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MP(1) General Commands Manual MP(1) NAME mp, MetaPost - system for drawing pictures SYNOPSIS mp [ -I ] [ -T ] [ first-line ] DESCRIPTION Mp interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript pictures. The MetaPost language is similar to Knuth's Metafont with additional features for including tex(1) or troff(1) commands and accessing fea- tures of PostScript not found in Metafont. The -T flag selects troff instead of tex. An argument given on the command line behaves as the first input line. That can be either a (possibly truncated) file name or a sequence Meta- Post commands starting with and including an command. Thus processes the file The basename of becomes the jobname, and is used in forming output file names. If no file is named, the jobname becomes The de- fault extension can be overridden by specifying an extension explic- itly. There is normally one output file for each picture generated, and the output files are named jobname.nnn, where nnn is a number passed to the macro. The output file name is jobname.ps if this number is negative. The output files can be used as figures in a TeX document by including \special{psfile=jobname.nnn} in the TeX document. Alternatively, one can and then use the macro \epsfbox{jobname.nnn} to produce a box of the appropriate size contain- ing the figure. btex TeX commands etex This causes mp to generate a MetaPost picture expression that corresponds to the TeX commands. If the TeX commands generate more than one line of text, it must be in a or a minipage envi- ronment. verbatimtex TeX commands etex This is ignored by mp except that the TeX commands are passed on to TeX. When using LaTeX instead of TeX the input file must start with a block that gives the and commands. Since most TeX fonts have to be downloaded as bitmaps, the feature works best when the output of is to be included in a TeX document so that dvips(1) can download the fonts. For self-contained PostScript output that can be used directly or included in a troff document, start your MetaPost input file with the command and stick to standard Post- Script fonts. TeX and MetaPost use the names in the third column of the file MetaPost output can be included in a troff document via the mpic- tures(6) macro package. In this case mp should be invoked with the -T flag so that the commands between and or between and are interpreted as troff instead of TeX. (This automatically sets ). Here is a list of the environment variables affect the behavior of mp: MPINPUTS Search path for files. It should be colon-separated, and start with dot. Default: MFINPUTS Auxiliary search path for files with extensions. Default: TEXFONTS Search path for font metric files. Default: MPXCOMMAND The name of a shell script that converts embedded typesetting commands to a form that mp understands. Defaults: for tex and for troff TEX The version of TeX to use when processing and commands. De- fault: TROFF The troff pipeline for and commands. Default: eqn -d\$\$ | troff -Tpost MPMEMS Search path for files. Default: MPPOOL Search path for strings. Default: MPEDITOR A command for invoking an editor with in place of the file name and in place of the line number. Default: TEXVFONTS Search path for virtual fonts. Default: A file is a binary file that permits fast loading of fonts and macro packages. Mp reads the default unless another file is specified at the start of the first line with an just before it. There is also an that simulates plain Metafont so that mp can read fonts. (Plain Metafont is described in The METAFONTbook). Experts can create files be invoking mp with the -I switch and giving macro definitions followed by a command. The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual A User's Manual for MetaPost assumes no knowledge of Metafont. MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or Metafont's online display mechanism. Use dvips(1) and psi(9.1) to see the results before printing. FILES macros, files, and tables for handling included tex and troff Directory for programs that handle included tex and troff. table of corresponding font names for troff, PostScript, and TeX The TeX input file where the macro is defined TeX input for a document that describes the MetaPost language The source file for the figures used in More information on using MetaPost with troff. SEE ALSO tex(1), lp(1), psi(9.1), Donald E. Knuth, The METAFONTbook, Addison Wesley, 1986, John D. Hobby, A User's Manual for MetaPost AT&T Bell Labs Computing Science Technical Report 162, 1991. MP(1)