[Tex/LaTex] TeXShop not finding Gnuplot

external filesgnuplottexshop

I'm working in TeXShop on my mac and I love it.

There is one slight problem though. I use TikZ wich sometimes uses gnuplot to create it's plots. One would think that running TeXShop alone is enough (TeXShop should call gnuplot) but it isn't for me.

I have to run my file from the command line using:

latex -shell-escape myfile.tex

and only after I did this the plot's will appear in TeXShop. What happens is this:

TeXShop can't find or call gnuplotso it doesn't create the necessary *.table files
If I call latex from the command line, it automagically does find gnuplot and creates the correct *.table files
When I run TeXShop again, the *.table files are already there and it just picks them up to work with.

I thought this was normal, until I discorvered it wasn't by using another package that also needs to call an external program (minted, which needs pygmentize and/or python). This package works normally from my TeXShop and this got me thinking: should calling gnuplot from TeXShop work just as well?

I'm guessing it has something to do with the location of my gnuplot, using which gnuploton the command line tells me it is in:

/opt/local/bin/gnuplot

It got installed there using the installtion guide here (actually, I installed all the macports, and gnuplot was one of them).

Readings in some other fora lead me to believe the symbolic link is broken.. Although I don't quite know what that means or how to fix it. TeXShop doesn't know where to find gnuplot.

What should I do to fix this?

PS: to avoid the obvious question: yes, --shell-escape is enabled in my TeXShop preferences.

Best Answer

You should either tell TeXShop to use /opt/local/bin/gnuplot instead of gnuplot, or add /opt/local/bin to the PATH that graphical applications see under Mac OS X. For the latter, you should have to edit (or create) the file ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist, see http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/rowen/AquaEnvVar.html.

The following should work in your case, but make sure you also add the directory where the tex binaries live

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PATH</key>
<string>/opt/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Don't forget to logout and login again for the changes to take effect.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ + gnuplot on a Mac

First you need to test if gnuplot works. I compiled the source but you can work with a fink or macport version;
Now you can test gnuplot in the terminal $ gnuplot;
Then gnuplot must be find in the path. A simple solution is to create a link for example in /usr/local/bin/ through the real file gnuplot but if you know how do you can modifify your path directly (to test the path in the terminal :$ echo $PATH)
And finally, you need to authorize TeXto launch 'gnuplotwith--shell-escape`in your script for the compilation.

I don't like very much the use of Fink or Macport and I prefer to compile the sources. By default the binary will be inside /usr/local/bin ( I think ..) but it's easy to change. The next method is only to get a version to use with tikz and to get a table. It's more complicate to get a version with all terminals (png, etc.) A good thing is to install Aquaterm !

Download the sources from : gnuplot sources then put the folder gnuplot-4.4.3 on your desktop
$ cd /Users/.../Desktop/gnuplot-4.4.3
$ ./configure --with-readline=builtin to avoid a problem with a bad readline on Leopard.
$ make
$ sudo make install
test of gnuplot $ gnuplot
make a try with TexShop, this is the easiest way to work with TeX.

[Tex/LaTex] Error with TextMate 2, PATH, –shell-escape and gnuplot in 10.8.2

This might be an issue with TextMate's PATH, which is not (necessarily) the same as the PATH when you work from Terminal. You can check that TextMate is able to find gnuplot by opening a new file in TextMate, typing the line which gnuplot, and running that line with Ctrl-R. If TextMate gives you an error message, then it can't find gnuplot; if it prints a directory name then it can.

So assuming that TextMate can't find gnuplot, the easiest way to fix this is to go to TextMate's Preferences > Variables and edit the entry for PATH. You should change this so that the directory containing gnuplot is in the list, for example

/usr/texbin:$PATH:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/bin

might work for you. (It's important that you keep $PATH in this list too, otherwise TextMate won't be able to use many important commands.) Make sure the check box next to PATH is checked. Now if you open a new file and type which gnuplot, Ctrl-R, it should give you something, and if you type which pdflatex, Ctrl-R, it should say /usr/texbin.

Finally, you need to make sure that TextMate runs pdflatex with the shell-escape option. TextMate allows you to pass options to the TeX compiler using comments at the beginning of your document. Try adding this

%!TEX TS-options = --shell-escape

as the first line of your file. Both of the examples you provided compile without any problems on my machine if I include this as the first line. (TextMate 2.0-alpha.9387)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ + gnuplot on a Mac

[Tex/LaTex] Error with TextMate 2, PATH, –shell-escape and gnuplot in 10.8.2

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