hishrink(1) hishrink(1)
NAME
hishrink- translating ASCII HINT files to binary files
SYNOPSIS
hishrink [options] [file]
DESCRIPTION
Shrinking converts an ASCII HINT file, usually with the extension
.hint, into a binary HINT file, with the extension .hnt.
The ASCII based HINT file format - also called `long' format - is opti-
mized for readability. It can be edited using a text editor. Hence it
allows simple modifications that would be difficult to achieve when
using the binary format. It is also convenient when debugging.
The binary HINT file format - also called `short' format - is optimized
for displaying HINT files. It can be parsed equally well in forward and
backward direction to enable fast forward or backward navigation in the
file.
The binary HINT file format is designed for on-screen reading of docu-
ments. Using a HINT viewer to display a HINT file, its content will
dynamically adapt to the available display area. For complete informa-
tion on the HINT file format and programs to view HINT files, see
https://hint.userweb.mwn.de.
OPTIONS
This version of hishrink understands the following command line
options:
-a Use only the localized names for auxiliary files as explained in
the FILES section below.
If you know that the auxiliary files can be found using the
localized names, for example after creating them with histretch
using the -a option, you can use hishrink with the -a option to
limit the search for the auxiliar files. If you are unsure, you
should use neither the -a nor the -g option. hishrink will then
search for auxiliar files first using the localized path names
and then using the path names as given.
-c Enable the use of compression for the HINT file. Compressed
files are smaller but require decompression when viewing. Use
only for large files if the file size matters.
-d bitmask
Sets HINT file debugging flags according to the bitmask. Use
the --help option for details.
-g Do not use the localized names for auxiliary files as explained
in the FILES section below.
You may use this option if you know that all auxiliar files are
at the locations described by the path names stored in the HINT
file. If you are unsure, you should use neither the -g nor the
-a option. hishrink will then search for auxiliar files first
using the localized path names and then using the path names as
given.
--help Print help message and exit.
-l Redirect standard error to a log file. The name of the log file
is derived from the name of the input file replacing the exten-
sion .hint by the extension .log.
-o name
Use name for the output file instead of deriving it from the
name of the input file. Append the extension .hnt if the name
does not already has that extension.
--version
Print version information and exit.
FILES
Binary HINT files must contain all resources necessary to display the
file, for example font and image files. These files are called auxil-
iary files. ASCII HINT files contain only the path names of these
files.
When creating a binary HINT file from an ASCII HINT file, it is neces-
sary to find these files, read them, and include them in the binary
output file. When creating an ASCII HINT file from a binary HINT file,
it is convenient if these files can be extracted and written to the
file system. To avoid clobbering arbitrary directories with files when
extracting auxiliary files, it is possible to map the path names as
stored in the HINT file to localized path names before writing or read-
ing auxiliar files.
When computing a localized path name from a given path name, a distinc-
tion is made between global resources, like fonts, that are referenced
by an absolute path name, and local resources, for example an image,
that are referenced by a relative path name. The directory that starts
the localized path name of the former has the extension .abs and for
the latter the extension .rel is used. To keep auxiliary files in
these subdirectories even if their path contains links to a parent
directory, parent links `..' are replaced by `__' links to subdirecto-
ries.
For example, given an input file paper.hint, the global resources are
stored in the paper.abs directory and local resources are stored in
paper.rel. An absolute path like /usr/share/fonts/ will then map to
the localized path paper.abs/usr/share/fonts/ and a relative path like
../image/img1.jpg will then map to the localized path
paper.rel/__/image/img1.jpg.
NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen-
tation can be found in the HINT: The file format. This document is
available as a book or in electronic form from the HINT project home
page at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de. There you find additional soft-
ware, most importantly viewers for HINT files, and further information.
AVAILABILITY
hishrink should compile on a large variety of machine architectures and
operating systems. It is part of the TeX Live distribution.
SEE ALSO
histretch(1), hitex(1),
AUTHORS
Martin Ruckert
Version 1.3 11 November 2021 hishrink(1)
texlive-bin 2022.62882 - Generated Mon Apr 18 18:22:24 CDT 2022