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GS(1)                       General Commands Manual                      GS(1)



NAME
       gs - Aladdin Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter)

SYNOPSIS
       gs [ options ] [ files ] ...

DESCRIPTION
       Ghostscript  is  a programming language similar to Adobe Systems' Post‐
       Script and PDF languages, which are in turn similar to Forth.  Gs reads
       files in sequence and executes them as Ghostscript programs.  After do‐
       ing this, it reads further input from the standard input.  If the  file
       - is named, however, it represents the standard input, which is read in
       order and not after the files on the command line.  Each line is inter‐
       preted  separately.   The `quit' command, or end-of-file, exits the in‐
       terpreter.

       The interpreter recognizes several switches described below, which  may
       appear anywhere in the command line and apply to all files thereafter.

       The -h or -?  options give help and list the available devices; the de‐
       fault is plan9, which produces  compressed  image  files  suitable  for
       viewing  with  page(1)  (but note that page(1) will invoke gs automati‐
       cally; see its manual).

       Ghostscript may be built with  multiple  output  devices.   Ghostscript
       normally  opens  the first one and directs output to it.  To use device
       xyz as the initial output device, include the switch
            -sDEVICE=xyz
       in the command line.  This switch must  precede  the  first  PostScript
       file  and only its first invocation has any effect.  Output devices can
       also be selected by the word selectdevice in the input language, or  by
       setting  the  environment  variable GS_DEVICE.  The order of precedence
       for these alternatives, highest to lowest, is:
            selectdevice
            (command line)
            GS_DEVICE
            plan9

       Normally, output goes directly to a scratch file.  To send  the  output
       to a series of files foo1.xyz, foo2.xyz, etc., use the switch
            -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
       The  %d  may be any printf (see fprintf(2)) format specification.  Each
       file will receive one page of output.  If the file name begins  with  a
       pipe  character,  the output will be sent as standard input to the fol‐
       lowing pipeline.  For example,
            -sOutputFile=|lp
       Specifying the file - will send the files to standard output; this also
       requires enabling the -q option.

   Initialization files
       When  looking for the initialization files (gs_*.ps), the files related
       to fonts, or the file for the run operator, Ghostscript first looks for
       the  file  (if it doesn't start with a slash) in the current directory,
       then in these directories in the following order:

       1.     Any directories specified by -I switches  in  the  command  line
              (see below);

       2.     Any directories specified by the GS_LIB environment variable;

       3.     The directories /sys/lib/ghostscript, /sys/lib/ghostscript/font,
              and /sys/lib/postscript/font.

       The GS_LIB or -I parameters may be a single directory or a  colon-sepa‐
       rated list.

   Options
       -- filename arg1 ...
              Take the next argument as a file name as usual, but take all re‐
              maining arguments (even if  they  have  the  syntactic  form  of
              switches) and define the name ARGUMENTS in userdict (not system‐
              dict) as an array of those strings,  before  running  the  file.
              When  Ghostscript  finishes executing the file, it exits back to
              the shell.

       -Dname=token
       -dname=token
              Define a name in systemdict with the given definition.  The  to‐
              ken  must be exactly one token (as defined by the `token' opera‐
              tor) and must not contain any white space.

       -Dname
       -dname Define a name in systemdict with value=null.

       -Sname=string
       -sname=string
              Define a name in systemdict with a given string as value.   This
              is  different  from -d.  For example, -dname=35 is equivalent to
              the program fragment
                   /name 35 def
              whereas -sname=35 is equivalent to
                   /name (35) def

       -q     Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do the
              equivalent of -dQUIET.

       -gnumber1xnumber2
              Equivalent  to -dDEVICEWIDTH=number1 and -dDEVICEHEIGHT=number2.
              This is for the benefit of devices, such as windows, that  allow
              width and height to be specified.

       -rnumber
       -rnumber1xnumber2
              Equivalent    to   -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1   and   -dDEVICE‐
              YRESOLUTION= number2.  This is for the benefit of devices,  such
              as printers, that support multiple X and Y resolutions.  If only
              one number is given, it is used for both X and Y resolutions.

       -Idirectories
              Adds the designated list of  directories  at  the  head  of  the
              search path for library files.

       Note that gs_init.ps makes systemdict read-only, so the values of names
       defined with -D/d/S/s cannot be changed (although, of course, they  can
       be superseded by definitions in userdict or other dictionaries.)

   Special names
       -dBATCH
              Exit after the last file has been processed.  This is equivalent
              to listing quit.ps at the end of the list of files.

       -dDISKFONTS
              Causes individual character outlines to be loaded from the  disk
              the  first  time  they  are  encountered.  (Normally Ghostscript
              loads all the character outlines when it loads  a  font.)   This
              may  allow loading more fonts into RAM, at the expense of slower
              rendering.

       -dNOCACHE
              Disables character caching.  Only useful for debugging.

       -dNOBIND
              Disables the `bind' operator.  Only useful for debugging.

       -dNODISPLAY
              Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.  This
              may be useful when debugging.

       -dNOPAUSE
              Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page.  This may
              be  desirable  for  applications  where  another  program  (e.g.
              page(1)) is `driving' Ghostscript.

       -dSAFER
              Disables  the deletefile and renamefile operators, and the abil‐
              ity to open files in any mode other than read-only.  This may be
              desirable  for  spoolers or other sensitive environments.  Files
              in the /fd directory may still be opened for writing.

       -dWRITESYSTEMDICT
              Leaves systemdict writable.  This is necessary when running spe‐
              cial  utility  programs  such as font2c and pcharstr, which must
              bypass normal PostScript access protection.

       -sDEVICE=device
              Selects an alternate initial output device, as described above.

       -sOutputFile=filename
              Selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial  out‐
              put device, as described above.

FILES
       /sys/lib/ghostscript/*
              Startup-files, utilities, examples, and basic font definitions.

       /sys/lib/ghostscript/fonts/*
              Additional font definitions.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/cmd/gs

SEE ALSO
       page(1), ps2pdf(1)
       The  Ghostscript  document  files  in doc and man subdirectories of the
       source directory.

BUGS
       The treatment of standard input is non-standard.



                                                                         GS(1)