Usage: pdfetex [OPTION]... [TEXNAME[.tex]] [COMMANDS]
   or: pdfetex [OPTION]... \FIRST-LINE
   or: pdfetex [OPTION]... &FMT ARGS
  Run pdfeTeX on TEXNAME, usually creating TEXNAME.pdf.
  Any remaining COMMANDS are processed as pdfeTeX input, after TEXNAME is read.
  If the first line of TEXNAME is %&FMT, and FMT is an existing .fmt file,
  use it.  Else use `NAME.efmt', where NAME is the program invocation name,
  most commonly `pdfetex'.

  Alternatively, if the first non-option argument begins with a backslash,
  interpret all non-option arguments as a line of pdfeTeX input.

  Alternatively, if the first non-option argument begins with a &, the
  next word is taken as the FMT to read, overriding all else.  Any
  remaining arguments are processed as above.

  If no arguments or options are specified, prompt for input.

-c-style-errors          print C/C++ style error messages.
-efmt=FMTNAME             use FMTNAME instead of program name or a %& line
-ini                     be pdfeinitex, for dumping formats; this is implicitly
                          true if the program name is `pdfeinitex'
-interaction=STRING      set interaction mode (STRING=batchmode/nonstopmode/
                          scrollmode/errorstopmode)
-kpathsea-debug=NUMBER   set path searching debugging flags according to
                          the bits of NUMBER
[-no]-mktex=FMT          disable/enable mktexFMT generation (FMT=tex/tfm)
-output-comment=STRING   use STRING for PDF file comment instead of date
-progname=STRING         set program (and fmt) name to STRING
-shell-escape            enable \write18{SHELL COMMAND}
-translate-file=TCXNAME  use the TCX file TCXNAME
-help                    display this help and exit
-version                 output version information and exit

Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.