[Tex/LaTex] Automatically start the necessary pdflatex runs if .tex has changed (MacOS X)

automationlatexmkmactools

I read about Latex Daemon, which seems to automatically start a new latex run, when the source document (.tex) has changed.

Can somebody recommend me a similar solution for MacOS X (as Latex daemon seems to be for Windows only)?

snip:
I've removed the 2nd part of my question about speeding things up and created a new question: How to speed up pdflatex for a very large document on MacOS X?

I use TexMakerX as editor and Skimas viewer.
Skim can autoupdate the PDF file, as soon as it has changed, so that should be no problem.
My current LaTeX project has several source files, combined with \include, so the solution should be able to "observe" the changes of at least one of those files.

edit:

I'll accept latexmk as the answer for automatically running pdflatex several times to update bibliography and references
and I'll ask the question of speeding up processing in a new question.

For those who want to set up latexmkon MacOS X, this page from Damien Pollet could be helpful.

Problems I had with latexmk:

with the -pvc-option it seems to slow down my MacBook, as switching to another application got quite slow, especially when its windows were located in another Space
so I turned that off and just now use latexmk via short key F1 to automatically compile "everything", while I use a single pdflatex-run with F2 to add small changes in the text.

While searching with google I also found the atchange program http://www.ccrnp.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/atchange.html which seems to do similar things, I did not test it yet.

Best Answer

latexmk can run in automatic-update mode using the -pvc option:

# latexmk -pdf -pvc file.tex

It is a Perl script, so it should run under any OS as long a Perl compiler is installed. I'm not sure, but I think TeXLive ships with one, at least under Windows I think.

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[Tex/LaTex] How to speed up pdflatex for a very large document on MacOS X

Take a look this description. It's a description of how to format the preamble yourself. Assuming your source file is main.tex, it all comes down to these steps (which were copied from the link and modified by me for my own use):

Rearrange your preamble so that its static part precedes any dynamic part. What in the preamble can be “dynamic”? For example, if you use \includeonly, you probably want to change its argument rather frequently and so it is not static. Finally, some packages read and write auxiliary files when you issue a command that you should put in the preamble (eg, nomencl uses `\makenomenclature). Clearly, you have to run these commands in every run.
Extract the static part of the preamble into, say, preamble.tex. At this point, main.tex no longer contains the static part. It should start with the dynamic part, or simply `\begin{document} if you have nothing dynamic.

Execute:

pdflatex -ini -jobname="preamble" "&pdflatex preamble.tex\dump"

in the command line. You will notice that a new file `preamble.fmt has been generated in the same directory, along with other auxiliary files.

Edit the first line of main.tex so that it starts with %&preamble.
Execute latex main.tex as usual:
```
pdflatex -shell-escape main.tex
```

You may get an error about the class file immediately, or you may notice that latex finishes as usual. But if you have paid attention to the output, or if you inspect the the log file, then you will see that the preamble gets processed in “no time” at all. At this point, cheers!

To make things slightly fancier, here is an modification. First, add this to the end of preamble.tex:

\def\preambleloaded{Precompiled preamble loaded.}

Then, before the dynamic preamble (or \begin{document} if there is none) of `main.tex, add:

\def\ifundefined#1{\expandafter\ifx\csname#1\endcsname\relax} \ifundefined{preambleloaded}
\typeout{PRECOMILED PREAMBLE NOT LOADED}\input{preamble} \else
\typeout{\preambleloaded}
\fi

The idea is to define a macro in the precompiled preamble and use it to detect if the precompiled preamble has been loaded or not. If not, \input{preamble} will be used to pull the static preamble back in and you will not see any error at all.

Also, if you are using tikz to make figures, have a look at the external library. Check the Tikz and Pgf manual, section 32 describes how to use it.

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[Tex/LaTex] How to speed up pdflatex for a very large document on MacOS X

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