim Schrod:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/documentation/components-of-TeX/
21

TDS version 1.1•••

Managing Multiple TDS trees, an article by Michael Downes:
http://tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb22-3/tb72downes.pdf
A complete set of METAFONT modes:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/modes/modes.mf
A large collection of BIBTEX databases and styles:
ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/

E Contributors
The TWG has had no physical meetings; electronic mail was the communication medium.
Sebastian Rahtz is the TEX Users Group Technical Council liaison. Norman Walsh was theoriginal committee chair. Karl Berry is the current editor.
The list of contributors has grown too large to fairly include, as some would surely be inadvertently
omitted. Please consider the archives of the tds@tug.org and tex-live@tug.org mailing lists
as the record of contributions.

22