[Tex/LaTex] TexStudio gives ‘Could not start command’ with the custom build script

compilingerrorstexstudio

I have a custom build script build.command that runs through the build steps necessary to convert my LaTex scripts into a .pdf (e.g. makeglossaries and so on). The script works fine. However when I try and get it to run in TexStudio it complains, saying: Error: Could not start the command: /Users/jackaidley/Documents/report/build.command "report". However, if I copy and paste from that to the Terminal and run the command then it works fine so I don't understand what the problem could be?

I have set it to run by modifying the pdfLaTex run command to ?a)build.command %.

This on Mac OS X 10.8.4 with TexStudio 2.4.

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The reason it wasn't working was that the build.command file didn't contain the first line #!/bin/bash. I'm not sure why it would work from the command line but via TexStudio but there you go.

Thanks to Sean Allred's comment for giving me the inspiration to try this.

Paths for a MacTeX distribution

The following settings should work:

latex       "/Library/TeX/texbin/latex" -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex    
dvips       "/Library/TeX/texbin/dvips" -o %.ps %.dvi
ps2pdf      "/usr/local/bin/ps2pdf" %.ps    
MakeIndex   "/Library/TeX/texbin/makeindex" %.idx    
BiBTeX      "/Library/TeX/texbin/bibtex" %.aux    
pdfLaTeX    "/Library/TeX/texbin/pdflatex" -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex    
dvipdf      "/Library/TeX/texbin/dvipdfm" %.dvi    
dvipng      "/Library/TeX/texbin/dvipng" -T tight -D 120 %.dvi    
Metapost    "/Library/TeX/texbin/mpost" --interaction nonstopmode     
DVI viewer  open %.dvi    
PS viewer   open %.ps    
PDF viewer  open %.pdf    
Ghostscript /usr/local/bin/gs "?am.ps"    
Asymptote   "/Library/TeX/texbin/asy" %.asy

If you have updated to a recent MacTeX and need to change them all at the same time, you can quit out of the app and edit the texstudio.ini file which is stored in ~/.config/texstudio. This is a plain text file and you can then do a global replace of the old path with /Library/TeX/texbin.

Paths for other types of distributions

If you are using any other TeX distribution, for example MacPorts or Fink, you will need to change /usr/texbin/ to the relevant path in that particular distribution. In MacPorts it is /opt/local/bin/.

I would not recommend using such a distribution, however, as they are generally harder to keep updated.

Screenshot

[Tex/LaTex] New installation – TeX editor says: “Error: Could not start the command”

(Also check out the MiKTeX tag wiki I just wrote up!)

The hardest part about getting started with LaTeX probably is learning what the different components you need are. Texmaker is an editor, but what actually compiles your source code and creates the document is within a (La)TeX distribution, the most popular of which are MiKTeX (Windows only) and TeX Live (Windows, Linux, OS X (as MacTeX)). You can read about some differences between the two at What are the advantages of TeX Live over MiKTeX?. I've always been using MiKTeX, which seems like a solid choice for a beginner to me. I am, however, considering trying out TeX Live as well.

If you decide in favor of MiKTeX, make sure to install the user mode (you're asked about that during the installation process), not in admin mode. It has nothing to do with multi-account configurations, but rather something network-y related. You can read about it at Difference between administrative and user mode of MiKTeX. But believe me, the user mode will make your life much easier. I wish I would've done it right away. (On another question that might come up before downloading MiKTeX: What is the difference between the basic MiKTeX and the complete MiKTeX?)

Once you installed a distribution, you might have to reinstall Texmaker if you want to avoid having to (find out and) type in all the paths yourself.

As introductory reading for LaTeX, I recommend The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2ε, which also has a section about the different parts of a working LaTeX system, if I remember correctly.

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Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Commands paths in TeXstudio on Mac OS X – with ‘could not start the command’ error

Paths for a MacTeX distribution

Paths for other types of distributions

Screenshot

[Tex/LaTex] New installation – TeX editor says: “Error: Could not start the command”

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