[Tex/LaTex] latexmk not working after MiKTeX update

latexmkmiktex

I am using MiKTeX/TeXworks and set latexmk up years ago. It's been working well until yesterday when I updated MiKTeX.

The typesetting routine for latexmk that I use is:

However, now when I try to compile using my latexmk processing option I obtain the following log file:

Latexmk: This is Latexmk, John Collins, 18 June 2019, version: 4.65.
Rule 'pdflatex': The following rules & subrules became out-of-date:
    'pdflatex'
------------
Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'
------------
------------
Running 'pdflatex -synctex=1  -recorder  "DOCUMENT.tex"'
------------
Latexmk: applying rule 'pdflatex'...
Can't spawn "pdflatex -synctex=1  -recorder  "DOCUMENT.tex"": Inappropriate I/O control operation at C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\scripts/latexmk\latexmk.pl line 9732.
Latexmk: fls file doesn't appear to have been made.
Collected error summary (may duplicate other messages):
pdflatex: Command for 'pdflatex' gave return code 255
    Refer to 'DOCUMENT.log' for details
----------------------
This message may duplicate earlier message.
Latexmk: Failure in processing file 'DOCUMENT.tex':
(Pdf)LaTeX didn't generate the expected log file 'DOCUMENT.log'
----------------------
Latexmk: Use the -f option to force complete processing,
unless error was exceeding maximum runs, or warnings treated as errors.
Latexmk: Errors, so I did not complete making targets

I've tried searching for what to do, but haven't found anything too useful so far. Can anyone provide some guidance? Everything compiles as it should if I manually do pdflatex + bibtex + pdflatex + pdflatex.

The TeXworks version is Version 0.6.3 (MiKTeX 2.9.7140 64-bit).

Edit: Here's what I get from running latexmk from the command line. An error message

and the output

C:\Users\username\folder>latexmk
Latexmk: This is Latexmk, John Collins, 18 June 2019, version: 4.65.
Latexmk: Disallowing switch of output file as incompatible
    with file requests.
Latexmk: applying rule 'latex'...
Rule 'latex': The following rules & subrules became out-of-date:
      'latex'
------------
Run number 1 of rule 'latex'
------------
------------
Running 'latex  -recorder  "DOCUMENT.tex"'
------------
Can't spawn "latex  -recorder  "DOCUMENT.tex"": Inappropriate I/O control operati
on at C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\scripts/latexmk\latexmk.pl line 9732.
Latexmk: fls file doesn't appear to have been made.
Latexmk: Errors, so I did not complete making targets
Collected error summary (may duplicate other messages):
  latex: Command for 'latex' gave return code 255
      Refer to 'DOCUMENT.log' for details
----------------------
This message may duplicate earlier message.
Latexmk: Failure in processing file 'DOCUMENT.tex':
   (Pdf)LaTeX didn't generate the expected log file 'DOCUMENT.log'
----------------------
Latexmk: Use the -f option to force complete processing,
 unless error was exceeding maximum runs, or warnings treated as errors.

Best Answer

A lot of the exe-files in the miktex bin folder are very small: they are simply wrappers. The "real" application code is in some dll (and/or some script), and the wrappers must find the "entry point". Sometimes after an update the entry point changed and the wrappers must be recreated. Normally miktex takes care of this, but it can fail for whatever reason. In this case the wrappers can be recreated with

  initexmf --mklinks --admin --force

or if only scripts like latexmk are affected

  initexmf --mklinks=scripts --admin --force

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Use MiKTeX option through latexmk

I've made a new version of latexmk, which supports -aux-directory and -output-directory. It's v. 4.27a and can be found at

http://www.phys.psu.edu/~collins/latexmk/versions.html

This version ~~will be submitted to CTAN fairly soon, but some feedback would be useful, since I have not tested the new features extensively, especially as I don't have current access to MiKTeX~~ or a more recent one can be found on CTAN as well.

Latexmk now has options -auxdir, -aux-directory, -outdir, and -out-directory, plus corresponding configuration variables $aux_dir and $out_dir. See the documentation for more details. To achieve what the original poster wanted, it's sufficient to put

$aux_dir = 'C:/Users/doncherry/Documents/LaTeX/AUXI_global';

in a latexmkrc file. (I've used forward slashes in directory names since these are acceptable to MS-Windows, and avoid running afoul of quoting conventions.)

I've done some tests with the -output-directory option, and the only problem that needs sorting out is that the combination of biblatex with bibtex doesn't work because a file needed by bibtex isn't in its usual place. (Biblatex with biber works, as do ordinary uses of bibtex.) If you don't use biblatex, the last issue doesn't affect you.

[Tex/LaTex] AUCTeX -output-directory + copy *.pdf to working directory

If you want to use AUCTeX so desperately:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
                 (push 
                  '("Latex_outdir" "%`pdflatex --output-directory=/tmp %(mode)%' %t" 
                TeX-run-TeX nil (latex-mode doctex-mode) 
                :help "Run pdflatex with output in /tmp")
                  TeX-command-list)))

The question you linked to in your last comment is still unanswered, and will cause a serious problem with this setup: AUCTeX won't be able to locate your auxiliary files, and thus deduce the next step in the compilation step.

I suggest you use latexmk for the whole process instead:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
                 (push 
                  '("Make" "latexmk -outdir=/tmp %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t
                :help "Make pdf output using latexmk.")
                  TeX-command-list)))

Latexmk is aware of the option outdir, and will automatically search for the auxiliary files in this directory.

Either way, note the following point (from man latexmk):

Commonly, the directory specified for output files is a subdirectory of the current working directory. However, if you specify some other directory, e.g., "/tmp/foo" or "../output", be aware that this could cause problems, e.g., with makeindex or bibtex. This is because modern versions of these programs, by default, will refuse to work when they find that they are asked to write to a file in a directory that appears not to be the current working directory or one of its subdirectories. This is part of security measures by the whole TeX system that try to prevent malicious or errant TeX documents from incorrectly messing with a user's files. If for $out_dir or $aux_dir you really do need to specify an absolute pathname (e.g., "/tmp/foo") or a path (e.g., "../output") that includes a higher-level directory, then you need to disable the security measures (and assume any risks). This can be done by temporarily setting the operating system's environment variable openout_any to "a" (as in "all"), to override the default "paranoid" setting.

Another potential problem with this setting is that all your documents will share the same temporary directory, so you will need to make sure they all have different names.

For your cp step, you can use this line in your .latexmkrc:

$pdflatex .= ' && cp -v %Z/%D %D';

Note that most of this is untested, please let me know if it doesn't work.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Use MiKTeX option through latexmk

[Tex/LaTex] AUCTeX -output-directory + copy *.pdf to working directory

Related Question