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Parham's Notes

Latex

After trying to write proposal and thesis in work, I know Latex is Awesome!

The TeX Frequently Asked Question List

Latexmk

If you use cross-references, you often have to run LaTeX more than once, if you use BibTeX for your bibliography or if you want to have a glossary you even need to run external programs in-between. To avoid all this hassle, you should simply use Latexmk!

On Linux, you can put your configurations into $HOME/.latexmkrc, which could contain something like this:

$dvi_previewer = 'start xdvi -watchfile 1.5';
$ps_previewer = 'start gv --watch';
$pdf_previewer = 'start evince';

You can also put a configuration file in the current directory for settings which only influence files in the current directory. Such a configuration file has to be named latexmkrc or .latexmkrc and may contain some of the following lines.

$pdf_mode = 1;        # tex -> pdf
$pdf_mode = 2; # tex -> ps -> pdf
$postscript_mode = 1; # tex -> ps


@default_files = ('main.tex');


$latex = 'latex -interaction=nonstopmode -shell-escape';
$pdflatex = 'pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -shell-escape';

Tectonic

A modernized, complete, self-contained TeX/LaTeX engine, powered by XeTeX and TeXLive.

  • Tectonic automatically downloads support files, so you don’t have to install a full LaTeX system in order to start using it. If you start using a new LaTeX package, Tectonic just pulls down the files it needs and continues processing. The underlying “bundle” technology allows for completely reproducible document compiles.
  • Tectonic has sophisticated logic and automatically loops TeX and BibTeX as needed, and only as much as needed.
  • The tectonic command-line program is quiet and never stops to ask for input.
  • Thanks to the power of XeTeX, Tectonic can use modern OpenType fonts and is fully Unicode-enabled.

Packages and Where to find them