tex-minify

A command-line tool to expand \input commands in TeX files and filter BibTeX files based on citations.

Features

• Recursively expands all \input commands in TeX files
• Handles relative paths correctly
• Supports both .tex extension present or not in \input commands
• UTF-8 encoding support
• Configurable base directory for input resolution
• Filter BibTeX files to only keep cited references

Usage

Using uvx (no installation required)

# Minify a TeX file (prints to stdout)
uvx tex-minify minify input.tex

# Save minified output to file
uvx tex-minify minify input.tex -o output.tex

# Specify base directory for \input resolution
uvx tex-minify minify input.tex --base-dir /path/to/tex/files -o output.tex

# Filter BibTeX file to only keep cited references
uvx tex-minify filter-bib paper.tex references.bib -o filtered.bib

Using pip installation

First install:

pip install tex-minify

Then use:

# Minify a TeX file
tex-minify minify input.tex -o output.tex

# Filter BibTeX file
tex-minify filter-bib paper.tex references.bib -o filtered.bib

Using pixi (for development)

# Setup development environment
pixi install
pixi run install

# Run the tool
pixi run -- tex-minify minify input.tex
pixi run -- tex-minify filter-bib paper.tex references.bib

Commands

minify

Process a TeX file and expand all \input commands.

tex-minify minify INPUT_FILE [-o OUTPUT] [--base-dir BASE_DIR]

Arguments:

• INPUT_FILE: Path to the input TeX file
• -o, --output: Output file path (optional, defaults to stdout)
• --base-dir: Base directory for resolving \input paths (optional, defaults to input file directory)

filter-bib

Filter a BibTeX file to only include references that are cited in the TeX file.

tex-minify filter-bib TEX_FILE BIB_FILE [-o OUTPUT]

Arguments:

• TEX_FILE: Path to the TeX file containing citations
• BIB_FILE: Path to the BibTeX file to filter
• -o, --output: Output file path (optional, defaults to stdout)

Error Handling

The tool will exit with a non-zero status code and display an error message if:

• Input files are not found
• Referenced \input files are not found
• Output file cannot be written
• Any other processing errors occur