[Tex/LaTex] MacTex – How to compile via command line?

compilingmactexpdftex

I'm new to LaTeX/TeX and recently installed MacTeX on my MacBook. Everything seems to work fine (I'm able to create and typeset files with TeXShop).

Now I want to compile some files via command line and read that I need to change into the projects directory and execute pdflatex my_file.tex. Sadly MacTeX doesn't seem to ship pdflatex. which pdflatex returns nothing.

Should pdflatex be included in MacTeX and my installation is broken?
I already reinstalled MacTeX and checked the MD5 hash to verify that I have the right MacTeX installer…

What can I do to compile my .tex-files?

Best Answer

I use

xelatex

and it works perfectly fine for me.

For instance, use the below command to compile your tex file and generate the pdf:

xelatex --interaction=batchmode file_name.tex 2>&1 > /dev/null;open file_name.pdf

Remove the

2>&1 > /dev/null

part if you want to see the error messages.I am okay with them not being there.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] auto-pst-pdf and TeXstudio under MacTeX

To diagnose your problem, try this with pdflatex -shell-escape filename.tex.

% this input file name is filename.tex
% compile it with pdflatex -shell-escape filename.tex

\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{temporary.tex}
\documentclass[pstricks,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newsavebox\IBox
\savebox\IBox{\includegraphics{example-image-a.eps}}
\psset{xunit=\wd\IBox,yunit=\ht\IBox}
\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid=top](1,1)
    \rput[bl](0,0){\usebox\IBox}
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage{graphicx,pgffor}
\edef\AutoRotateOff{-dAutoRotatePages=/None}

\foreach \compiler/\ext in {latex/tex,dvips/dvi,ps2pdf \AutoRotateOff/ps}{\immediate\write18{\compiler\space temporary.\ext}}

\begin{document}
This is a test. The following figure should be processed OK when PdfLaTeX is run.

\bigskip

\includegraphics{temporary.pdf}% extension is not necessary
\end{document}

If you can get the following, there is a problem with your editor.

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Texmaker and MacTex are unable to compile Index, Nomenclature and Biber

Not a direct answer, but a method that's equivalent to yours and much easier to manage.

Add a Texmaker user command that does

arara -v %.tex

and prefix your document with

% arara: pdflatex
% arara: makeindex: { style: index_style_wenger.ist }
% arara: nomencl
% arara: biber
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatex: { synctex: yes }

\documentclass{article}

Running arara instead of pdflatex will do the same exact sequence of commands that you're trying to pass to a single tool.

You have the advantage that, in order not to run all those commands, you just disable one or more, which is obtained by adding a ! after the leading %.

This requires Java, if you don't have it installed you'll be prompted to.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] auto-pst-pdf and TeXstudio under MacTeX

[Tex/LaTex] Texmaker and MacTex are unable to compile Index, Nomenclature and Biber

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