Process a basic LATEX file:

> latex sample2e.tex

# Preview the result online:

> xdvi sample2e.dvi

Create a PostScript file for printing or display:

> dvips sample2e.dvi -o sample2e.ps

# Create a PDF file instead of DVI; this processes the .tex file and writes PDF directly:

> pdflatex sample2e.tex

# Comments start with % and continue to the end of the line.
# Blank lines are ignored.
# A \ at the end of a line acts as a continuation character, i.e., the next line is appended. Whitespace at the beginning of continuation lines is not ignored.
# Each remaining line has the form:
  variable[.progname] [=] value
  where the ‘=’ and surrounding whitespace are optional.
  # The variable name may contain any character other than whitespace, ‘=’, or ‘.’, but sticking to ‘A-Za-z_’ is safest.

 If you specify any filename components after the ‘//’, only subdirectories with matching components are included. For example, ‘/a//b’ expands into directories /a/1/b, /a/2/b, /a/1/1/b, and so on, but not /a/b/c or /a/1.

 Multiple ‘//’ constructs in a path are possible, but ‘//’ at the beginning of a path is ignored.

The following list summarizes the special characters in Kpathsea configuration files.

:    Separator in path specification; at the beginning or the end of a path it substitutes the default path expansion.

;    Separator on non-Unix systems (acts like :).

$    Variable expansion.

~    Represents the user’s home directory.

{...}    Brace expansion.

//    Subdirectory expansion (can occur anywhere in a path, except at its beginning).

%    Start of comment.

\    Continuation character (allows multi-line entries).

!!    Search only database to locate file, do not search the disk.