How do I read the LaTeX kernel code source?

Question

I'm embarrassed to ask this. At one time I knew the answer and even had a printed copy of the code. I have tried texdoc with various options but was unable to come up with the one I needed.

At the moment I am particularly interested in the definitions of \addcontentsline, \contentsline, \addtocontents and any friends.

GOM

Perhaps Where can I find help files or documentation for commands like \@startsection for LaTeX? (points to source2e and/or latex.ltx). — Werner, Nov 22 '19 at 19:52
You can do kpsewhich latex.ltx in the terminal/command prompt and open the file it returns. If you do kpsewhich -a latex.ltx it will also show you the path to the -dev version. In my distribution they are in $TEXMF/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/latex.ltx and $TEXMF/texmf-dist/tex/latex-dev/base/latex.ltx, respectively. — Phelype Oleinik, Nov 22 '19 at 19:57

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 23 '19 at 00:48

6

texdoc source2e

However, this has a problem right now as I just noticed: what you get are the sources for the prerelease for 2020-02-02.

The current one you need to use

texdoc -l source2e

and then select 2.

Or go to:

http://latex-project.org/help/documentation/

where you find the sources as pdf as well as several other documents.

edited Nov 23 '19 at 00:48

Phelype Oleinik

70,814

answered Nov 23 '19 at 00:35

Frank Mittelbach

77,146

How do I read the LaTeX kernel code source?

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