SYNCTEX(5)                    File Formats Manual                   SYNCTEX(5)

NAME
     synctex - Synchronize TeXnology help file

DESCRIPTION
     Synchronize TeXnology help file (synctexs) are text files that help
     input/output synchronization during document preparation with the TeX
     typesetting system.

BASICS
     The structure of this file should not be considered public, in the sense
     that no one should need to parse its contents, except the synctex command
     line utility, and the synctex_parser library which are both publicly
     available. Unless it is absolutely not avoidable, access to the contents
     of the synctex file should only be made through requests made to the
     synctex command line utility.

STRUCTURE
     The element structure of a synctex file is a list of text line records as
     follows.  `*', `+', and `?' have their usual EBNF meanings: `*' means
     zero or more, `+' means one or more, and `?' means zero or one (i.e.,
     optional).

           <SyncTeX> ::= (The whole contents in 4 sections)

                 <Preamble>

                 <Content>

                 <Postamble>

                 <Post Scriptum>

     Each section starts with the first occurrence of a sectioning line, and
     ends with the next section, if any.  In the following definitions, we do
     not mention the section ending condition.

The preamble
           <Preamble> ::=

                 "SyncTeX Version:" <Version Number> <EOL>

                 <Input Line>*

                 "Magnification:" <TeX magnification> <EOL>

                 "Unit:" <unit in scaled point> <EOL>

                 "X Offset:" <horizontal offset in scaled point> <EOL>

                 "Y Offset:" <vertical offset in scaled point> <EOL>

           <Input Line> ::= "Input:" <tag> ":" <File Name> <EOL>

The content
           <Content> ::=

                 <byte offset record>

                 "Content:" <EOL>

                 (<Form(k)>|<Input Line>)*

                 <sheet(1)>

                 (<Form(k)>|<Input Line>)*

                 <sheet(2)>

                 (<Form(k)>|<Input Line>)*

                 ...

                 <sheet(N)>

                 (<Form(k)>|<Input Line>)*

           <byte offset record> ::= "!" <byte offset> <end of record>

           <sheet(n)> ::=

                 <byte offset record>

                 "{" <the integer n> <end of record>

                 <vbox section>|<hbox section>

                 <byte offset record>

                 "}" <the integer n> <end of record>

           <Form> ::=

                 <byte offset record>

                 "<" <form tag> <end of record>

                 <vbox section>|<hbox section>

                 <byte offset record>

                 ">" <end of record>

           <form tag> ::= <integer>

     Forms are available with pdfTeX.  All the numbers are integers encoded
     using the decimal representation with "C" locale.  The <box content>
     describes what is inside a box.  It is either a vertical or horizontal
     box, with some records related to glue, kern or math nodes.

           <box content> ::=

                 <vbox section>|<hbox section>

                 |<void vbox record>|<void hbox record>

                 |<current record>|<glue record>|<kern record>

                 |<math record>|<form ref record>|<Form>

           <vbox section> ::=

                 "[" <link> ":" <point> ":" <size> <end of record>

                 <box content>*

                 "]" <end of record>

           <hbox section> ::=

                 ( <link> ":" <point> ":" <size> <end of record>

                 <box content>*

                 ")" <end of record>

     Void boxes:

           <void vbox record> ::= "v" <link> ":" <point> ":" <size> <end of
           record>

           <void hbox record> ::= "h" <link> ":" <point> ":" <size> <end of
           record>

           <link> ::= <tag> "," <line>( "," <column>)?

           <point> ::= <full point>|<compressed point>

           <full point> ::= <integer> "," <integer>

           <compressed point> ::= <integer> ",="

           <line> ::= <integer>

           <column> ::= <integer>

           <size> ::= <Width> "," <Height> "," <Depth>

           <Width> ::= <integer>

           <Height> ::= <integer>

           <Depth> ::= <integer>

     The forthcoming records are basic one liners.

           <current record> ::= "x" <link> ":" <point> <end of record>

           <kern record> ::= "k" <link> ":" <point> ":" <Width> <end of
           record>

           <glue record> ::= "g" <link> ":" <point> <end of record>

           <math record> ::= "$" <link> ":" <point> <end of record>

           <form ref record> ::= "f" <form tag> ":" <point> <end of record>

The postamble
     The postamble closes the file If there is no postamble, it means that the
     typesetting process did not end correctly.

           <Postamble>::=

                 <byte offset record>

                 "Count:" <Number of records> <EOL>

The post scriptum
     The post scriptum contains material possibly added by 3rd parties.  It
     allows one to append some transformation (shift and magnify).  Typically,
     one applies a dvi to pdf filter with offset options and magnification,
     then he appends the same options to the synctex file, for example

           synctex update -o foo.pdf -m 0.486 -x 9472573sp -y 13.3dd source.dvi

           <Post Scriptum>::=

                 <byte offset record>

                 "Post Scriptum:" <EOL>

                 "Magnification:" <number> <EOL> (Set additional
                 magnification)

                 "X Offset:" <dimension> <EOL> (Set horizontal offset)

                 "Y Offset:" <dimension> <EOL> (Set vertical offset)
     This second information will override the offset and magnification
     previously available in the preamble section.  All the numbers are
     encoded using the decimal representation with "C" locale.

USAGE
     The <current record> is used to compute the visible size of hbox's.  The
     byte offset is an implicit anchor to navigate the synctex file from sheet
     to sheet. The second coordinate of a compressed point has been replaced
     by a "=" character which means that it is the second coordinate of the
     last full point available above.

SEE ALSO
     synctex(1) tex(1)

AUTHOR
     The Synchronize TeXnology is essentially due to Jerome Laurens, with
     useful suggestions by some well known actors of the TeX world.  SyncTeX
     is maintained as part of TeX Live.

HISTORY
     This document has been updated on Sat Apr 22 09:57:20 UTC 2017 to include
     \pdfxform support.

Independent                     August 30, 2022                    Independent