LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
NAME
latexmk - generate LaTeX document
SYNOPSIS
latexmk [options] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Latexmk completely automates the process of compiling a LaTeX document.
Essentially, it is like a specialized relative of the general make
utility, but one which determines dependencies automatically and has
some other very useful features. In its basic mode of operation
latexmk is given the name of the primary source file for a document,
and it issues the appropriate sequence of commands to generate a .dvi,
.ps, .pdf and/or hardcopy version of the document.
By default latexmk will run the commands necessary to generate a .dvi
file.
Latexmk can also be set to run continuously with a suitable previewer.
In that case the LaTeX program, etc, are rerun whenever one of the
source files is modified, and the previewer automatically updates the
on-screen view of the compiled document.
Latexmk determines which are the source files by examining the log
file. When latexmk is run, it examines properties of the source files,
and if any have been changed since the last document generation,
latexmk will run the various LaTeX processing programs as necessary.
In particular, it will repeat the run of LaTeX (or pdflatex) often
enough to resolve all cross references; depending on the macro packages
used. With some macro packages and document classes, four, or even
more, runs may be needed. If necessary, latexmk will also run bibtex
and/or makeindex. In addition, latexmk can be configured to generate
other necessary files. For example, from an updated figure file it can
automatically generate a file in encapsulated postscript or another
suitable format for reading by LaTeX.
Latexmk has two different previewing options. In the simple -pv
option, a dvi, postscript or pdf previewer is automatically run after
generating the dvi, postscript or pdf version of the document. The
type of file to view is selected according to configuration settings
and command line options.
The second previewing option is the powerful -pvc option (mnemonic:
"preview continuously"). In this case, latexmk runs continuously, reg-
ularly monitoring all the source files to see if any have changed.
Every time a change is detected, latexmk runs all the programs neces-
sary to generate a new version of the document. A good previewer (like
gv) will then automatically update its display. Thus the user can sim-
ply edit a file and, when the changes are written to disk, latexmk com-
pletely automates the cycle of updating the .dvi (and possibly the .ps
and .pdf) file, and refreshing the previewer's display. It's not quite
WYSIWYG, but usefully close.
For other previewers, the user may have to manually make the previewer
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update its display, which can be (some versions of xdvi and gsview) as
simple as forcing a redraw of its display.
Latexmk has the ability to print a banner in gray diagonally across
each page when making the postscript file. It can also, if needed,
call an external program to do other postprocessing on the generated
files.
Latexmk is highly configurable, both from the command line and in con-
figuration files, so that it can accommodate a wide variety of user
needs and system configurations. Default values are set according to
the operating system, so latexmk often works without special configura-
tion on MS-Windows, cygwin, Linux, OS-X, and other UNIX systems
(notably Solaris).
A very annoying complication handled very reliably by Latexmk, is that
LaTeX is a multiple pass system. On each run, LaTeX reads in informa-
tion generated on a previous run, for things like cross referencing and
indexing. In the simplest cases, a second run of LaTeX suffices, and
often the log file contains a message about the need for another pass.
However, there is a wide variety of add-on macro packages to LaTeX,
with a variety of behaviors. The result is to break simple-minded
determinations of how many runs are needed and of which programs. In
its new version, latexmk has a highly general and efficient solution to
these issues. The solution involves retaining between runs information
on the source files, and a symptom is that latexmk generates an extra
file (with extension .fdb_latexmk, by default) that contains the source
file information.
LATEXMK OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS ON COMMAND LINE
(All options can be introduced by single or double "-" characters,
e.g., "latexmk -help" or "latexmk --help".)
file One or more files can be specified. If no files are specified,
latexmk will, by default, run on all files in the current work-
ing directory with a ".tex" extension. This behavior can be
changed: see the description concerning the @default_files vari-
able in the section "List of configuration variables usable in
initialization files".
If a file is specified without an extension, then the ".tex" extension
is automatically added, just as LaTeX does. Thus, if you specify:
latexmk foo
then latexmk will operate on the file "foo.tex".
-bibtex
When the source file uses bbl files for bibliography, run bibtex
as needed to regenerate the bbl files.
This property can also be configured by setting the $bibtex_use
variable to 2 in a configuration file
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-bibtex-
Never run bibtex.
A common use for this option is when a document comes from an
external source, complete with its bbl file(s), and the user
does not have the corresponding bib files available. In this
situation use of the -bibtex- option will prevent latexmk from
trying to run bibtex, which would result in overwriting of the
bbl files.
-bibtex-cond
When the source file uses bbl file(s) for the bibliography, run
bibtex as needed to regenerate the bbl files, but only if the
relevant bib file(s) exist. Thus when the bib files are not
available, bibtex is not run, thereby avoiding overwriting of
the bbl file(s). This is the default setting.
(Note that it is possible for latexmk to decide that the bib
file does not exist, even though the bib file does exist and
bibtex finds it. The problem is that the bib file may not be in
the current directory but in some search path; the places
latexmk and bibtex cause to be searched need not be identical.
On modern installations of TeX and related programs this problem
should not arise, since latexmk uses the kpsewhich program to do
the search, and kpsewhich should use the same search path as
bibtex. If this problem arises, use the -bibtex option when
invoking latexmk.)
-bm <message>
A banner message to print diagonally across each page when con-
verting the dvi file to postscript. The message must be a sin-
gle argument on the command line so be careful with quoting spa-
ces and such.
Note that if the -bm option is specified, the -ps option is
assumed.
-bi <intensity>
How dark to print the banner message. A decimal number between
0 and 1. 0 is black and 1 is white. The default is 0.95, which
is OK unless your toner cartridge is getting low.
-bs <scale>
A decimal number that specifies how large the banner message
will be printed. Experimentation is necessary to get the right
scale for your message, as a rule of thumb the scale should be
about equal to 1100 divided by the number of characters in the
message. The default is 220.0 which is just right for 5 charac-
ter messages.
-commands
List the commands used by latexmk for processing files, and then
exit.
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-c Clean up (remove) all regeneratable files generated by latex and
bibtex except dvi, postscript and pdf. These files are a combi-
nation of log files, aux files, latexmk's database file of
source file information, and those with extensions specified in
the @generated_exts configuration variable. In addition, files
with extensions by the $clean_ext configuration variable are
removed.
This cleanup is instead of a regular make. See the -gg option
if you want to do a cleanup then a make.
If $bibtex_use is set to 0 or 1, bbl files are counted as non-
regeneratable.
If $cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated is nonzero, regeneratable
files are considered as including those generated by custom
dependencies and are also deleted. Otherwise these files are
not deleted.
-C Clean up (remove) all regeneratable files generated by latex and
bibtex. This is the same as the -c option with the addition of
dvi, postscript and pdf files, and those with extensions in the
$clean_full_ext configuration variable.
This cleanup is instead of a regular make. See the -gg option
if you want to do a cleanup than a make.
If $bibtex_use is set to 0 or 1, bbl files are counted as non-
regeneratable.
If $cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated is nonzero, regeneratable
files are considered as including those generated by custom
dependencies and are also deleted. Otherwise these files are
not deleted.
-CA Clean up (remove) absolutely all regeneratable files. It is now
equivalent to the -C option. See that option for details.
-CF Remove the file containing the database of source file informa-
tion, before doing the other actions requested.
-d Set draft mode. This prints the banner message "DRAFT" across
your page when converting the dvi file to postscript. Size and
intensity can be modified with the -bs and -bi options. The -bm
option will override this option as this is really just a short
way of specifying:
latexmk -bm DRAFT
Note that if the -d option is specified, the -ps option is
assumed.
-dF Dvi file filtering. The argument to this option is a filter
which will generate a filtered dvi file with the extension
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".dviF". All extra processing (e.g. conversion to postscript,
preview, printing) will then be performed on this filtered dvi
file.
Example usage: To use dviselect to select only the even pages of
the dvi file:
latexmk -dF 'dviselect even' foo.tex
-diagnostics
Print detailed diagnostics during a run. This may help for
debugging problems or to understand latexmk's behavior in diffi-
cult situations.
-dvi Generate dvi version of document.
-dvi- Turn off generation of dvi version of document. (This may get
overridden, if some other file is made (e.g., a .ps file) that
is generated from the dvi file, or if no generated file at all
is requested.)
-e <code>
Execute the specified initialization code before processing.
The code is Perl code of the same form as is used in latexmk's
initialization files -- for more details, see the information on
the -r option, and the section about "Configuration/initializa-
tion (RC) files". The code is typically a sequence of assign-
ment statements separated by semicolons.
The code is executed when the -e option is encountered during
latexmk's parsing of its command line. See the -r option for a
way of executing initialization code from a file. An error
results in latexmk stopping. Multiple instances of the -r and
-e options can be used, and they are executed in the order they
appear on the command line.
Some care is needed to deal with proper quoting of special char-
acters in the code on the command line. For example, suppose
you want to set the latex command to use its -shell-escape
option, then under UNIX/LINUX you could use the line
latexmk -e '$latex=q/latex %O -shell-escape %S/' file.tex
Note that the single quotes block normal UNIX/LINUX command
shells from treating the characters inside the quotes as spe-
cial. (In this example, the q/.../ construct is a Perl idiom
equivalent to using single quotes. This avoids the complica-
tions of getting a quote character inside an already quoted
string in a way that is independent of both the shell and the
operating-system.)
The above command line will NOT work under MS-Windows with
cmd.exe or command.com or 4nt.exe. For MS-Windows with these
command shells you could use
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latexmk -e "$latex=q/latex %O -shell-escape %S/" file.tex
or
latexmk -e "$latex='latex %O -shell-escape %S'" file.tex
The last two examples will NOT work with UNIX/LINUX command
shells.
-f Force latexmk to continue document processing despite errors.
Normally, when latexmk detects that LaTeX or another program has
found an error which will not be resolved by further processing,
no further processing is carried out.
-f- Turn off the forced processing-past-errors such as is set by the
-f option. This could be used to override a setting in a con-
figuration file.
-g Force latexmk to process document fully, even under situations
where latexmk would normally decide that no changes in the
source files have occurred since the previous run. This option
is useful, for example, if you change some options and wish to
reprocess the files.
-g- Turn off -g.
-gg "Super go mode" or "clean make": clean out generated files as if
-CA had been given, and then do a regular make.
-h, -help
Print help information.
-l Run in landscape mode, using the landscape mode for the preview-
ers and the dvi to postscript converters. This option is not
normally needed nowadays, since current previewers normally
determine this information automatically.
-l- Turn off -l.
-new-viewer
When in continuous-preview mode, always start a new viewer to
view the generated file. By default, latexmk will, in continu-
ous-preview mode, test for a previously running previewer for
the same file and not start a new one if a previous previewer is
running. However, its test sometimes fails (notably if there is
an already-running previewer that is viewing a file of the same
name as the current file, but in a different directory). This
option turns off the default behavior.
-new-viewer-
The inverse of the -new-viewer option. It puts latexmk in its
normal behavior that in preview-continuous mode it checks for an
already-running previewer.
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-nobibtex
Never run bibtex.
A common use for this option is when a document comes from an
external source, complete with its bbl file(s), and the user
does not have the corresponding bib files available. In this
situation use of the -nobibtex option will prevent latexmk from
trying to run bibtex, which would result in overwriting of the
bbl files.
-p Print out the document. By default it is the generated post-
script file that is printed. But you can use the -print=...
option to print the dvi or pdf files instead, and you can con-
figure this in a start up file (by setting the $print_type vari-
able).
However, printing is enabled by default only under UNIX/LINUX
systems, where the default is to use the lpr command. In gen-
eral, the correct behavior for printing very much depends on
your system's software. In particular, under MS-Windows you
must have suitable program(s) available, and you must have con-
figured the print commands used by latexmk. This can be non-
trivial. See the documentation on the $lpr, $lpr_dvi, and
$lpr_pdf configuration variables to see how to set the commands
for printing.
This option is incompatible with the -pv and -pvc options, so it
turns them off.
-pdf Generate pdf version of document using pdflatex.
-pdfdvi
Generate pdf version of document from the dvi file, by default
using dvipdf.
-pdfps Generate pdf version of document from the ps file, by default
using ps2pdf.
-pdf- Turn off generation of pdf version of document. (This can be
used to override a setting in a configuration file. It may get
overridden if some other option requires the generation of a pdf
file.)
-print=dvi, -print=ps, -print=pdf
Define which kind of file is printed. This option also ensures
that the requisite file is made, and turns on printing. The
default is to print a postscript file.
-ps Generate postscript version of document.
-ps- Turn off generation of postscript version of document. This can
be used to override a setting in a configuration file. (It may
get overridden by some other option that requires a postscript
file, for example a request for printing.)
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-pF Postscript file filtering. The argument to this option is a
filter which will generate a filtered postscript file with the
extension ".psF". All extra processing (e.g. preview, printing)
will then be performed on this filtered postscript file.
Example of usage: Use psnup to print two pages on the one page:
latexmk -ps -pF 'psnup -2' foo.tex
or
latexmk -ps -pF "psnup -2" foo.tex
Whether to use single or double quotes round the "psnup -2" will
depend on your command interpreter, as used by the particular
version of perl and the operating system on your computer.
-pv Run file previewer. If the -view option is used, this will
select the kind of file to be previewed (dvi, ps or pdf). Oth-
erwise the viewer views the "highest" kind of file selected, by
the -dvi, -ps, -pdf, -pdfps options, in the order dvi, ps, pdf
(low to high). If no file type has been selected, the dvi pre-
viewer will be used. This option is incompatible with the -p
and -pvc options, so it turns them off.
-pv- Turn off -pv.
-pvc Run a file previewer and continually update the .dvi, .ps,
and/or .pdf files whenever changes are made to source files (see
the Description above). Which of these files is generated and
which is viewed is governed by the other options, and is the
same as for the -pv option. The preview-continuous option -pvc
can only work with one file. So in this case you will normally
only specify one filename on the command line. It is also
incompatible with the -p and -pv options, so it turns these
options off.
The -pvc option also turns off force mode (-f), as is normally
best for continuous preview mode. If you really want force
mode, use the options in the order -pvc -f.
With a good previewer the display will be automatically updated.
(Under some but not all versions of UNIX/Linux "gv -watch" does
this for postscript files; this can be set by a configuration
variable. This would also work for pdf files except for an
apparent bug in gv that causes an error when the newly updated
pdf file is read.) Many other previewers will need a manual
update.
Important note: the acroread program on MS-Windows locks the pdf
file, and prevents new versions being written, so it is a bad
idea to use acroread to view pdf files in preview-continuous
mode. It is better to use a dvi or ps viewer, as set by one of
the -view=dvi and -view=ps options.
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There are some other methods for arranging an update, notably
useful for many versions of xdvi and xpdf. These are best set
in latexmk's configuration; see below.
Note that if latexmk dies or is stopped by the user, the
"forked" previewer will continue to run. Successive invocations
with the -pvc option will not fork new previewers, but latexmk
will normally use the existing previewer. (At least this will
happen when latexmk is running under an operating system where
it knows how to determine whether an existing previewer is run-
ning.)
-pvc- Turn off -pvc.
-quiet Same as -silent
-r <rcfile>
Read the specified initialization file ("RC file") before pro-
cessing.
Be careful about the ordering: (1) Standard initialization files
-- see the section below on "Configuration/initialization (RC)
files" -- are read first. (2) Then the options on the command
line are acted on in the order they are given. Therefore if an
initialization file is specified by the -r option, it is read
during this second step. Thus an initialization file specified
with the -r option can override both the standard initialization
files and previously specified options. But all of these can be
overridden by later options.
The contents of the RC file just comprise a piece of code in the
Perl programming language (typically a sequence of assignment
statements); they are executed when the -r option is encountered
during latexmk's parsing of its command line. See the -e option
for a way of giving initialization code directly on latexmk's
command line. An error results in latexmk stopping. Multiple
instances of the -r and -e options can be used, and they are
executed in the order they appear on the command line.
-silent
Run commands silently, i.e., with options that reduce the amount
of diagnostics generated. For example, with the default set-
tings, the command "latex -interaction=batchmode" is used for
latex.
Also reduce the number of informational messages that latexmk
generates.
To change the options used to make the commands run silently,
you need to configure latexmk with changed values of its config-
uration variables, the relevant ones being $bib-
tex_silent_switch, $dvips_silent_switch, $latex_silent_switch,
and $pdflatex_silent_switch.
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-v, -version
Print version number of latexmk.
-verbose
Opposite of -silent. This is the default setting.
-view=default, -view=dvi, -view=ps, -view=pdf
Set the kind of file used when previewing is requested (e.g., by
the -pv or -pvc switches). The default is to view the "highest"
kind of requested file (in the order dvi, ps, pdf).
The preview-continuous option -pvc can only work with one file. So in
this case you will normally only specify one filename on the command
line.
Options -p, -pv and -pvc are mutually exclusive. So each of these
options turns the others off.
EXAMPLES
% latexmk thesis # run latex enough times to resolve
cross-references
% latexmk -pvc -ps thesis# run latex enough times to resolve
cross-references, make a postscript
file, start a previewer. Then
watch for changes in the source
file thesis.tex and any files it
uses. After any changes rerun latex
the appropriate number of times and
remake the postscript file. If latex
encounters an error, latexmk will
keep running, watching for
source file changes.
% latexmk -c # remove .aux, .log, .bbl, .blg, .dvi,
.pdf, .ps & .bbl files
CONFIGURATION/INITIALIZATION (RC) FILES
Latexmk can be customized using initialization files, which are read at
startup in the following order:
1) The system RC file, if it exists.
On a UNIX system, latexmk searches for following places for its sys-
tem RC file, in the following order, and reads the first it finds:
"/opt/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
"/usr/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
"/usr/local/lib/latexmk/LatexMk".
On a MS-WINDOWS system it looks for "C:\latexmk\LatexMk".
On a cygwin system (i.e., a MS-Windows system in which perl is
that of cygwin), latexmk reads for the first it finds of
"/cygdrive/c/latexmk/LatexMk",
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"/opt/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
"/usr/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
"/usr/local/lib/latexmk/LatexMk".
2) The user's RC file, "$HOME/.latexmkrc", if it exists. Here $HOME is
the value of the environment variable HOME. On UNIX and clones
(including LINUX), this variable is set by the system; on MS-Windows,
the user may choose to set it.
3) The RC file in the current working directory. This file can be
named either "latexmkrc" or ".latexmkrc", and the first of these to be
found is used, if any.
4) Any RC file(s) specified on the command line with the -r option.
Each RC file is a sequence of Perl commands. Naturally, a user can use
this in creative ways. But for most purposes, one simply uses a
sequence of assignment statements that override some of the built-in
settings of Latexmk. Straightforward cases can be handled without
knowledge of the Perl language by using the examples in this document
as templates. Comment lines are introduced by the "#" character.
Note that command line options are obeyed in the order in which they
are written; thus any RC file specified on the command line with the -r
option can override previous options but can be itself overridden by
later options on the command line. There is also the -e option, which
allows initialization code to be specified in latexmk's command line.
HOW TO SET VARIABLES IN INITIALIZATION FILES
The important variables that can be configured are described in the
section "List of configuration variables usable in initialization
files". Syntax for setting these variables is of the following forms:
$bibtex = 'bibtex %O %B';
for the setting of a string variable,
$preview_mode = 1;
for the setting of a numeric variable, and
@default_files = ('paper', 'paper1');
for the setting of an array of strings. It is possible to append an
item to an array variable as follows:
push @default_files, 'paper2';
Note that simple "scalar" variables have names that begin with a $
character and array variables have names that begin with a @ character.
Each statement ends with a semicolon.
Strings should be enclosed in single quotes. (You could use double
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quotes, as in many programming languages. But then the Perl program-
ming language brings into play some special rules for interpolating
variables into strings. People not fluent in Perl will want to avoid
these complications.)
You can do much more complicated things, but for this you will need to
consult a manual for the Perl programming language.
FORMAT OF COMMAND SPECIFICATIONS
Some of the variables set the commands that latexmk uses for carrying
out its work, for example to generate a dvi file from a tex file or to
view a postscript file. This section describes some important features
of how the commands are specified.
Placeholders: Supposed you wanted latexmk to use the command elatex in
place of the regular latex command, and suppose moreover that you
wanted to give it the option "--shell-escape". You could do this by
the following setting:
$latex = 'elatex --shell-escape %O %S';
The two items starting with the % character are placeholders. These
are substituted by appropriate values before the command is run. Thus
%S will be replaced by the source file that elatex will be applied to,
and %O will be replaced by any options that latexmk has decided to use
for this command. (E.g., if you used the -silent option it would
replace %O by "-interaction=batchmode".)
The available placeholders are:
%B base of filename for current command. E.g., if a postscript
file document.ps is being made from the dvi file document.dvi,
then the basename is document.
%D destination file (e.g., the name of the postscript file when
converting a dvi file to postscript).
%O options
%R root filename. This is the base name for the main tex file.
%S source file (e.g., the name of the dvi file when converting a
dvi file to ps).
%T The name of the primary tex file.
If for some reason you need a literal % character in your string not
subject to the above rules, use a pair of these characters. Thus with
the command specification $ps_previewer = 'latex -ad=%%Sfile.ad %S',
the %%S will become %S when the command is executed, but the %S will be
replaced by the source filename, which in this case would be the name
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of a postscript file to be viewed.
Appropriate quoting will be applied to the filename substitutions, so
you mustn't supply them yourself even if you the names of your have
spaces in them. (But if your TeX filenames have spaces in them, beware
that many versions of the TeX program cannot correctly handle filenames
containing spaces.) In case latexmk's quoting does not work correctly
on your system, you can turn it off -- see the documentation for the
variable $quote_filenames.
The distinction between %B and %R needs a bit of care, since they are
often the same, but not always. For example on a simple document, the
basename of a bibtex run is the same as for the texfile. But in a doc-
ument with several bibliographies, the bibliography files will have a
variety of names. Since bibtex is invoked with the basename of the
bibliography file, the setting for the bibtex command should therefore
be
$bibtex = 'bibtex %O %B';
Generally, you should use %B rather than %R. Similarly for most pur-
poses, the name %T of the primary texfile is not a useful placeholder.
See the default values in the section "List of configuration variables
usable in initialization files" for what is normally the most appropri-
ate usage.
If you omit to supply any placeholders whatever in the specification of
a command, latexmk will supply what its author thinks are appropriate
defaults. This gives compatibility with configuration files for previ-
ous versions of latexmk, which didn't use placeholders.
"Detaching" a command: Normally when latexmk runs a command, it waits
for the command to run to completion. This is appropriate for commands
like latex, of course. But for previewers, the command should normally
run detached, so that latexmk gets the previewer running and then
returns to its next task (or exits if there is nothing else to do). To
achieve this effect of detaching a command, you need to precede the
command name with "start ", as in
$dvi_previewer = 'start xdvi %O %S';
This will be translated to whatever is appropriate for your operating
system.
Notes: (1) In some circumstances, latex will always run a command
detached. This is the case for a previewer in preview continuous mode,
since otherwise previewing continuously makes no sense. (2) This pre-
cludes the possibility of running a command named start. (3) If the
word start occurs more than once at the beginning of the command
string, that is equivalent to having just one. (4) Under cygwin, some
complications happen, since cygwin amounts to a complicated merging of
UNIX and MS-Windows. See the source code for how I've handled the
problem.
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LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
Command names containing spaces: Under MS-Windows it is common that the
name of a command includes spaces, since software is often installed in
a subdirectory of "C:\Program Files". Such command names should be
enclosed in double quotes, as in
$lpr_pdf = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p
%S';
(Note about the above example: Forward slashes are equivalent to back-
slashes in filenames under MS-Windows, provided that the filename is
inside double quotes. It is easier to use forward slashes in examples
like the one above, since then one does not have to worry about the
rules for dealing with forward slashes in strings in the Perl lan-
guage.)
Using MS-Windows file associations: A useful trick under modern ver-
sions of MS-Windows (e.g., WinXP) is to use just the command 'start' by
itself:
$dvi_previewer = 'start %S';
Under recent versions of MS-Windows, this will cause to be run whatever
program the system has associated with dvi files. (The same applies
for a postscript viewer and a pdf viewer.)
Not using a certain command: If a command is not to be run, the command
name NONE is used, as in
$lpr = 'NONE lpr';
This typically is used when an appropriate command does not exist on
your system. The string after the "NONE" is effectively a comment.
Options to commands: Setting the name of a command can be used not only
for changing the name of the command called, but also to add options to
command. Suppose you want latexmk to use latex with source specials
enabled. Then you might use the following line in an initialization
file:
$latex = 'latex --src-specials %O %S';
Advanced tricks: Normally one specifies a single command for the com-
mands invoked by latexmk. Naturally, if there is some complicated
additional processing you need to do in your special situation, you can
write a script (or batch file) to do the processing, and then configure
latexmk to use your script in place of the standard program.
It is also possible to configure latexmk to run multiple commands. For
example, if when running pdflatex to generate a pdf file from a tex
file you need to run another program after pdflatex to perform some
extra processing, you could do something like:
$pdflatex = 'pdflatex --shell-escape %O %S; pst2pdf_for_latexmk
28 December 2010 14
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
%B';
This definition assumes you are using a UNIX-like system, so that the
two commands to be run are separated by the semicolon in the middle of
the string.
LIST OF CONFIGURATION VARIABLES USABLE IN INITIALIZATION FILES
Default values are indicated in brackets.
$always_view_file_via_temporary [0]
Whether ps and pdf files are initially to be made in a temporary
directory and then moved to the final location. (This applies
to dvips, dvipdf, and ps2pdf operations, and the filtering oper-
ators on dvi and ps files. It does not apply to pdflatex,
unfortunately.)
This use of a temporary file solves a problem that the making of
these files can occupy a substantial time. If a viewer sees
that the file has changed, it reads the new file, and this can
cause havoc if the program writing the file has not yet finished
its work.
See the $pvc_view_file_via_temporary variable for a setting that
applies only if preview-continuous mode (-pvc option) is used.
See $tmpdir for the setting of the directory where the temporary
file is created.
$banner [0]
If nonzero, the banner message is printed across each page when
converting the dvi file to postscript. Without modifying the
variable $banner_message, this is equivalent to specifying the
-d option.
Note that if $banner is nonzero, the $postscript_mode is assumed
and the postscript file is always generated, even if it is newer
than the dvi file.
$banner_intensity [0.95]
Equivalent to the -bi option, this is a decimal number between 0
and 1 that specifies how dark to print the banner message. 0 is
black, 1 is white. The default is just right if your toner car-
tridge isn't running too low.
$banner_message ["DRAFT"]
The banner message to print across each page when converting the
dvi file to postscript. This is equivalent to the -bm option.
$banner_scale [220.0]
A decimal number that specifies how large the banner message
will be printed. Experimentation is necessary to get the right
scale for your message, as a rule of thumb the scale should be
28 December 2010 15
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
about equal to 1100 divided by the number of characters in the
message. The Default is just right for 5 character messages.
This is equivalent to the -bs option.
@BIBINPUTS
This is an array variable, now mostly obsolete, that specifies
directories where latexmk should look for .bib files. By
default it is set from the BIBINPUTS environment variable of the
operating system. If that environment variable is not set, a
single element list consisting of the current directory is set.
The format of the directory names depends on your operating sys-
tem, of course. Examples for setting this variable are:
@BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "C:\bibfiles" );
@BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "\\server\bibfiles" );
@BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "C:/bibfiles" );
@BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "//server/bibfiles" );
@BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "/usr/local/texmf/bibtex/bib" );
Note that under MS Windows, either a forward slash "/" or a
backward slash "\" can be used to separate pathname components,
so the first two and the second two examples are equivalent.
Each backward slash should be doubled to avoid running afoul of
Perl's rules for writing strings.
Important note: This variable is now mostly obsolete in the current
version of latexmk, since it has a better method of searching for files
using the kpsewhich command. However, if your system is an unusual one
without the kpsewhich command, you may need to set the variable @BIBIN-
PUTS.
$bibtex ["bibtex %O %S"]
The BibTeX processing program.
$bibtex_silent_switch ["-terse"]
Switch(es) for the BibTeX processing program when silent mode is
on.
$bibtex_use [1]
Under what conditions to run BibTeX. When latexmk discovers
from the log file that one (or more) BibTeX-generated bibliogra-
phies are used, it can run BibTeX whenever it appears necessary
to regenerate the bbl file(s) from their source bib database
file(s).
But sometimes, the bib file(s) are not available (e.g., for a
document obtained from an external archive), but the bbl files
are provided. In that case use of BibTeX will result in incor-
rect overwriting of the precious bbl files. The variable $bib-
tex_use controls whether this happens. Its possible values are:
0: never use BibTeX. 1: only use BibTeX if the bib files exist.
2: run BibTeX whenever it appears necessary to update the bbl
files, without testing for the existence of the bib files.
28 December 2010 16
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated [0]
If nonzero, specifies that cleanup also deletes files that are
generated by custom dependencies. (When doing a clean up, e.g.,
by use of the -C option, custom dependencies are those listed in
the .fdb_latexmk file from a previous run.)
$cleanup_includes_generated [0]
If nonzero, specifies that cleanup also deletes files that are
detected in log file as being generated (see the \openout lines
in the log file). It will also include files made from these
first generation generated files.
$cleanup_mode [0]
If nonzero, specifies cleanup mode: 1 for full cleanup, 2 for
cleanup except for dvi, ps and pdf files, 3 for cleanup except
for dep and aux files. (There is also extra cleaning as speci-
fied by the $clean_ext, $clean_full_ext and @generated_exts
variables.)
This variable is equivalent to specifying one of the -c or -C options.
But there should be no need to set this variable from an RC file.
$clean_ext [""]
Extra extensions of files for latexmk to remove when any of the
clean-up options (-c or -C) is selected. The value of this
variable is a string containing the extensions separated by spa-
ces.
It is also possible to specify a more general pattern of file to
be deleted, by using the place holder %R, as in commands. Thus
setting
$clean_ext = "out %R-blx.bib";
in an initialization file will imply that when a clean-up opera-
tion is specified, not only is the standard set of files
deleted, but also files of the form FOO.out and FOO-blx.bib,
where FOO stands for the basename of the file being processed
(as in FOO.tex).
$clean_full_ext [""]
Extra extensions of files for latexmk to remove when the -C
option is selected, i.e., extensions of files to remove when the
.dvi, etc files are to be cleaned-up.
@cus_dep_list [()]
Custom dependency list -- see section on "Custom Dependencies".
@default_files [("*.tex")]
Default list of files to be processed.
Normally, if no filenames are specified on the command line,
latexmk processes all tex files specified in the @default_files
28 December 2010 17
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
variable, which by default is set to all tex files ("*.tex") in
the current directory. This is a convenience: just run latexmk
and it will process an appropriate set of files. But sometimes
you want only some of these files to be processed. In this case
you set the @default_files in an initialization file (e.g., the
file "latexmkrc" in the current directory). Then if no files
are specified on the command line then the files you specify by
setting @default_files are processed.
Three examples:
@default_files = ("paper_current");
@default_files = ("paper1", "paper2.tex");
@default_files = ("*.tex", "*.dtx");
Note that more than file may be given, and that the default
extension is ".tex". Wild cards are allowed. The parentheses
are because @default_files is an array variable, i.e., a
sequence of filename specifications is possible.
$dvi_filter [empty]
The dvi file filter to be run on the newly produced dvi file
before other processing. Equivalent to specifying the -dF
option.
$dvi_mode [See below for default]
If nonzero, generate a dvi version of the document. Equivalent
to the -dvi option.
The variable $dvi_mode defaults to 0, but if no explicit requests are
made for other types of file (postscript, pdf), then $dvi_mode will be
set to 1. In addition, if a request for a file for which a .dvi file
is a prerequisite, then $dvi_mode will be set to 1.
$dvi_previewer ["start xdvi %O %S" under UNIX]
The command to invoke a dvi-previewer. [Default is "start"
under MS-WINDOWS; under more recent versions of Windows, this
will cause to be run whatever command the system has associated
with .dvi files.]
$dvi_previewer_landscape ["start xdvi %O %S"]
The command to invoke a dvi-previewer in landscape mode.
[Default is "start" under MS-WINDOWS; under more recent versions
of Windows, this will cause to be run whatever command the sys-
tem has associated with .dvi files.]
$dvipdf ["dvipdf %O %S %D"]
Command to convert dvi to pdf file. A common reconfiguration is
to use the dvipdfm command, which needs its arguments in a dif-
ferent order:
$dvipdf = "dvipdfm %O -o %D %S";
28 December 2010 18
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
WARNING: The default dvipdf script generates pdf files with
bitmapped fonts, which do not look good when viewed by acroread.
That script should be modified to give dvips the options "-P
pdf" to ensure that type 1 fonts are used in the pdf file.
$dvips ["dvips %O -o %D %S"]
The program to used as a filter to convert a .dvi file to a .ps
file. If pdf is going to be generated from pdf, then the value
of the $dvips_pdf_switch -- see below -- will be included in the
options substituted for "%O".
$dvips_landscape ["dvips -tlandscape %O -o %D %S"]
The program to used as a filter to convert a .dvi file to a .ps
file in landscape mode.
$dvips_pdf_switch ["-P pdf"]
Switch(es) for dvips program when pdf file is to be generated
from ps file.
$dvips_silent_switch ["-q"]
Switch(es) for dvips program when silent mode is on.
$dvi_update_command [""]
When the dvi previewer is set to be updated by running a com-
mand, this is the command that is run. See the information for
the variable $dvi_update_method for further information, and see
information on the variable $pdf_update_method for an example
for the analogous case of a pdf previewer.
$dvi_update_method [2 under UNIX, 1 under MS-Windows]
How the dvi viewer updates its display when the dvi file has
changed. The values here apply equally to the
$pdf_update_method and to the $ps_update_method variables.
0 => update is automatic,
1=> manual update by user, which may only mean a mouse click
on the viewer's window or may mean a more serious action.
2 => Send the signal, whose number is in the variable
$dvi_update_signal. The default value under UNIX is suitable
for xdvi.
3 => Viewer cannot do an update, because it locks the file.
(As with acroread under MS-Windows.)
4 => run a command to do the update. The command is speci-
fied by the variable $dvi_update_command.
See information on the variable $pdf_update_method for an exam-
ple of updating by command.
$dvi_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGUSR1, which is a system-dependent
value]
The number of the signal that is sent to the dvi viewer when it
is updated by sending a signal -- see the information on the
variable $dvi_update_method. The default value is the one
appropriate for xdvi on a UNIX system.
28 December 2010 19
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$fdb_ext ["fdb_latexmk"]
The extension of the file which latexmk generates to contain a
database of information on source files. You will not normally
need to change this.
$force_mode [0]
If nonzero, continue processing past minor latex errors includ-
ing unrecognized cross references. Equivalent to specifying the
-f option.
@generated_exts [( aux , bbl , idx , ind , lof , lot , out , toc ,
$fdb_ext )]
This contains a list of extensions for files that are generated
during a LaTeX run and that are read in by LaTeX in later runs,
either directly or indirectly.
This list has two uses: (a) to set the kinds of file to be
deleted in a cleanup operation (with the -c, -C, -CA, -g and -gg
options), and (b) in the determination of whether a rerun of
(pdf)LaTeX is needed after a run that gives an error.
(Normally, a change of a source file during a run should provoke
a rerun. This includes a file generated by LaTeX, e.g., an aux
file, that is read in on subsequent runs. But after a run that
results in an error, a new run should occur until the user has
made a change in the files. But the user may have corrected an
error in a source .tex file during the run. So latexmk needs to
distinguish user-generated and automatically generated files; it
determines the automatically generated files as those with
extensions in the list in @generated_exts.)
A convenient way to add an extra extension to the list, without
losing the already defined ones is to use a push command in the
line in an RC file. E.g.,
push @generated_exts, "end";
adds the extension "end" to the list of predefined generated
extensions. (This extension is used by the RevTeX package, for
example.)
$go_mode [0]
If nonzero, process files regardless of timestamps, and is then
equivalent to the -g option.
%hash_calc_ignore_pattern
!!!This variable is for experts only!!!
The general rule latexmk uses for determining when an extra run
of some program is needed is that one of the source files has
changed. But consider for example a latex package that causes
an encapsulated postscript file (an "eps" file) to be made that
is to be read in on the next run. The file contains a comment
line giving its creation date and time. On the next run the
28 December 2010 20
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
time changes, latex sees that the eps file has changed, and
therefore reruns latex. This causes an infinite loop, that is
only terminated becaues latexmk has a limit on the number of
runs to guard against pathological situations.
But the changing line has no real effect, since it is a comment.
You can instruct latex to ignore the offending line as follows:
$hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'} = '^%%CreationDate: ';
This creates a rule for files with extension .eps about lines to
ignore. The left-hand side is a Perl idiom for setting an item
in a hash. Note that the file extension is specified without a
period. The value, on the right-hand side, is a string contain-
ing a regular expresssion. (See documentation on Perl for how
they are to be specified in general.) This particular regular
expression specifies that lines beginning with "%%CreationDate:
" are to be ignored in deciding whether a file of the given
extension .eps has changed.
There is only one regular expression available for each exten-
sion. If you need more one pattern to specify lines to ignore,
then you need to combine the patterns into a single regular
expression. The simplest method is separate the different sim-
ple patterns by a vertical bar character (indicating "alterna-
tion" in the jargon of regular expressions). For example,
$hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'} = '^%%CreationDate:
|^%%Title: ';
causes lines starting with either "^%%CreationDate: " or
"^%%Title: " to be ignored.
It may happen that a pattern to be ignored is specified in, for
example, in a system or user initialization file, and you wish
to remove this in a file read later. To do this, you use perl's
delete function, e.g.,
delete $hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'};
$kpsewhich ["kpsewhich %S"]
The program called to locate a source file when the name alone
is not sufficient. Most filenames used by latexmk have suffi-
cient path information to be found directly. But sometimes,
notably when .bib files are found from the log file of a bibtex
run, the name of the file, but not its path is known. The pro-
gram specified by $kpsewhich is used to find it.
See also the @BIBINPUTS variable for another way that latexmk
also uses to try to locate files; it applies only in the case of
.bib files.
28 December 2010 21
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$landscape_mode [0]
If nonzero, run in landscape mode, using the landscape mode pre-
viewers and dvi to postscript converters. Equivalent to the -l
option. Normally not needed with current previewers.
$latex ["latex %O %S"]
The LaTeX processing program. Note that as with other programs,
you can use this variable not just to change the name of the
program used, but also specify options to the program. E.g.,
$latex = "latex --src-specials";
%latex_input_extensions
This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
finds that a LaTeX run resulted in an error that a file has not
been found, and the file is given without an extension. This
typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form \input{file}
or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant source file does
not exist.
In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
specified by the variable %latex_input_extensions. The default
extensions are 'tex' and 'eps'.
(For Perl experts: %latex_input_extensions is a hash whose keys
are the extensions. The values are irrelevant.) Two subrou-
tines are provided for manipulating this and the related vari-
able %pdflatex_input_extensions, add_input_ext and
remove_input_ext. They are used as in the following examples
are possible lines in an initialization file:
remove_input_ext( 'latex', 'tex' );
removes the extension 'tex' from latex_input_extensions
add_input_ext( 'latex', 'asdf' );
add the extension 'asdf to latex_input_extensions. (Naturally
with such an extension, you should have made an appropriate cus-
tom dependency for latexmk, and should also have done the appro-
priate programming in the LaTeX source file to enable the file
to be read. The standard extensions are handled by LaTeX and
its graphics/graphicx packages.
$latex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
Switch(es) for the LaTeX processing program when silent mode is
on.
If you use MikTeX, you may prefer the results if you configure
the options to include -c-style-errors, e.g., by the following
line in an initialization file
28 December 2010 22
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$latex_silent_switch = "-interaction=batchmode -c-style-
errors";
$lpr ["lpr %O %S" under UNIX/LINUX, "NONE lpr" under MS-WINDOWS]
The command to print postscript files.
Under MS-Windows (unlike UNIX/LINUX), there is no standard pro-
gram for printing files. But there are ways you can do it. For
example, if you have gsview installed, you could use it with the
option "/p":
$lpr = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p';
If gsview is installed in a different directory, you will need
to make the appropriate change. Note the combination of single
and double quotes around the name. The single quotes specify
that this is a string to be assigned to the configuration vari-
able $lpr. The double quotes are part of the string passed to
the operating system to get the command obeyed; this is neces-
sary because one part of the command name ("Program Files") con-
tains a space which would otherwise be misinterpreted.
$lpr_dvi ["NONE lpr_dvi"]
The printing program to print dvi files.
$lpr_pdf ["NONE lpr_pdf"]
The printing program to print pdf files.
Under MS-Windows you could set this to use gsview, if it is
installed, e.g.,
$lpr = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p';
If gsview is installed in a different directory, you will need
to make the appropriate change. Note the double quotes around
the name: this is necessary because one part of the command name
("Program Files") contains a space which would otherwise be mis-
interpreted.
$makeindex ["makeindex %O -o %D %S"]
The index processing program.
$max_repeat [5]
The maximum number of times latexmk will run latex/pdflatex
before deciding that there may be an infinite loop and that it
needs to bail out, rather than rerunning latex/pdflatex again to
resolve cross-references, etc. The default value covers all
normal cases.
(Note that the "etc" covers a lot of cases where one run of
latex/pdflatex generates files to be read in on a later run.)
28 December 2010 23
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$new_viewer_always [0]
This variable applies to latexmk only in continuous-preview
mode. If $new_viewer_always is 0, latexmk will check for a pre-
viously running previewer on the same file, and if one is run-
ning will not start a new one. If $new_viewer_always is non-
zero, this check will be skipped, and latexmk will behave as if
no viewer is running.
$pdf_mode [0]
If zero, do NOT generate a pdf version of the document. If
equal to 1, generate a pdf version of the document using pdfla-
tex. If equal to 2, generate a pdf version of the document from
the ps file, by using the command specified by the $ps2pdf vari-
able. If equal to 3, generate a pdf version of the document
from the dvi file, by using the command specified by the $dvipdf
variable.
Equivalent to the -pdf-, -pdf, -pdfdvi, -pdfps options.
$pdflatex ["pdflatex %O %S"]
The LaTeX processing program in the version that makes a pdf
file instead of a dvi file.
%pdflatex_input_extensions
This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
finds that a pdfLaTeX run resulted in an error that a file has
not been found, and the file is given without an extension.
This typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form
\input{file} or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant
source file does not exist.
In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
specified by the variable %pdflatex_input_extensions. The
default extensions are 'tex', 'pdf', 'jpg, and 'png'.
(For Perl experts: %pdflatex_input_extensions is a hash whose
keys are the extensions. The values are irrelevant.) Two sub-
routines are provided for manipulating this and the related
variable %latex_input_extensions, add_input_ext and
remove_input_ext. They are used as in the following examples
are possible lines in an initialization file:
remove_input_ext( 'pdflatex', 'tex' );
removes the extension 'tex' from pdflatex_input_extensions
add_input_ext( 'pdflatex', 'asdf' );
add the extension 'asdf to pdflatex_input_extensions. (Natu-
rally with such an extension, you should have made an appropri-
ate custom dependency for latexmk, and should also have done the
appropriate programming in the LaTeX source file to enable the
file to be read. The standard extensions are handled by
28 December 2010 24
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
pdflatex and its graphics/graphicx packages.)
$pdflatex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
Switch(es) for the pdflatex program (specified in the variable
$pdflatex when silent mode is on.
If you use MikTeX, you may prefer the results if you configure
the options to include -c-style-errors, e.g., by the following
line in an initialization file
$latex_silent_switch = "-interaction=batchmode -c-style-
errors";
$pdf_previewer ["start acroread %O %S"]
The command to invoke a pdf-previewer. [Default is changed to
"start" on MS-WINDOWS; under more recent versions of Windows,
this will cause to be run whatever command the system has asso-
ciated with .pdf files.]
WARNING: Potential problem under MS-Windows: if acroread is used
as the pdf previewer, and it is actually viewing a pdf file, the
pdf file cannot be updated. Thus makes acroread a bad choice of
previewer if you use latexmk's previous-continuous mode (option
-pvc) under MS-windows. This problem does not occur if
ghostview, gv or gsview is used to view pdf files.
$pdf_update_command [""]
When the pdf previewer is set to be updated by running a com-
mand, this is the command that is run. See the information for
the variable $pdf_update_method.
$pdf_update_method [1 under UNIX, 3 under MS-Windows]
How the pdf viewer updates its display when the pdf file has
changed. See the information on the variable $dvi_update_method
for the codes. (Note that information needs be changed slightly
so that for the value 4, to run a command to do the update, the
command is specified by the variable $pdf_update_command, and
for the value 2, to specify update by signal, the signal is
specified by $pdf_update_signal.)
Note that acroread under MS-Windows (but not UNIX) locks the pdf
file, so the default value is then 3.
Arranging to use a command to get a previewer explicitly updated
requires three variables to be set. For example:
$pdf_previewer = "start xpdf -remote %R %O %S";
$pdf_update_method = 4;
$pdf_update_command = "xpdf -remote %R -reload";
The first setting arranges for the xpdf program to be used in
its "remote server mode", with the server name specified as the
28 December 2010 25
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
rootname of the TeX file. The second setting arranges for
updating to be done in response to a command, and the third set-
ting sets the update command.
$pdf_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGHUP, which is a system-dependent
value]
The number of the signal that is sent to the pdf viewer when it
is updated by sending a signal -- see the information on the
variable $pdf_update_method. The default value is the one
appropriate for gv on a UNIX system.
$pid_position[1 under UNIX, -1 under MS-Windows]
The variable $pid_position is used to specify which word in
lines of the output from $pscmd corresponds to the process ID.
The first word in the line is numbered 0. The default value of
1 (2nd word in line) is correct for Solaris 2.6 and Linux. Set-
ting the variable to -1 is used to indicate that $pscmd is not
to be used.
$postscript_mode [0]
If nonzero, generate a postscript version of the document.
Equivalent to the -ps option.
If some other request is made for which a postscript file is needed,
then $postscript_mode will be set to 1.
$preview_continuous_mode [0]
If nonzero, run a previewer to view the document, and continue
running latexmk to keep .dvi up-to-date. Equivalent to the -pvc
option. Which previewer is run depends on the other settings,
see the command line options -view=, and the variable $view.
$preview_mode [0]
If nonzero, run a previewer to preview the document. Equivalent
to the -pv option. Which previewer is run depends on the other
settings, see the command line options -view=, and the variable
$view.
$printout_mode [0]
If nonzero, print the document using lpr. Equivalent to the -p
option. This is recommended not to be set from an RC file, oth-
erwise you could waste lots of paper.
$print_type = ["ps"]
Type of file to printout: possibilities are "dvi", "none",
"pdf", or "ps".
$pscmd Command used to get all the processes currently run by the user.
The -pvc option uses the command specified by the variable
$pscmd to determine if there is an already running previewer,
and to find the process ID (needed if latexmk needs to signal
the previewer about file changes).
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Each line of the output of this command is assumed to correspond
to one process. See the $pid_position variable for how the
process number is determined.
The default for pscmd is "NONE" under MS-Windows and cygwin
(i.e., the command is not used), "ps --width 200 -f -u
$ENV{USER}" under linux, "ps -ww -u $ENV{USER}" under darwin
(Macintosh OS-X), and "ps -f -u $ENV{USER}" under other operat-
ing systems (including other flavors of UNIX). In these speci-
fications "$ENV{USER}" is substituted by the username.
$ps2pdf ["ps2pdf %O %S %D"]
Command to convert ps to pdf file.
$ps_filter [empty]
The postscript file filter to be run on the newly produced post-
script file before other processing. Equivalent to specifying
the -pF option.
$ps_previewer ["start gv %O %S", but "start %O %S" under MS-WINDOWS]
The command to invoke a ps-previewer. (The default under MS-
WINDOWS will cause to be run whatever command the system has
associated with .ps files.)
Note that gv could be used with the -watch option updates its
display whenever the postscript file changes, whereas ghostview
does not. However, different versions of gv have slightly dif-
ferent ways of writing this option. You can configure this
variable apppropriately.
WARNING: Linux systems may have installed one (or more) versions
of gv under different names, e.g., ggv, kghostview, etc, but
perhaps not one called gv.
$ps_previewer_landscape ["start gv -swap %O %S", but "start %O %S"
under MS-WINDOWS]
The command to invoke a ps-previewer in landscape mode.
$ps_update_command [""]
When the postscript previewer is set to be updated by running a
command, this is the command that is run. See the information
for the variable $ps_update_method.
$ps_update_method [0 under UNIX, 1 under MS-Windows]
How the postscript viewer updates its display when the ps file
has changed. See the information on the variable
$dvi_update_method for the codes. (Note that information needs
be changed slightly so that for the value 4, to run a command to
do the update, the command is specified by the variable
$ps_update_command, and for the value 2, to specify update by
signal, the signal is specified by $ps_update_signal.)
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LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
$ps_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGHUP, which is a system-dependent
value]
The number of the signal that is sent to the pdf viewer when it
is updated by sending a signal -- see $ps_update_method. The
default value is the one appropriate for gv on a UNIX system.
$pvc_view_file_via_temporary [1]
The same as $always_view_file_via_temporary, except that it only
applies in preview-continuous mode (-pvc option).
$quote_filenames [1]
This specifies whether substitutions for placeholders in command
specifications (as in $pdflatex) are surrounded by double
quotes. If this variable is 1 (or any other value Perl regards
as true), then quoting is done. Otherwise quoting is omitted.
The quoting method used by latexmk is tested to work correctly under
UNIX systems (including Linux and Mac OS-X) and under MS-Windows. It
allows the use of filenames containing special characters, notably spa-
ces. (But note that many versions of LaTeX and PdfLaTeX cannot cor-
rectly deal with TeX files whose names contain spaces. Latexmk's quot-
ing only ensures that such filenames are correctly treated by the oper-
ating system in passing arguments to programs.)
$sleep_time [2]
The time to sleep (in seconds) between checking for source file
changes when running with the -pvc option. This is subject to a
minimum of one second delay, except that zero delay is also
allowed.
A value of exactly 0 gives no delay, and typically results in
100% CPU usage, which may not be desirable.
$texfile_search [""]
This is an obsolete variable, replaced by the @default_files
variable.
For backward compatibility, if you choose to set $tex-
file_search, it is a string of space-separated filenames, and
then latexmk replaces @default_files with the filenames in $tex-
file_search to which is added "*.tex".
$tmpdir [See below for default]
Directory to store temporary files that latexmk may generate
while running.
The default under MSWindows (including cygwin), is to set
$tmpdir to the value of the first of whichever of the system
environment variables TMPDIR or TEMP exists, otherwise to the
current directory. Under other operating systems (expected to
be UNIX/Linux, including OS-X), the default is the value of the
system environment variable TMPDIR if it exists, otherwise
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"/tmp".
$view ["default"]
Which kind of file is to be previewed if a previewer is used.
The possible values are "default", "dvi", "ps", "pdf". The
value of "default" means that the "highest" of the kinds of file
generated is to be used (among dvi, ps and pdf).
CUSTOM DEPENDENCIES
In any RC file a set of custom dependencies can be set up to convert a
file with one extension to a file with another. An example use of this
would be to allow latexmk to convert a .fig file to .eps to be included
in the .tex file.
The old method of configuring latexmk was to directly manipulate the
@cus_dep_list array that contains information defining the custom
dependencies. This method still works. But now there are subroutines
that allow convenient manipulations of the custom dependency list.
These are
add_cus_dep( fromextension, toextension, must, subroutine )
remove_cus_dep( fromextension, toextension )
show_cus_dep()
The custom dependency is a list of rules, each of which is specified as
follow:
from extension:
The extension of the file we are converting from (e.g. "fig").
It is specified without a period.
to extension:
The extension of the file we are converting to (e.g. "eps"). It
is specified without a period.
must: If non-zero, the file from which we are converting must exist,
if it doesn't exist latexmk will give an error message and exit
unless the -f option is specified. If must is zero and the file
we are converting from doesn't exist, then no action is taken.
function:
The name of the subroutine that latexmk should call to perform
the file conversion. The first argument to the subroutine is
the base name of the file to be converted without any extension.
The subroutines are declared in the syntax of Perl. The func-
tion should return 0 if it was successful and a nonzero number
if it failed.
It is invoked whenever latexmk detects that a run of latex/pdflatex
needs to read a file, like a graphics file, whose extension is the to-
extension of a custom dependency. Then latexmk examines whether a file
exists with the same name, but with the corresponding from-extension,
as specified in the custom-dependency rule. If it does, then whenever
28 December 2010 29
LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
the destination file (the one with the to-extension) is out-of-date
with respect to the corresponding source file.
To make the new destination file, the Perl subroutine specified in the
rule is invoked, with an argument that is the base name of the files in
question. Simple cases just involve a subroutine invoking an external
program; this can be done by following the templates below, even by
those without knowledge of the Perl programming language. Of course,
experts could do something much more elaborate.
One other item in each custom-dependency rule labelled "must" above
specifies how the rule should be applied when the source file fails to
exist.
A simple and typical example of code in an initialization rcfile is
add_cus_dep( 'fig', 'eps', 0, 'fig2eps' );
sub fig2eps {
system("fig2dev -Leps $_[0].fig $_[0].eps");
}
The first line adds a custom dependency that converts a file with
extension "fig", as created by the xfig program, to an encapsulated
postscript file, with extension "eps". The remaining lines define a
subroutine that carries out the conversion. If a rule for converting
"fig" to "eps" files already exists (e.g., from a previously read-in
initialization file), the latexmk will delete this rule before making
the new one.
Suppose latexmk is using this rule to convert a file "figure.fig" to
"figure.eps". Then it will invoke the fig2eps subroutine defined in
the above code with a single argument "figure", which is the basename
of each of the files (possibly with a path component). This argument
is referred to by Perl as $_[0]. In the example above, the subroutine
uses the Perl command system to invoke the program fig2dev. The double
quotes around the string are a Perl idiom that signify that each string
of the form of a variable name, $_[0] in this case, is to be substi-
tuted by its value.
If the return value of the subroutine is non-zero, then latexmk will
assume an error occurred during the execution of the subroutine. In
the above example, no explicit return value is given, and instead the
return value is the value returned by the last (and only) statement,
i.e., the invocation of system, which returns the value 0 on success.
If you use filenames with spaces in them, and if your LaTeX system and
all other relevant software correctly handle such filenames, then you
could put single quotes around filenames in the command line that is
executed:
add_cus_dep( 'fig', 'eps', 0, 'fig2eps' );
sub fig2eps {
system("fig2dev -Lps '$_[0].fig' '$_[0].eps'");
}
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This causes the invocation of the fig2dev program to have quoted file-
names; it should therefore work with filenames containing spaces. How-
ever, not all software deals correctly with filenames that contain spa-
ces. Moreover, the rules, if any, for quoting filenames vary between
operating systems, command shells and individual pieces of software, so
this code may not always work.
If you use pdflatex instead of latex, then you will probably prefer to
convert your graphics files to pdf format, in which case you would
replace the above code in an initialization file by
add_cus_dep( 'fig', 'pdf, 0, 'fig2pdf' );
sub fig2pdf {
system("fig2dev -Lpdf $_[0].fig $_[0].pdf");
}
If you have some general custom dependencies defined in the system or
user initialization file, you may find that for a particular project
they are undesirable. So you might want to delete the unneeded ones.
For example, you remove any "fig" to "eps" rule by the line
remove_cus_dep( 'fig', 'eps' );
If you have complicated sets of custom dependencies, you may want to
get a listing of the custom dependencies. This is done by using the
line
show_cus_dep();
in an initialization file.
Another example of a custom dependency overcomes a limitation of
latexmk concerning index files. The only index-file conversion built-
in to latexmk is from an ".idx" file written on one run of latex/pdfla-
tex to an ".ind" file to be read in on a subsequent run. But with the
index.sty package you can create extra indexes with extensions that you
configure. Latexmk does not know how to deduce the extensions from the
information it has. But you can easily write a custom dependency. For
example if your latex file uses the command "\newindex{spe-
cial}{ndx}{nnd}{Special index}" you will need to convert files with the
extension .ndx to .nnd. The following lines in an initialization RC
file will cause this to happen:
add_cus_dep('ndx', 'nnd', 0, 'makendx2nnd');
sub makendx2nnd {
system("makeindex -o $_[0].nnd $_[0].ndx");
}
(You will need to modify this code if you use filenames with spaces in
them, to provide correct quoting of the filenames.)
Those of you with experience with Makefiles, will undoubtedly be con-
cerned that the .ndx file is written during a run of latex/pdflatex and
is always later than the .nnd last read in. Thus the .nnd appears to
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be perpetually out-of-date. This situation, of circular dependencies,
is endemic to latex, and latexmk in its current version works correctly
with circular dependencies. It examines the contents of the files (by
use of an md5 checksum), and only does a remake when the file contents
have actually changed.
Of course if you choose to write random data to the .nnd (or and .aux
file, etc) that changes on each new run, then you will have a problem.
For real experts: See the %hash_cal_ignore_pattern if you have to deal
with such problems.
Glossaries can be dealt with similarly.
OLD METHOD OF DEFINING CUSTOM DEPENDENCIES
In previous versions of latexmk, the only method of defining custom
dependencies was to directly manipulate the table of custom dependen-
cies. This is contained in the @cus_dep_list array. It is an array of
strings, and each string in the array has four items in it, each sepa-
rated by a space, the from-extension, the to-extension, the "must"
item, and the name of the subroutine for the custom dependency. These
were all defined above.
An example of the old method of defining custom dependencies is as fol-
lows. It is the code in an RC file to ensure automatic conversion of
.fig files to .eps files:
push @cus_dep_list, "fig eps 0 fig2eps";
sub fig2eps {
system("fig2dev -Lps $_[0].fig $_[0].eps");
}
This method still works, and is equivalent to the earlier code using
the add_cus_dep subroutine, except that it doesn't delete any previous
custom-dependency for the same conversion. So the new method is
preferable.
SEE ALSO
latex(1), bibtex(1).
BUGS
Sometimes a viewer (gv) tries to read an updated .ps or .pdf file after
its creation is started but before the file is complete. Work around:
manually refresh (or reopen) display. Or use one of the other preview-
ers and update methods.
(The following isn't really a bug, but concerns features of preview-
ers.) Preview continuous mode only works perfectly with certain pre-
viewers: Xdvi on UNIX/LINUX works for dvi files. Gv on UNIX/LINUX
works for both postscript and pdf. Ghostview on UNIX/LINUX needs a
manual update (reopen); it views postscript and pdf. Gsview under MS-
Windows works for both postscript and pdf, but only reads the updated
file when its screen is refreshed. Acroread under UNIX/LINUX views
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LATEXMK(1L) LATEXMK(1L)
pdf, but the file needs to be closed and reopened to view an updated
version. Under MS-Windows, acroread locks its input file and so the
pdf file cannot be updated. (Remedy: configure latexmk to use gsview
instead.)
THANKS TO
Authors of previous versions. Many users with their feedback, and
especially David Coppit (username david at node coppit.org) who made
many useful suggestions that contributed to version 3, and Herbert
Schulz. (Please note that the e-mail addresses are not written in
their standard form to avoid being harvested by worms and viruses.)
AUTHOR
Current version, by John Collins (username collins at node
phys.psu.edu). (Version 4.21).
Released version can be obtained from CTAN: <http://www.tug.org/tex-ar-
chive/support/latexmk/>, and from the author's website
<http://www.phys.psu.edu/~collins/software/latexmk/>.
Modifications and enhancements by Evan McLean (Version 2.0)
Original script called "go" by David J. Musliner (RCS Version 3.2)
28 December 2010 33
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