pdflatex --help
Usage: pdftex [OPTION]... [TEXNAME[.tex]] [COMMANDS]
or: pdftex [OPTION]... \FIRST-LINE
or: pdftex [OPTION]... &FMT ARGS
Run pdfTeX on TEXNAME, usually creating TEXNAME.pdf.
Any remaining COMMANDS are processed as pdfTeX input, after TEXNAME is read.
If the first line of TEXNAME is %&FMT, and FMT is an existing .fmt file,
use it. Else use `NAME.fmt', where NAME is the program invocation name,
most commonly `pdftex'.
Alternatively, if the first non-option argument begins with a backslash,
interpret all non-option arguments as a line of pdfTeX input.
Alternatively, if the first non-option argument begins with a &, the
next word is taken as the FMT to read, overriding all else. Any
remaining arguments are processed as above.
If no arguments or options are specified, prompt for input.
-draftmode switch on draft mode (generates no output PDF)
-enc enable encTeX extensions such as \mubyte
-etex enable e-TeX extensions
[-no]-file-line-error disable/enable file:line:error style messages
-fmt=FMTNAME use FMTNAME instead of program name or a %& line
-halt-on-error stop processing at the first error
-ini be pdfinitex, for dumping formats; this is implicitly
true if the program name is `pdfinitex'
-interaction=STRING set interaction mode (STRING=batchmode/nonstopmode/
scrollmode/errorstopmode)
-ipc send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual
output file
-ipc-start as -ipc, and also start the server at the other end
-jobname=STRING set the job name to STRING
-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER set path searching debugging flags according to
the bits of NUMBER
[-no]-mktex=FMT disable/enable mktexFMT generation (FMT=tex/tfm/pk)
-mltex enable MLTeX extensions such as \charsubdef
-output-comment=STRING use STRING for DVI file comment instead of date
(no effect for PDF)
-output-directory=DIR use existing DIR as the directory to write files in
-output-format=FORMAT use FORMAT for job output; FORMAT is `dvi' or `pdf'
[-no]-parse-first-line disable/enable parsing of first line of input file
-progname=STRING set program (and fmt) name to STRING
-recorder enable filename recorder
[-no]-shell-escape disable/enable \write18{SHELL COMMAND}
-shell-restricted enable restricted \write18
-src-specials insert source specials into the DVI file
-src-specials=WHERE insert source specials in certain places of
the DVI file. WHERE is a comma-separated value
list: cr display hbox math par parend vbox
-synctex=NUMBER generate SyncTeX data for previewers if nonzero
-translate-file=TCXNAME use the TCX file TCXNAME
-8bit make all characters printable by default
-help display this help and exit
-version output version information and exit
pdfTeX home page: <http://pdftex.org>
Email bug reports to pdftex@tug.org.
