
                   LATEX2HTML Frequently Asked Questions
                                      
				Release 98.1

Contents

     * Contents
     * 1. Overview
     * 2. Installation and Further Support
          + 2.1 Getting LATEX2HTML
          + 2.2 Getting Support and More Information
     * 3. Known Problems
          + 3.1 Troubleshooting
     * Bibliography
       
                                       
                                  1. Overview
                                       
   This manual describes the LATEX2HTML translator which is used to
   create Web pages from document source written for the LATEX
   typesetting system, or simply containing LATEX commands.
   
   -----
   
   To use LATEX2HTML to translate a file  <file>.tex containing LATEX
   commands, simply type:
   
     latex2html <file>.tex
     
   This will create a new directory called <file> which will contain the
   generated HTML files, some log files and possibly some images.
   
   -----
   
   Basically the translator reads the source document and creates a
   linked set of HTML pages, displaying the information it contains. The
   LATEX commands and environments that are found are interpreted either
   as ``markup'' instructions, or as macros expanding into more text or
   markup commands. Where such markup corresponds to the intended use for
   markup tags in the HTML language, a direct translation is made. If
   there is no natural way to present the information using simple text
   embellished with HTML markup tags, then an image is generated, using
   LATEX itself to interpret the portion of code.
   
   Of course this is a drastically over-simplified description of what
   LATEX2HTML actually does. Many questions spring readily to mind. The
   answers to these and the options available to handle particular
   situations are discussed elsewhere in this manual.
   
   -----
     * What does ``natural way to present the information'' really mean?
       
   Text and paragraphing clearly should appear as such, whether printed
   or on-screen. Different font sizes and styles such as ``bold-face'' or
   ``italic'' are generally rendered accordingly. However, whereas LATEX
   has access to appropriate fonts for specialised purposes such as
   mathematical symbols, these cannot be guaranteed to be available with
   all Web-browsers. So for information requiring such things, LATEX2HTML
   will generally resort to making an image, using LATEX itself to
   typeset the material required for that image.
   
   The next page contains a brief overview of how LATEX's standard
   environments are handled within LATEX2HTML. It also mentions some of
   the extra features that are available.
   In general LATEX2HTML attempts to use textual constructions to
   represent the required information. Generation of an image is done
   only when there is no adequate textual construction with the required
   version of HTML, or when specifically requested to do so. Various
   extensions, to cope with the different HTML versions and extra
   features, are discussed elsewhere. That describes what to expect on
   the HTML pages, with little or no changes required to the LATEX
   source.
   
   Just as LATEX has various packages which can be used to present
   specific types of information in appropriate ways, so is LATEX2HTML
   capable of handling the commands from many of these packages. See this
   table for a listing of those packages which currently have special
   support.
   
   -----
     * Some features of HTML have no direct counterpart in a LATEX
       typeset document.
       Can such features be used with LATEX2HTML?
       
   Any effect currently available with any version of the HTML standard
   can be specified for a document processed by LATEX2HTML. New LATEX
   commands are defined in the html.sty  package; the features that these
   commands allow are the subject of a whole section of this manual. Some
   of the new commands provide improved strategies for effects already
   existing in LATEX; e.g. cross-references and citations. To use these
   effectively requires only small changes to the LATEX source.
   
   Other commands define new environments which are completely ignored
   when processed by LATEX. Indeed the full scope of HTML 3.2 is
   available, using LATEX-like macros to help structure the source,
   reduce the tedium of repetitious use of tags, and ensure that all
   appropriate tags are correctly closed.
   
   -----
     * What determines the amount of information that goes onto a single
       HTML page?
       How are different pages linked?
       
   The HTML pages can contain whole chapters, sections, (sub)subsections
   or (sub)paragraphs. This is fully customisable using the command-line
   options discussed in detail in a separate section of this manual.
   
   -----
     * Does the original document have to be a valid LATEX document,
       typesetting without errors? If not, does it help if it is?
       
   In fact any document can be fed to the LATEX2HTML processor, but it is
   designed specifically to recognise and sensibly translate the
   intentions expressed by LATEX markup commands. Although sensible
   results can be obtained even when the LATEX source is not valid, the
   most reliable translations are obtained when it is. Relevant issues
   are discussed in a later section.
   
   -----
     * When developing a document which contains special HTML features,
       is it best to regularly test it in LATEX or with LATEX2HTML?
       
   The answer to such a question changes as the developer gains more
   experience with the available tools. Some aspects to be considered are
   discussed in a later section of this manual.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   -----
   
   Information relevant to obtaining the latest version of LATEX2HTML,
   installation within the local environment, and where to look for help
   when things do not go as expected, can be found in the support
   section.
   
                      2. Installation and Further Support
                                       
     2.1 Getting LATEX2HTML
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
change_begin 98.1
   One way LATEX2HTMLmay be obtained is through one of the three
   Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (CTAN) sites. They are located at
   
   * US
          United States: http://ctan.tug.org/ctan/,
          
   * UK
          United Kingdom: http://www.tex.ac.uk/
          
   * DE
          Germany: ftp://ftp.dante.de.
          
   In the directory http://ctan.tug.org/ctan/ should be the latest
   version, uncompressed.
   
   There are also many mirrors. To find the nearest to you, get a listing
   via the command:
   
     finger ctan@www.tug.org
     
change_begin 97.1
   The site at
   http://cdc-server.cdc.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/~latex2html/ is a
   convenient alternative for European users. This is connected to the
   developer's repository, so should always have the most recent release.
change_end 97.1
   
   
   
   Alternatively, a compressed tar  file of the source and related files
   may be obtained via anonymous ftp  to
   http://www-dsed.llnl.gov/files/programs/unix/latex2html/sources/latex2
   html-98.1.tar.gz.
   
   Two other ftp -sites are
   http://ctan.tug.org/ctan/tex-archive/support/latex2html and
   ftp://ftp.rzg.mpg.de/pub/software/latex2html/sources/latex2html-98.1.t
   ar.gz.
   
   
   
   Other ftp -sites nearer to you can be found using Archie  at
   http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/archie.html or
   http://www.pvv.unit.no/archie/ (faster) or more recent Web-searching
   tools such as FTP search  in Norway.
   
     Warning: Some ftp -sites may not carry the latest version.
     
   
   
   Updates and patches are posted on the LATEX2HTML server at
   http://www-dsed.llnl.gov/files/programs/unix/latex2html/.
change_end 98.1
   
   
change_begin 97.1
   For users of Windows NT, there is a port of LATEX2HTML obtainable from
   ftp://ftp.ese-metz.fr/pub/TeX/win32. Obtain the release from this site
   and follow the instructions in the accompanying file README.win32.
   Thanks to   Fabrice Popineau for this work.
   In future it is planned to merge this code with the main distribution.
change_end 97.1
   
   
change_begin 97.1
   Finally there is the LATEX2HTML developers' CVS repository, at
   http://cdc-server.cdc.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/~latex2html/user/.
   The files to be found here are the most up-to-date with current
   developments, but they cannot be guaranteed to be fully reliable. New
   features may be still under development and not yet sufficiently
   tested for release. A daily updated compressed archive of the
   developers' work may be downloaded from
   http://cdc-server.cdc.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/~latex2html/l2h-lates
   t.tar.gz.
   
     Warning: Use the files from this site at your own risk.
     
change_end 97.1
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
   
   Having obtained a compressed tar  version, save it into a file
   latex2html-98.1.tar.gz  say, then extract its contents with

% gzip -d latex2html-98.1.tar.gz
% tar xvf latex2html-98.1.tar

   
   
   You should then have the following:
     * README  file;
change_begin 98.1
     * Changes  index with latest changes;
     * Changes.detailed  (no longer supplied);
change_end 98.1
     * latex2html  Perl script;
     * texexpand  Perl script1;
     * latex2html.config  configuration file;
     * install-test  Perl script, for installation and testing;
     * dot.latex2html-init  sample initialisation file;
change_begin 97.1
     * texinputs/  subdirectory, containing various LATEX style-files;
     * versions/  subdirectory, containing code for specific HTML
       versions;
     * makemap  Perl script;
     * example/  subdirectory, containing the segmentation example,
       described in detail in a later section;
     * .dvipsrc  file;
     * pstogif  Perl script (no longer supplied);
change_end 97.1
change_begin 97.1
     * pstoimg  Perl script for image conversion (replaces pstogif );
     * configure-pstoimg  Perl script for installation;
     * local.pm  Perl input file;
     * icons.gif/  subdirectory, containing icons in GIF format;
     * icons.png/  subdirectory, containing icons in PNG format;
     * makeseg  Perl script and examples to handle segmented documents
       via a generated Makefile, see makeseg.tex;
change_end 97.1
change_begin 98.1
     * foilhtml/  package to support FoilTeX to HTML  translation, by
       Boris Veystman;
     * IndicTeX-HTML/  package that contains Perl and LATEX code for
       translating IndicTEX documents (see README file);
change_end 98.1
     * docs/  subdirectory, containing the files needed to create a
       version of this manual;
     * styles/  subdirectory, containing Perl code for handling some
       style-files;
     * tests/  contains some test documents for LATEX2HTML.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  2.1.1 Requirements
  
   
   The translator makes use of several utilities all of which are freely
   available on most platforms. You may use Archie , or other
   Web-searching tools such as FTP search , to find the source code of
   any utilities you might need.
   
   For the best use of LATEX2HTML you want to get the latest versions of
   all the utilities that it uses. (It will still work with earlier
   versions, but some special effects may not be possible. The specific
   requirements are discussed below.)
change_begin 98.1
     * Perl version 5.002, or later (check with perl -v);
       Perl should be compiled to use the csh  or tcsh  shell, though
       LATEX2HTML can also work with the bash  shell if Perl is
       recompiled to use it as ``full csh''. Don't care about this, you
       will be reported about missing things by install-test  if there
       are any.
change_end 98.1
     * LATEX, meaning LATEX2e dated <1995/06/01>, or later;
     * dvips  or dvipsk , at version 5.58 or later;
     * Ghostscript  at version 4.02 or later;
     * the netpbm  library of graphics utilities version 1-MAR-94 (check
       with pnmcrop -version).
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   More specific requirements for using LATEX2HTML depend on the kind of
   translation you would like to perform, as follows:
   1.
            LATEX commands but without equations, figures, tables, etc.
          + Perl
change_begin 98.1
            Note: LATEX2HTML requires Perl 5 to operate.
change_end 98.1
            Warning 1: You really do need Perl 5.
            Versions of LATEX2HTML up to V96.1H work both with Perl 4 at
            patch level 36 and Perl 5, though some of the packages may
            only work with Perl 5.
            Warning 2:   Various aspects of Perl, which are used by
            LATEX2HTML, assume certain system commands to be provided by
            the operating system shell. If csh  or tcsh  is used to
            invoke LATEX2HTML then everything should work properly. Perl
            5 eliminates this requirement on the shell.
            
          + DBM  or NDBM , the Unix DataBase Management system, or GDBM ,
            the GNU database manager.
            Note: Some systems lack any DBM support. Perl 5 comes with
            its own database system SDBM, but it is sometimes not part of
            some Perl distributions.
change_begin 98.1
            The installation script install-test  will check that for
            you. If no database system is found, you will have to install
            Perl properly.
change_end 98.1
          
   2.
          LATEX commands with equations, figures, tables, etc.
          As above plus ...
          + latex  (version 2e recommended but 2.09 acceptable);
          + dvips (version 5.516 or later) or dvipsk
change_begin 98.1
            Version 5.62 or higher enhances the performance of image
            creation with a significant speed-up. See latex2html.config
            for this after you are done with the installation. Do not use
            the 'dvips -E' feature unless you have 5.62, else you will
            get broken images.
change_end 98.1
            
          +
change_begin 98.1
            gs  Ghostscript  (version 4.03 or later); with the ppmraw
            device driver, or even better pnmraw. Upgrade to 5.10 or
            later if you want to go sure about seldom problems with 4.03
            to avoid (yet unclarified).
change_end 98.1
            
          +
change_begin 98.1
            The netpbm library. Netpbm 1 March 1994 is recommended. Check
            with pnmcrop -version.
change_end 98.1
            Several of the filters in those libraries are used during the
            PostScript  to GIF conversion.
          +
change_begin 98.1
            If you want PNG images, you need pnmtopng  (current version
            is 2.31). It is not part of netpbm  and requires
            libpng-0.89c.tar.gz  and libz  (1.0.4) (or later versions).
            pnmtopng  supports transparency and interlace mode.
            Hooray!!!
            Netscape Navigator  v4.04 has been reported to grok PNG
            images! That means your PNG option is not longer ahead of its
            time!
change_end 98.1
          
   3.
          Segmentation of large documents
          If you wish to use this feature, you will have to upgrade your
          LATEX to LATEX2e. Some other hyperlinking features also require
          LATEX2e.
          
   4.
          Transparent inlined images
          If you dislike the white background color of the generated
          inlined images then you should get either the netpbm  library
          (instead of the older pbmplus ) or install the giftrans filter
          by Andreas Ley <ley@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>. LATEX2HTML now
          supports the shareware program giftool  (by Home Pages, Inc.,
          version 1.0), too. It can also create interlaced GIFs.
          
   
   
   If Ghostscript  or the netpbm  library are not available, it is still
   possible to use the translator with the -no_images option.
   
   
   If you intend to use any of the special features of the translator
   then you have to include the html.sty  file in any LATEX documents
   that use them.
   
   
   Since by default the translator makes use of inlined images in the
   final HTML output, it would be better to have a viewer which supports
   the <IMG> tag, such as NCSA Mosaic or Netscape Navigator.
change_begin 97.1
   Any browser which claims to be compatible with HTML 3.2 should meet
   this requirement.
change_end 97.1
   
   
   If only a character-based browser, such as lynx , is available, or if
   you want the generated documents to be more portable, then the
   translator can be used with the -ascii_mode option.
   
   
   
  2.1.2 Installing LATEX2HTML
  
   
change_begin 98.1
   To install LATEX2HTML you MUST do the following:
   1.
          Specify where Perl is on your system.
          In each of the files latex2html , texexpand , pstoimg ,
          install-test  and makemap , modify the first line saying where
          Perl is on your system.
          
          Some system administrators do not allow Perl programs to run as
          shell scripts. This means that you may not be able to run any
          of the above programs. In this case change the first line in
          each of these programs from 
          #!/usr/local/bin/perl
          to:

# *-*-perl-*-*
    eval 'exec perl -S  $0 "$@"'
    if $running_under_some_shell;
          
   2.
          Copy the files to the destination directory.
          Copy the contents of the texinputs/  directory to a place where
          they will be found by LATEX, or set up your TEXINPUTS  variable
          to point to that directory.
          
   3.
          Run install-test .
          This Perl script will make some changes in the latex2html  file
          and then check whether the path-names to any external utilities
          required by latex2html  are correct. It will not actually
          install the external utilities. install-test  asks you whether
          to configure for GIF or PNG  image generation. Finally it
          creates the file local.pm  which houses pathnames for the
          external utilities determined earlier.
          You might need to make install-test  executable before using
          it. Use chmod +x install-test to do this. You may also need to
          make the files pstogif , texexpand , configure-pstoimg  and
          latex2html  executable if install-test  fails to do it for you.
          
   4.
          If you like so, copy or move the latex2html  executable script
          to some location outside the $LATEX2HTMLDIR  directory.
          
   5.
          You might want to edit latex2html.config  to reflect your
          needs. Read the instructions about $ICONSERVER  carefully to
          make sure your HTML  documents will be displayed right via the
          Web server.
          While you're at it you may want to change some of the default
          options in the same file.
          If you do a system installation for many users, only care for
          general aspects and let the user override them with
          $HOME/.latex2html-init.
          
   Note that you must run install-test  now (formerly you needn't). If
   you want to reconfigure LATEX2HTML for GIF/PNG image generation, or
   because some of the external tools changed the location, simply rerun
   configure-pstoimg .
change_end 98.1
                    ___________________________________
   
   This is usually enough for the main installation, but you may also
   want to do some of the following, to ensure that advanced features of
   LATEX2HTML work correctly on your system:
   
     * To use the new LATEX commands which are defined in html.sty :
       Make sure that LATEX knows where the html.sty  file is, either by
       putting it in the same place as the other style-files on your
       system, or by changing your TEXINPUTS  shell environment variable,
       or by copying html.sty  into the same directory as your LATEX
       source file.
       The environment variable TEXINPUTS  is not to be confused with the
       LATEX2HTML installation variable $TEXINPUTS  described next.
       
     * There is an installation variable in latex2html.config  called
       $TEXINPUTS , which tells LATEX2HTML where to look for LATEX
       style-files to process. It can also affect the input-path of LATEX
       when called by LATEX2HTML, unless the command latex  is really a
       script which overwrites the $TEXINPUTS  variable prior to calling
       the real latex . This variable is overridden by the environment
       variable of the same name if it is set.
       
     * The installation variable $PK_GENERATION  specifies which fonts
       are used in the generation of mathematical equations. A value of
       ``0'' causes the same fonts to be used as those for the default
       printer. Because they were designed for a printer of much greater
       resolution than the screen, equations will generally appear to be
       of a lower quality than is otherwise possible. To cause LATEX2HTML
       to dynamically generate fonts that are designed specifically for
       the screen, you should specify a value of ``1'' for this variable.
       If you do, then check to see whether your version of dvips
       supports the command-line option -mode . If it does, then also set
       the installation variable $DVIPS_MODE  to a low resolution entry
       from modes.mf , such as toshiba .
       It may also be necessary to edit the MakeTeXPK  script, to
       recognise this mode at the appropriate resolution.
change_begin 97.1
       If you have PostScript  fonts available for use with LATEX and
       dvips  then you can probably ignore the above complications and
       simply set $PK_GENERATION  to ``0'' and $DVIPS_MODE  to "" (the
       empty string). You must also make sure that gs  has the locations
       of the fonts recorded in its gs_fonts.ps  file. This should
       already be the case where GS-Preview  is installed as the viewer
       for .dvi-files, using the PostScript  fonts.
change_end 97.1
       If dvips  does not support the -mode switch, then leave
       $DVIPS_MODE  undefined, and verify that the .dvipsrc  file points
       to the correct screen device and its resolution.
       
     * The installation variable $AUTO_PREFIX  allows the filename-prefix
       to be automatically set to the base filename-prefix of the
       document being translated. This can be especially useful for
       multiple-segment documents.
       
     * The makemap  script also has a configuration variable $SERVER ,
       which must be set to either CERN or NCSA, depending on the type of
       Web-server you are using.
       
     * To set up different initialization files:
       For a ``per user'' initialization file, copy the file
       dot.latex2html-init  in the home directory of any user that wants
       it, modify it according to her preferences and rename it as
       .latex2html-init . At runtime, both the latex2html.config  file
       and $HOME/.latex2html-init  file will be loaded, but the latter
       will take precedence.
       
       You can also set up a ``per directory'' initialization file by
       copying a version of .latex2html-init  in each directory you would
       like it to be effective. An initialization file
       /X/Y/Z/.latex2html-init will take precedence over all other
       initialization files if /X/Y/Z is the ``current directory'' when
       LATEX2HTML is invoked.
       
       
     Warning: This initialization file is incompatible with any version
     of LATEX2HTML prior to V96.1. Users must either update this file in
     their home directory, or delete it altogether.
       
     *  To make your own local copies of the LATEX2HTML icons:
       Please copy the icons/  subdirectory to a place under your WWW
       tree where they can be served by your server. Then modify the
       value of the $ICONSERVER  variable in latex2html.config
       accordingly.
change_begin 97.1
       Alternatively, a local copy of the icons can be included within
       the subdirectory containing your completed HTML documents. This is
       most easily done using the -local_icons command-line switch, or by
       setting $LOCAL_ICONS  to ``1'' in latex2html.config  or within an
       initialization file, as described above.
change_end 97.1
       
       
     Warnings: If you cannot do that, bear in mind that these icons will
     have to travel from Livermore, California!!! Also note that several
     more icons were added in V96.1 that were not present in earlier
     versions of LATEX2HTML.
       
     * To make your own local copy of the LATEX2HTML documentation:
       This will also be a good test of your installation.   Firstly, to
       obtain the .dvi version for printing, from within the docs/
       directory it is sufficient to type:
       make manual.dvi
       This initiates the following sequence of commands:

latex manual.tex
makeindex -s l2hidx.ist manual.idx
makeindex -s l2hglo.ist -o manual.gls manual.glo
latex manual.tex
latex manual.tex
       ...in which the two configuration files l2hidx.ist  and
       l2hglo.ist  for the makeindex  program, are used to create the
       index and glossary respectively. The 2nd run of latex  is needed
       to assimilate references, etc. and include the index and glossary.
       
       (In case makeindex  is not available, a copy of its outputs
       manual.ind  and manual.gls  are included in the docs/
       subdirectory, along with manual.aux .)
       The 3rd run of latex  is needed to adjust page-numbering for the
       Index and Glossary within the Table-of-Contents.
       Next, the HTML version is obtained by typing:
       make manual.html
       This initiates a series of calls to LATEX2HTML on the separate
       segments of the manual; the full manual is thus created as a
       ``segmented document'' (see a later section). The whole process
       may take quite some time, as each segment needs to be processed at
       least twice, to collect the cross-references from other segments.
       
       The files necessary for correct typesetting of the manual to be
       found within the docs/  subdirectory. They are as follows:
        
          + style-files: l2hman.sty , html.sty , htmllist.sty ,
            justify.sty ,
            changebar.sty  and url.sty
          + inputs: changes.tex , credits.tex , features.tex ,
            hypextra.tex ,
            licence.tex , manhtml.tex , manual.tex , overview.tex ,
            problems.tex , support.tex  and userman.tex
          + sub-directory: psfiles/  containing PostScript  graphics used
            in the printed version of this manual
          + images of small curved arrows: up.gif , dn.gif
          + filename data: l2hfiles.dat
          + auxiliaries: manual.aux , manual.ind , manual.gls
       The last three can be derived from the others, but are included
       for convenience.
       
     *
change_begin 98.1
       To get a printed version of the `Changes' section: 
       Due to the burgeoning size of the Changes  file with successive
       revisions of LATEX2HTML, the `Changes' section is no longer
       supported for the manual. Please refer to text file Changes
       instead which is part of the distribution.
change_end 98.1
       
     * To join the community of LATEX2HTML users:
       More information on a mailing list, discussion archives, bug
       reporting forms and more is available at
       http://cbl.leeds.ac.uk/nikos/tex2html/doc/latex2html/latex2html.ht
       ml
       
   2.2 Getting Support and More Information

   
   
   A LATEX2HTML mailing list has been set up at the Argonne National
   Labs. The LATEX2HTML mailing list archive is available.
   (Thanks to Ian Foster <itf@mcs.anl.gov> and Bob Olson
   <olson@mcs.anl.gov>.)
   
   To join send a message to: <latex2html-request@mcs.anl.gov >
   with the contents:   subscribe
   
   To be removed from the list send a message to:
   <latex2html-request@mcs.anl.gov>
   with the contents:   unsubscribe
   
   The mailing list also has a searchable online archive at
   http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/LaTeX2HTML/. It
   recommendable to start with that URL first, to get in touch with the
   topics actually discussed and to search for articles related with your
   interests.
   
   Enjoy!
   
                                       
                               3. Known Problems
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
   Here are some of the problems that were known to exist with previous
   versions of LATEX2HTML. Most of those that were real errors are either
   fixed completely in the current version (V98.1), or are much less
   likely to occur within correct LATEX source. (Some are not really
   errors but indications of poor style in the user's choices among
   various ways to organise their source code.)
   Several are indeed limitations inherent in the way LATEX2HTML
   currently performs its processing.
   
   * Correctness and Efficiency:  
          The translator cannot be guaranteed to perform as expected.
          Several aspects of the implementation need optimisation and
          improvement. Apart from possible bugs the translator may place
          heavy demands on your resources.
change_begin 97.1
          The current version works much more efficiently than previous
          versions; many subtle bugs have been identified and eliminated.
change_end 97.1
change_begin 98.1
          The process of command substitution has been improved
          significantly, resulting in memory savings and faster document
          text translation.
change_end 98.1
          
   * Unrecognised Commands and Environments:  
          Unrecognised commands are ignored and any arguments are left in
          the text. Unrecognised environments are passed to LATEX and the
          result is included in the document as one or more inlined
          images.
change_begin 97.1
          There are very few standard LATEX commands that are not
          recognised. Many common TEX commands are recognised also, even
          though not explicitly mentioned in the LATEX #!lamp:latex!#.
          Any aberrant commands should be reported to the LATEX2HTML
          mailing list.
change_end 97.1
          
   * Cross-references:  
          References in environments that are passed to LATEX for
          processing (e.g. a \cite, or a \ref command), are not processed
          correctly. \label commands are handled correctly.
change_begin 97.1
          All citation, reference and label commands should work
          correctly now. Report any problems to the LATEX2HTML mailing
          list.
change_end 97.1
          
   * Order-Sensitive Commands: 
          Commands which affect global parameters during the translation,
          and are sensitive to the order in which they are processed may
          not be handled correctly. In particular, counter manipulation
          (e.g. \newcounter, \setcounter, \stepcounter, etc.) commands
          may cause problems.
change_begin 97.1
          Counter commands now work correctly; dependencies are also
          implemented.
change_end 97.1
          
          
   * Index: 
          The translator generates its own index by saving the arguments
          of the \index command. The contents of the theindex environment
          are ignored.
change_begin 97.1
          This remains true. When using the makeidx package, very
          sophisticated Indexes can be built automatically. The Index for
          this manual is a good example.
change_end 97.1
          
   * New Definitions:  
          New definitions (\newcommand, \newenvironment, \newtheorem and
          \def), will not work as expected if they are defined more than
          once. Only the last definition will be used throughout the
          document.
change_begin 97.1
          This remains true. Stylistically it is bad to declare new
          environments or theorems outside of the document preamble, so
          these should cause no problems anyway.
          Changes to commands using \def or \renewcommand should usually
          be made only locally, within special environments, to set a
          needed parameter; e.g. a basic length in a picture environment.
          But when such environments force an image to be generated, then
          LATEX will make the correct redefinition.
change_end 97.1
          
   * Scope of declarations and environments: 
          If the scope of a declaration or environment crosses section
          boundaries, then the output may not be as expected, because
          each section is processed independently.
change_begin 97.1
          This is inherent to the way LATEX2HTML does its processing. It
          will not be fixed until later versions change this strategy;
          e.g. when LATEX2HTML-NG becomes fully integrated.
change_end 97.1
          
   * Math-mode font-size changes: 
          Math-mode font changes made outside the math-mode are not
          honoured. Thus the two equations in $a_b$ and {\LARGE $a_b$}
          would come out looking the same. The trick is to write $a_b and
          $\mbox{\LARGE $a_b$}$.
change_begin 97.1
          This remains. The work-around is effective.
change_end 97.1
          
3.1 Troubleshooting

       Here are some curable symptoms:
   
   * Cannot run any of the Perl programs: 
          If your Perl installation is such that Perl programs are not
          allowed to run as shell scripts you may be unable to run
          latex2html , texexpand , pstoimg  and install-test . In this
          case change the first line in each of these programs from
          

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

   to
          
: # *-*-perl-*-*
    eval 'exec perl -S  $0 "$@"'
    if $running_under_some_shell;

   * The install-test  script gives uninformative error messages: 
          If, for any reason, you have trouble running install-test , do
          not despair. Most of what it does is to do with checking your
          installation rather than actually installing anything. To do a
          manual installation just change the variable $LATEX2HTMLDIR  in
          the beginning of the file latex2html  to point to the directory
          where the LATEX2HTML files can be found.
          
          Also, make sure that the files pstoimg , texexpand  and
          latex2html  are executable; if necessary use the Unix chmod
          command to make them executable.
          
   * It just stops. 
          Check the style files that you are using. It is possible that
          you are using a style file which contains raw TEX commands. In
          such a case start LATEX2HTML with the option -dont_include
          <style-file name> . Alternatively, add the name of the style to
          the variable $DONT_INCLUDE  in your $HOME/.latex2html-init
          file. If you don't have such a file then create one and add the
          lines:
          
     $DONT_INCLUDE = "$DONT_INCLUDE" . ": <style file name>";
     1; # This must be the last line
     
          Another reason why LATEX2HTML might stop is that the LATEX
          source file itself contains raw TEX commands. In this case you
          may put such commands inside a latexonly environment.
          
change_begin 97.1
          The $VERBOSITY  variable can be used to create tracing
          messages, which may help to locate which command or environment
          was being processed when everything stopped.
change_end 97.1
          
change_begin 97.1
          
   * It appears to be doing nothing. 
          Perhaps the processor has fallen into an unending loop. Usually
          there will be a bad definition, or other faulty source code,
          which has caused this. The $VERBOSITY  variable can be set to
          generate tracing messages, which may help to locate which
          command or environment is being processed repeatedly. Try
          setting a value of `3'; e.g. using the commandline switch
          -verbosity 3 . This will print command and environment names,
          as thaey are processed. It should soon become apparent where
          any such looping occurs.
          
   * It just fills the endlessly with dots.
          No `perhaps' here; the processor has definitely fallen into an
          unending loop. See the previous item for how to detect which
          command or environment is causing the problem.
change_end 97.1
change_begin 98.1
          
   * Perl cannot parse the latex2html  script: 
          If Perl refuses to start LATEX2HTML and issues errors, your
          Perl version is not up to date. Update your Perl to 5.003 or
          later. You can check which version of Perl you are using by
          invoking Perl with the -v option.
          
          If Perl issues errors during runtime, this is most probably
          related to bugs within LATEX2HTML or one of its modules. In
          this case you will need help from the developers or experienced
          users; this can be obtained via the discussion list.
          
   * It crashes (dumps core) as soon as it starts : 
          Update your Perl to 5.003 or later.
change_end 98.1
change_begin 98.1
          
   * It does not show any of your images: 
          You can't run LATEX2HTML in a subdirectory that contains a dot
          within the directory name, such as latex2html-98.1, or in name
          of any higher directory. This is because dvips 's -o option
          will change 98.1 into 98.001 and use that as the resulting
          output file, instead of image001 . The PostScript  files will
          be placed higher up in the directory tree.
          
          For instance, if pwd returns something like:
          
/usr/people/nelson/files/latex2html-98.1/work/tests

   and you run LATEX2HTML, then dvips  will generate image output files
          here:
          

/usr/people/nelson/files

   called latex2html-98.001, latex2html-98.002, ... instead of image001,
          image002, image003, ... in the subdirectory where your .html
          files were created. As a result the images will not show in
          your documents.
          
          If you are getting File Not Found errors, then turn on the
          $DEBUG  flag in latex2html.config  to see what options are
          passed to dvips . If there are some dots in names, then look
          above that directory to see if files are being generated there.
          
          One obvious fix is to rename the offending directory to remove
          the `.' from its name.
          
          If that is not possible, then define an alternative location
          for image generation to take place; set $TMP to contain the
          name for this location. Typically $TMP = '/usr/tmp'; . (This
          use of $TMP is a good thing to do anyway, especially if your
          Unix account is subject to quota limitations.)
          
   * It stops after having run LATEX, displaying a message about dvips : 
          See the previous item.
change_end 98.1
          
   * dvips  complains about incorrect arguments:  
          Please use a version which supports the command-line options -M
          , -S , -o and -i . ``Recent'' versions, at least after 5.516,
          do support them.
          
   * It gives an ``Out of memory'' message and dies: 
          Try splitting your source file into more than one file, using
          the LATEX commands \input or \include. Also, try using the
          -no_images option.
          
change_begin 97.1
          Perhaps the processor has fallen into an infinite loop. Usually
          there will be a bad definition, or other faulty source code,
          which has caused this. See an earlier problem for how to set
          the $VERBOSITY  variable to help locate the bad code leading to
          this memory exhaustion.
change_end 97.1
          As a last resort you may consider increasing the virtual memory
          (swap space) of your machine. As an indication of what you
          might be able to do on your machine, a very long book (about
          1000 printed pages) required about 24MB of RAM and over 150MB
          of swap space to convert on a local Sun Sparc ELC running SunOS
          4.1.3.
change_begin 97.1
          Much of this memory would have been consumed during
          image-generation. This part of the processing is much more
          efficient in V97.1.
change_end 97.1
change_begin 98.1
          
   * install-test  issues ``dbm'' related error messages: 
          LATEX2HTML requires a DataBase Management system (NDBM , GDBM ,
          or SDBM ) in order to run. This is usually part of each
          Unix-like operating system and SDBM  is part of Perl 5, but
          sometimes this is either missing on your operating system or
          left out in a binary Perl distribution. Use   to find one or
          (better) update to a complete Perl 5 distribution.
          
   * latex2html  issues ``dbm'' related error messages: 
          If you get warnings like
          

ndbm store returned -1, errno 28, key "xyz" at latex2html line 123

   this is related to an overflow of LATEX2HTML internals. You will need
          help from the list, here.
          
          If you get real error messages which cause LATEX2HTML to abort,
          run install-test  to check if your DataBase management works.
          You will probably need to re-install Perl 5 (see above topic).
change_end 98.1
change_begin 97.1
          This can happen when an image is being created from a large
          piece of LATEX source code. The image-reuse mechanism uses the
          code itself to construct a database key. If too long, the key
          is invalid and may crash DBM  or NDBM . (In fact this error
          should no longer occur in V97.1, so please advise the
          LATEX2HTML developers if you get error messages of this kind.)
          The message should contain the name of environment which caused
          the problem, along with an identifying number; e.g.
          eqnarray268. To find which exact piece of code this represents,
          run LATEX2HTML again, using the -debug switch. Then look at the
          files in the TMP subdirectory of the working directory named
          TMP/part001, TMP/part002, etc. Use the unix grep  command: grep
          268 <dir>/TMP/part* to find that number in these files. This
          should enable you to locate exactly where the problem occurs.
          
          One solution may be to wrap the whole environment within
          \begin{makeimage} and \end{makeimage}. This will still cause
          the image to be created, but uses just the environment name and
          number as the database key.
change_end 97.1
          
   * The \verb"ABC" command doesn't work: 
          This is a nasty bug. Please use any character other than
          quotes; e.g. \verb+ABC+.
          
   * Cannot get the ``tilde'' (~) to show: 
          The trick here is to use the command \~{}.
          Alternatively try using something like: mylink">mylink
          
   .
   
   Warning: Some browsers may not be able to interpret the %7E as a
   ``tilde'' character.
   
change_begin 98.1
   Alternatively use the \char126 command. Anyway, tildes within
   \htmladdnormallink and familiar commands are now handled correctly.
change_end 98.1
   
   * Macro definitions don't work correctly: 
   As mentioned in other places, not all plain TEX \def-initions can be
   converted. But you may also have problems even when using LATEX
   definitions (with \newcommand and \newenvironment) if such definitions
   make use of sectioning or \verbatim commands. These are handled in a
   special way by LATEX2HTML and cannot be used in macro definitions.
   
   In general the macro handling mechanism is inefficient and very
   fragile. Avoid using macros if possible.
change_begin 97.1
   A greater range of macros definitions can now be handled, especially
   if appropriate declarations are added to an initialization file.
change_end 97.1
   
   * \input commands: 
   There is a bug in the expansion of \input commands which causes a
   problem when more than one \input command appears on the same line.
   There is no quick fix other than suggesting that you put each \input
   command on a line by itself, in the LATEX source files.
   
   * \input commands in verbatim environments: 
change_begin 98.1
   Should no longer cause problems (actually since 97.1). \input commands
   are also handled right within comment environments as declared with
   \excludecomment. Alternatively you might want to use either the
   verbatim or the verbatimfiles package.
change_end 98.1
   
   * Optional arguments in description environments: 
   If you have optional arguments for the \item command in a description
   environment containing nested ``]'' characters then these may not show
   up correctly. To avoid the problem enclose them in {}s;
   e.g. \item[{[nested [angle [brackets] are ok]]}]
   
   * LATEX2HTML behaves differently even when you run it on the same
   file: 
   
   If you notice any strange side-effects from previous runs of
   LATEX2HTML, try using the option -no_reuse and choose (d) when
   prompted. This will clear any intermediate files generated during
   previous runs. Note that this option will disable the image-reuse
   mechanism.
   
   * Cannot convert PostScript  images which are included in the LATEX
   file: 
   
   It is likely that the macros you are using for including PostScript
   files (e.g. \epsffile) are not understood by LATEX2HTML. To avoid this
   problem enclose them in an environment which will be passed to LATEX
   anyway; e.g.
   
     \begin{figure}
     \epsffile{ <PostScript file name>}
     \end{figure}
     
   Another reason why this might happen is that your shell environment
   variable TEXINPUTS  may be undefined. This is not always fatal but if
   you have problems you can use full path-names for included PostScript
   files (even when the PostScript  files are in the same directory as
   the LATEX source file). Alternatively try setting TEXINPUTS  to `.::'.
   With some TEX and LATEX installations setting TEXINPUTS  to `.::' may
   cause problems in the normal operation of LATEX. If you get errors
   such as LATEX complaining that it can no longer find any style files
   then you must set TEXINPUTS  to "<path to your LaTeX installation>:."
   if you want to use both LATEX and LATEX2HTML.
   
   * Some of the inlined images are in the wrong places: 
   There are several known ways that this may occur.
     * Perhaps one of the inlined images is more than a page (paper page)
       long. This is sometimes the case with very large tables or large
       PostScript  images. In this case you can try specifying a larger
       paper size (e.g. `a4', `a3' or even `a0') instead of the default
       (`a5') using the LATEX2HTML variable $PAPERSIZE  in the file
       latex2html.config .
       This reason for the error should no longer occur with V97.1.
       Please report it on the mailing-list, if it does.
     * More likely is that some inappropriate LATEX code has caused an
       error, resulting in an extra page (or pages) being generated.
       Examine the images.log  file, to see if it reports any LATEX
       errors.
     * A much rarer reason is that by default the dvips  program reverses
       the PostScript  pages it generates. If your dvips  program behaves
       in this way try changing the line:
       $DVIPS = "dvips";
       to:
       $DVIPS = "dvips -r0";
       within the file latex2html.config .
     * Yet another reason for images appearing out of place, especially
       while developing a document, is that the browser's image cache is
       providing out-of-date versions rather than getting the latest
       version afresh. When this occurs there will often be images
       stretched or shrunk to fit the wrong sized imaging area; this
       symptom is browser-dependent. Flushing the cache, then reloading
       the HTML document, should clear up the problem.
       
   * Unacceptable quality of converted images: 
   Try changing the size of the image (see image conversion).
   
   * The bibliographic references are missing: 
   Run latex  and then bibtex  on the original source file in order to
   generate a .bbl file. LATEX2HTML may need the .bbl file in order to
   generate the references.
   
   * The labels of figures, tables or equations are wrong: 
   This can happen if you have used any figures, tables, equations or any
   counters inside conditional text; i.e. in a latexonly or a htmlonly
   environment.
   
   * Problems after changing the configuration files: 
   Please make sure that the last line in the configuration files (i.e.
   .latex2html-init  and latex2html.config ) is:

1;      # This is the last line

   This is a Perl quirk.
   
   * Problems when producing the .dvi version:  
   If you are using any of the new LATEX commands which are defined in
   the html.sty  file make sure that html.sty  is included; e.g. as one
   of the optional arguments to the \documentclass command.
   
   Of course you also have to make sure that LATEX knows where the
   html.sty  file is, either by putting it in the same place as the other
   style-files on your system, or by changing your TEXINPUTS  shell
   environment variable 2.
   
   * Some of the fonts are translated incorrectly: 
   There is a fault in way the LATEX scoping rules have been interpreted
   in LATEX2HTML. Consider this:

\ttfamily fixed-width font.
\begin{something}
nothing here
\end{something}
default font.

   When processed by LATEX, the effect of the \tt command is delimited by
   the beginning of the environment ``something'', so that ``default
   font'' will appear in the default font. But LATEX2HTML will not
   recognise ``something'' as a delimiter and ``default font'' will
   appear in the wrong font.
   
   To avoid this problem (until it is fixed) you may delimit the scope of
   some commands explicitly using {}'s; i.e.

\texttt{fixed-width font}.
\begin{something}
nothing here
\end{something}
default font.

change_begin 98.1
   Nesting of font changing commands is now handled right. Such problems
   should not occur furthermore.
change_end 98.1
   
   * Cannot get it to generate inlined images: 
   Run LATEX2HTML with the -debug switch, and have a look in the
   directory of the generated HTML files for two files images.tex  and
   images.log . Do you notice anything unusual in them? Copy images.tex
   into the directory of your original LATEX file and run latex  on
   images.tex . Can you see any errors in images.log ? If yes, can you
   fix images.tex  to get rid of the errors?
   
   After fixing images.tex  you can put it back in the directory of HTML
   files created by LATEX2HTML and run LATEX2HTML on the original
   document using the option -images_only .
   
   However if you make changes or additions to the original source then
   the same problems may occur again, so it is better to understand why
   the changes were required and alter the source code appropriately.
   
   If you get into a mess delete all the image files and run LATEX2HTML
   again. Often it is sufficient to just delete the file images.pl .
   
   If you still get into a mess, try running LATEX2HTML with the options
   -no_reuse and -no_images ; e.g.

cblipca% latex2html -no_reuse -no_images test.tex
This is LaTeX2HTML Version 95 (Tue Nov 29 1994) by Nikos Drakos,
Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.

OPENING /tmp_mnt/home/cblelca/nikos/tmp/test.tex
Cannot create directory /usr/cblelca/nikos/tmp/test: File exists
(r) Reuse the images in the old directory OR
(d) *** DELETE *** /usr/cblelca/nikos/tmp/test AND ITS CONTENTS OR
(q) Quit ?
:d

Reading ...
Processing macros ....+.
Reading test.aux ......................
Translating ...0/1........1/1.....
Writing image file ...

Doing section links .....

*********** WARNINGS ***********

If you are having problems displaying the correct images with Mosaic,
try selecting "Flush Image Cache" from "Options" in the menu-bar
and then reload the HTML file.

Done.

   Then try to have a look in the file images.tex  (as described earlier)
   and perhaps fix it. Once you are happy that images.tex  is OK, run
   LATEX2HTML again with the option -images_only .
   
   Some problems in displaying the correct inlined images, may be due to
   the image caching mechanisms of your browser. With some browsers a
   simple ``Reload Current Document'' will be enough to refresh the
   images but with others (e.g. Mosaic ) you may need to request for the
   cache to be refreshed. With Mosaic  try selecting ``Flush Image
   Cache'' from ``Options'' in the menu-bar and then reload the HTML
   file.
   
   * It cannot do slides, memos, etc. 
   If you use SliTEX you can go a long way just by replacing the {slides}
   argument of the \documentclass command with something like {article}
   just before using LATEX2HTML. One problem may be that all your slides
   will end up in the same HTML file. If you use lslide.sty  you may get
   much better results (use   to find this or any other style files).
   
   2
     _________________________________________________________________
   
    Footnotes
    
   ... script1
          Initially written by   Robert S. Thau, completely rewritten by
            Marek Rouchal and   Jens Lippmann.
          
   ... variable2
          If you don't know how to do either of these things, copy (or
          link) html.sty  to the directory of your LATEX document.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
    Jens Lippmann 
    1998-02-22
