lyx(1)

NAME

lyx - A Document Processor

SYNOPSIS

lyx [ command-line switches ] [ name[.lyx] ... ]

DESCRIPTION

LyX is too complex to be described completely in the "man"

page format. If your system is properly configured, you can ac

cess the full documentation within LyX under the Help menu.

LyX is a document preparation system. It excels at letting

you create complex technical and scientific articles with mathe

matics, cross-references, bibliographies, indices, etc. It is

very good at documents of any length in which the usual process

ing abilities are required: automatic sectioning and pagination,

spellchecking, and so forth. It can also be used to write a let

ter to your mom, though granted, there are probably simpler pro

grams available for that. It is definitely not the best tool for

creating banners, flyers, or advertisements, though with some ef

fort all these can be done, too. Some examples of what it is

used for: memos, letters, dissertations and theses, lecture

notes, seminar notebooks, conference proceedings, software docu

mentation, books (on PostgreSQL, remote sensing, cryptology, fic

tional novels, poetry, and even a children's book or two), arti

cles in refereed scientific journals, scripts for plays and

movies, business proposals... you get the idea.

Currently, LyX uses either the XForms or Qt library as a

toolkit. LyX should run everywhere, where these libraries run.

This is on all major Unix platforms as well as Windows, Mac OS X

(which actually is a unix platform) and OS/2.

OPTIONS

LyX supports the following command-line switches.

-help summarizes LyX usage

-version

provides version information on the build of LyX.

-sysdir directory

sets system directory. Normally not needed.

-userdir directory

sets user directory. Needed if you want to use LyX

with different lyxrc settings.

-dbg feature[,feature...]

where feature is a name or number. Use "lyx -dbg"

to see the list of available debug features.

-x [--execute] command

where command is a lyx command.

-e [--export] fmt

where fmt is the export format of choice.

-i [--import] fmt file.xxx

where fmt is the import format of choice and

file.xxx is the file to be imported.

XFORMS FRONTEND OPTIONS

When compiled with the XForms frontend, LyX understands

the following generic command line options from the Forms

Library

.Xdefaults) with class name LyX.
-geometry WxH+X+Y

specifies the preferred size and position of the

main LyX window; see X(1).

-display host:display

specifies the server to connect to.

-bw borderwidth

specifies the border width to use to built-in ob

jects.

-visual visualName

requests a visual by name such as TrueColor etc. By

default the Forms Library always selects the visual that has the

most depth.

-depth depth

requests a specific depth. Try "-depth best" or

"-depth 8" if you get a bad match.

-debug level

generates some info about the state of the XForms.

where level is an integer between 1-5 and controls the amount of

information to output. Depending on the options used when the

Forms Library

able.
-sync runs the application in synchronous mode with debug

level set to 4.

-private

requests a private colormap for the application.

-shared

requests a shared colormap even if the application

needs more colors than available. For those colors that can't be

allocated in the shared colormap, substitutions are made so the

closest matching color is used.

-stdcmap

requests a standard colormap.

-name newname

specifies the application name under which resources

are to be obtained, rather than the default executable file name.

ENVIRONMENT

LYX_DIR_14x

can be used to specify which system directory to

use.

The system directory is determined by searching for the

file "chkconfig.ltx". Directories are searched in this order:
1) -sysdir command line parameter
2) LYX_DIR_14x environment variable
3) Maybe <path of binary>/TOP_SRCDIR/lib
4) <path of binary>/../share/<name of binary>/
5) hardcoded lyx_dir (usually /usr/local/share/lyx on UNIX

and %X11ROOT%ree)

LYX_USERDIR_14x

can be used to specify which user directory to use.

The user directory is, in order of precedence:
1) -userdir command line parameter
2) LYX_USERDIR_14x environment variable
3) $HOME/.<name of binary> if no explicit setting is made

LYX_LOCALEDIR

can be used to tell LyX where to look for the

translations of its GUI strings in other languages.

FILES

~/.lyx/preferences Personal configuration file
~/.lyx/lyxrc.defaults Personal autodetected configura

tion file
LIBDIR/lyxrc System wide configuration file
LIBDIR/lyxrc.defaults System wide autodetected configura

tion file
LIBDIR/configure Updates LyX if config has changed
LIBDIR/bind/ Keybindings
LIBDIR/clipart/ Clipart pictures
LIBDIR/doc/ Documentation in LyX format.
LIBDIR/examples/ Example documents
LIBDIR/images/ Images used as icons or in popups
LIBDIR/kbd/ Keyboard mappings
LIBDIR/layouts/ Layout descriptions
LIBDIR/templates/ Templates for documents
LIBDIR/tex/ Extra TeX files

LIBDIR is the system directory. This is usually /usr/lo

cal/share/lyx on UNIX and %X11ROOT%ree.

SEE ALSO

tex2lyx(1), latex(1).

Full documentation in either native LyX or postscript for

mat.

BUGS/LIMITATIONS

There are still some bugs in LyX. To report one, read if

possible the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.

You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there. If you

can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers mailing list

lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org, or use the LyX bug tracker at

http://bugzilla.lyx.org/. Don't forget to mention which version

you are having problems with!

LaTeX import is still not perfect and may produce buggy

*.lyx files. Consult the tex2lyx documentation.

AUTHORS

Copyright (c) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,

2002 by Matthias Ettrich (ettrich@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de)

and the rest of the LyX Team (See About LyX under the Help menu

item).

Version 1.4 Jan 2003

LYX(1)