1LATEXMK(1) General Commands Manual LATEXMK(1)
2
6 latexmk - generate LaTeX document
7
9 latexmk [options] [file ...]
10
12 Latexmk completely automates the process of compiling a LaTeX document.
13 Essentially, it is like a specialized relative of the general make
14 utility, but one which determines dependencies automatically and has
15 some other very useful features. In its basic mode of operation la‐
16 texmk is given the name of the primary source file for a document, and
17 it issues the appropriate sequence of commands to generate a .dvi, .ps,
18 .pdf and/or hardcopy version of the document.
19 By default latexmk will run the commands necessary to generate a .dvi
21 file, which copies the behavior of earlier versions when only latex was
22 available.
23 Latexmk can also be set to run continuously with a suitable previewer.
25 In that case the latex program (or one of its relatives), etc, are re‐
26 run whenever one of the source files is modified, and the previewer au‐
27 tomatically updates the on-screen view of the compiled document.
28 Latexmk determines which are the source files by examining the log
30 file. (Optionally, it also examines the list of input and output files
31 generated by the -recorder option of modern versions of latex (and
32 pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex). See the documentation for the -recorder
33 option of latexmk below.) When latexmk is run, it examines properties
34 of the source files, and if any have been changed since the last docu‐
35 ment generation, latexmk will run the various LaTeX processing programs
36 as necessary. In particular, it will repeat the run of latex (or a re‐
37 lated program)) often enough to resolve all cross references; depending
38 on the macro packages used. With some macro packages and document
39 classes, four, or even more, runs may be needed. If necessary, latexmk
40 will also run bibtex, biber, and/or makeindex. In addition, latexmk
41 can be configured to generate other necessary files. For example, from
42 an updated figure file it can automatically generate a file in encapsu‐
43 lated postscript or another suitable format for reading by LaTeX.
44 Latexmk has two different previewing options. With the simple -pv op‐
46 tion, a dvi, postscript or pdf previewer is automatically run after
47 generating the dvi, postscript or pdf version of the document. The
48 type of file to view is selected according to configuration settings
49 and command line options.
50 The second previewing option is the powerful -pvc option (mnemonic:
52 "preview continuously"). In this case, latexmk runs continuously, reg‐
53 ularly monitoring all the source files to see if any have changed. Ev‐
54 ery time a change is detected, latexmk runs all the programs necessary
55 to generate a new version of the document. A good previewer will then
56 automatically update its display. Thus the user can simply edit a file
57 and, when the changes are written to disk, latexmk completely automates
58 the cycle of updating the .dvi (and/or the .ps and .pdf) file, and re‐
59 freshing the previewer's display. It's not quite WYSIWYG, but usefully
60 close.
61 For other previewers, the user may have to manually make the previewer
63 update its display, which can be (e.g., with some versions of xdvi and
64 gsview) as simple as forcing a redraw of its display.
65 Latexmk has the ability to print a banner in gray diagonally across
67 each page when making the postscript file. It can also, if needed,
68 call an external program to do other postprocessing on generated dvi
69 and postscript files. (See the options -dF and -pF, and the documenta‐
70 tion for the $dvi_filter and $ps_filter configuration variables.)
71 These capabilities are leftover from older versions of latexmk, but are
72 currently non-functional. More flexibility can be obtained in current
73 versions, since the command strings for running *latex can now be con‐
74 figured to run multiple commands. This also extends the possibility of
75 postprocessing generated files.
76 Latexmk is highly configurable, both from the command line and in con‐
78 figuration files, so that it can accommodate a wide variety of user
79 needs and system configurations. Default values are set according to
80 the operating system, so latexmk often works without special configura‐
81 tion on MS-Windows, cygwin, Linux, OS-X, and other UNIX systems. See
82 the section "Configuration/Initialization (rc) Files", and then the
83 later sections "How to Set Variables in Initialization Files", "Format
84 of Command Specifications", "List of Configuration Variables Usable in
85 Initialization Files", "Custom Dependencies", and "Advanced Configura‐
86 tion"
87 A very annoying complication handled very reliably by latexmk, is that
89 LaTeX is a multiple pass system. On each run, LaTeX reads in informa‐
90 tion generated on a previous run, for things like cross referencing and
91 indexing. In the simplest cases, a second run of LaTeX suffices, and
92 often the log file contains a message about the need for another pass.
93 However, there is a wide variety of add-on macro packages to LaTeX,
94 with a variety of behaviors. The result is to break simple-minded de‐
95 terminations of how many runs are needed and of which programs. La‐
96 texmk has a highly general and efficient solution to these issues. The
97 solution involves retaining between runs information on the source
98 files, and a symptom is that latexmk generates an extra file (with ex‐
99 tension .fdb_latexmk, by default) that contains the source file infor‐
100 mation.
101
104 In general the command line to invoke latexmk has the form
105 latexmk [options] [file]
107 All options can be introduced by single or double "-" characters, e.g.,
109 "latexmk -help" or "latexmk --help".
110 Note 1: In the documentation, '*latex' means any of the supported en‐
112 gines, i.e., currently latex, lualatex, pdflatex, xelatex. Mention of
113 a specific one of these normally refers that specific engines. Earlier
114 versions of this documentation weren't so consistent. Which of these
115 is used to compile a document, depends on the configuration and the
116 command line arguments.
117 Note 2: In addition to the options in the list below, latexmk recog‐
119 nizes almost all the options recognized by the *latex programs in their
120 current TeXLive and MiKTeX implementations. Some of the options for
121 these programs trigger special action or behavior by latexmk, in which
122 case they have specific explanations in this document; in this case
123 they may or may not be passed to *latex as well.
124 Run latexmk with the -showextraoptions to get a list of the options
126 that latexmk accepts and that are simply passed through to *latex. See
127 also the explanation of the -showextraoptions option for more informa‐
128 tion.
129 Definitions of options and arguments
132 file One or more files can be specified. If no files are specified,
135 latexmk will, by default, run on all files in the current work‐
136 ing directory with a ".tex" extension. This behavior can be
137 changed: see the description concerning the @default_files vari‐
138 able in the section "List of configuration variables usable in
139 initialization files".
140 If a file is specified without an extension, then the ".tex" ex‐
142 tension is automatically added, just as LaTeX does. Thus, if
143 you specify:
144 latexmk foo
146 then latexmk will operate on the file "foo.tex".
148 There are certain restrictions on what characters can be in a
150 filename; certain characters are either prohibited or problem‐
151 atic for the latex etc programs. These characters are: "$",
152 "%", "\", "~", the double quote character, and the control char‐
153 acters null, tab, form feed, carriage return, line feed, and
154 delete. In addition "&" is prohibited when it is the first
155 character of a filename.
156 Latexmk gives a fatal error when it detects any of the above
158 characters in the TeX filename(s) specified on the command line.
159 However before testing for illegal characters, latexmk removes
160 matching pairs of double quotes from a filename. This matches
161 the behavior of latex etc, and deals with problems that occa‐
162 sionally result from filenames that have been incorrectly quoted
163 on the command line. In addition, under Microsoft Windows, the
164 forward slash character "\" is a directory separator, so latexmk
165 replaces it by a backward slash "/", which is also a legal di‐
166 rectory separator in Windows, and is accepted by latex etc.
167 -auxdir=FOO or -aux-directory=FOO
170 Sets the directory for auxiliary output files of *latex (.aux,
171 .log etc). This achieves its effect by the -aux-directory op‐
172 tion of *latex, which currently is only implemented on the MiK‐
173 TeX version of *latex.
174 See also the -outdir/-output-directory options, and the
176 $aux_dir, $out_dir, and $search_path_separator configuration
177 variables of latexmk. In particular, see the documentation of
178 $out_dir for some complications on what directory names are
179 suitable.
180 If you also use the -cd option, and the specified auxiliary out‐
182 put directory is a relative path, then the path is interpreted
183 relative to the document directory.
184 -bibtex
187 When the source file uses bbl files for bibliography, run bibtex
188 or biber as needed to regenerate the bbl files.
189 This property can also be configured by setting the $bibtex_use
191 variable to 2 in a configuration file.
192 -bibtex-
195 Never run bibtex or biber. Also, always treat .bbl files as
196 precious, i.e., do not delete them in a cleanup operation.
197 A common use for this option is when a document comes from an
199 external source, complete with its bbl file(s), and the user
200 does not have the corresponding bib files available. In this
201 situation use of the -bibtex- option will prevent latexmk from
202 trying to run bibtex or biber, which would result in overwriting
203 of the bbl files.
204 This property can also be configured by setting the $bibtex_use
206 variable to 0 in a configuration file.
207 -bibtex-cond
210 When the source file uses bbl file(s) for the bibliography, run
211 bibtex or biber as needed to regenerate the bbl files, but only
212 if the relevant bib file(s) exist. Thus when the bib files are
213 not available, bibtex or biber is not run, thereby avoiding
214 overwriting of the bbl file(s). Also, always treat .bbl files
215 as precious, i.e., do not delete them in a cleanup operation.
216 This is the default setting. It can also be configured by set‐
218 ting the $bibtex_use variable to 1 in a configuration file.
219 The reason for using this setting is that sometimes a .bbl file
221 is available containing the bibliography for a document, but the
222 .bib file is not available. An example would be for a scien‐
223 tific journal where authors submit .tex and .bbl files, but not
224 the original .bib file. In that case, running bibtex or biber
225 would not work, and the .bbl file should be treated as a user
226 source file, and not as a file that can be regenerated on de‐
227 mand.
228 (Note that it is possible for latexmk to decide that the bib
230 file does not exist, even though the bib file does exist and
231 bibtex or biber finds it. The problem is that the bib file may
232 not be in the current directory but in some search path; the
233 places latexmk and bibtex or biber cause to be searched need not
234 be identical. On modern installations of TeX and related pro‐
235 grams this problem should not arise, since latexmk uses the
236 kpsewhich program to do the search, and kpsewhich should use the
237 same search path as bibtex and biber. If this problem arises,
238 use the -bibtex option when invoking latexmk.)
239 Note that this value does not work properly if the document uses
241 biber instead of bibtex. (There's a long story why not.)
242 -bibtex-cond1
245 The same as -bibtex-cond1 except that .bbl files are only
246 treated as precious if one or more bibfiles fails to exist.
247 Thus if all the bib files exist, bibtex or biber is run to gen‐
249 erate .bbl files as needed, and then it is appropriate to delete
250 the bbl files in a cleanup operation since they can be re-gener‐
251 ated.
252 This property can also be configured by setting the $bibtex_use
254 variable to 1.5 in a configuration file.
255 -bibtexfudge or -bibfudge
258 Turn on the change-directory fudge for bibtex. See documenta‐
259 tion of $bibtex_fudge for details.
260 -bibtexfudge- or -bibfudge-
263 Turn off the change-directory fudge for bibtex. See documenta‐
264 tion of $bibtex_fudge for details.
265 -bm <message>
268 A banner message to print diagonally across each page when con‐
269 verting the dvi file to postscript. The message must be a sin‐
270 gle argument on the command line so be careful with quoting spa‐
271 ces and such.
272 Note that if the -bm option is specified, the -ps option is as‐
274 sumed.
275 -bi <intensity>
278 How dark to print the banner message. A decimal number between
279 0 and 1. 0 is black and 1 is white. The default is 0.95, which
280 is OK unless your toner cartridge is getting low.
281 -bs <scale>
284 A decimal number that specifies how large the banner message
285 will be printed. Experimentation is necessary to get the right
286 scale for your message, as a rule of thumb the scale should be
287 about equal to 1100 divided by the number of characters in the
288 message. The default is 220.0 which is just right for 5 charac‐
289 ter messages.
290 -commands
293 List the commands used by latexmk for processing files, and then
294 exit.
295 -c Clean up (remove) all regeneratable files generated by latex and
298 bibtex or biber except dvi, postscript and pdf. These files are
299 a combination of log files, aux files, latexmk's database file
300 of source file information, and those with extensions specified
301 in the @generated_exts configuration variable. In addition,
302 files specified by the $clean_ext and @generated_exts configura‐
303 tion variables are removed.
304 This cleanup is instead of a regular make. See the -gg option
306 if you want to do a cleanup followed by a make.
307 Treatment of .bbl files: If $bibtex_use is set to 0 or 1, bbl
309 files are always treated as non-regeneratable. If $bibtex_use
310 is set to 1.5, bbl files are counted as non-regeneratable condi‐
311 tionally: If the bib file exists, then bbl files are regenerat‐
312 able, and are deleted in a clean up. But if $bibtex_use is 1.5
313 and a bib file doesn't exist, then the bbl files are treated as
314 non-regeneratable and hence are not deleted.
315 In contrast, if $bibtex_use is set to 2, bbl files are always
317 treated as regeneratable, and are deleted in a cleanup.
318 Treatment of files generated by custom dependencies: If
320 $cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated is nonzero, regeneratable
321 files are considered as including those generated by custom de‐
322 pendencies and are also deleted. Otherwise these files are not
323 deleted.
324 -C Clean up (remove) all regeneratable files generated by latex and
327 bibtex or biber. This is the same as the -c option with the ad‐
328 dition of dvi, postscript and pdf files, and those specified in
329 the $clean_full_ext configuration variable.
330 This cleanup is instead of a regular make. See the -gg option
332 if you want to do a cleanup followed by a make.
333 See the -c option for the specification of whether or not .bbl
335 files are treated as non-regeneratable or regeneratable.
336 If $cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated is nonzero, regeneratable
338 files are considered as including those generated by custom de‐
339 pendencies and are also deleted. Otherwise these files are not
340 deleted.
341 -CA (Obsolete). Now equivalent to the -C option. See that option
344 for details.
345 -cd Change to the directory containing the main source file before
348 processing it. Then all the generated files (.aux, .log, .dvi,
349 .pdf, etc) will be relative to the source file.
350 This option is particularly useful when latexmk is invoked from
352 a GUI configured to invoke latexmk with a full pathname for the
353 source file.
354 This option works by setting the $do_cd configuration variable
356 to one; you can set that variable if you want to configure la‐
357 texmk to have the effect of the -cd option without specifying it
358 on the command line. See the documentation for that variable.
359 -cd- Do NOT change to the directory containing the main source file
362 before processing it. Then all the generated files (.aux, .log,
363 .dvi, .pdf, etc) will be relative to the current directory
364 rather than the source file.
365 This is the default behavior and corresponds to the behavior of
367 the *latex programs. However, it is not desirable behavior when
368 latexmk is invoked by a GUI configured to invoke latexmk with a
369 full pathname for the source file. See the -cd option.
370 This option works by setting the $do_cd configuration variable
372 to zero. See the documentation for that variable for more in‐
373 formation.
374 -CF Remove the file containing the database of source file informa‐
377 tion, before doing the other actions requested.
378 -d Set draft mode. This prints the banner message "DRAFT" across
381 your page when converting the dvi file to postscript. Size and
382 intensity can be modified with the -bs and -bi options. The -bm
383 option will override this option as this is really just a short
384 way of specifying:
385 latexmk -bm DRAFT
387 Note that if the -d option is specified, the -ps option is as‐
389 sumed.
390 -deps Show a list of dependent files after processing. This is in the
393 form of a dependency list of the form used by the make program,
394 and it is therefore suitable for use in a Makefile. It gives an
395 overall view of the files without listing intermediate files, as
396 well as latexmk can determine them.
397 By default the list of dependent files is sent to stdout (i.e.,
399 normally to the screen unless you've redirected latexmk's out‐
400 put). But you can set the filename where the list is sent by the
401 -deps-out= option.
402 See the section "USING latexmk WITH make" for an example of how
404 to use a dependency list with make.
405 Users familiar with GNU automake and gcc will find that the
407 -deps option is very similar in its purpose and results to the
408 -M option to gcc. (In fact, latexmk also has options -M, -MF,
409 and -MP options that behave like those of gcc.)
410 -dependents
413 Equivalent to -deps.
414 -deps- Do not show a list of dependent files after processing. (This
417 is the default.)
418 -dependents-
421 Equivalent to -deps-.
422 -deps-out=FILENAME
425 Set the filename to which the list of dependent files is writ‐
426 ten. If the FILENAME argument is omitted or set to "-", then
427 the output is sent to stdout.
428 Use of this option also turns on the output of the list of de‐
430 pendent files after processing.
431 -dF Dvi file filtering. The argument to this option is a filter
434 which will generate a filtered dvi file with the extension
435 ".dviF". All extra processing (e.g. conversion to postscript,
436 preview, printing) will then be performed on this filtered dvi
437 file.
438 Example usage: To use dviselect to select only the even pages of
440 the dvi file:
441 latexmk -dF "dviselect even" foo.tex
443 -diagnostics
446 Print detailed diagnostics during a run. This may help for de‐
447 bugging problems or to understand latexmk's behavior in diffi‐
448 cult situations.
449 -dvi Generate dvi version of document.
452 -dvi- Turn off generation of dvi version of document. (This may get
455 overridden, if some other file is made (e.g., a .ps file) that
456 is generated from the dvi file, or if no generated file at all
457 is requested.)
458 -e <code>
461 Execute the specified initialization code before processing.
462 The code is Perl code of the same form as is used in latexmk's
463 initialization files. For more details, see the information on
464 the -r option, and the section about "Configuration/initializa‐
465 tion (RC) files". The code is typically a sequence of assign‐
466 ment statements separated by semicolons.
467 The code is executed when the -e option is encountered during
469 latexmk's parsing of its command line. See the -r option for a
470 way of executing initialization code from a file. An error re‐
471 sults in latexmk stopping. Multiple instances of the -r and -e
472 options can be used, and they are executed in the order they ap‐
473 pear on the command line.
474 Some care is needed to deal with proper quoting of special char‐
476 acters in the code on the command line. For example, suppose
477 you want to set the latex command to use its -shell-escape op‐
478 tion, then under UNIX/Linux you could use the line
479 latexmk -e '$latex=q/latex %O -shell-escape %S/' file.tex
481 Note that the single quotes block normal UNIX/Linux command
483 shells from treating the characters inside the quotes as spe‐
484 cial. (In this example, the q/.../ construct is a Perl idiom
485 equivalent to using single quotes. This avoids the complica‐
486 tions of getting a quote character inside an already quoted
487 string in a way that is independent of both the shell and the
488 operating-system.)
489 The above command line will NOT work under MS-Windows with
491 cmd.exe or command.com or 4nt.exe. For MS-Windows with these
492 command shells you could use
493 latexmk -e "$latex=q/latex %O -shell-escape %S/" file.tex
495 or
497 latexmk -e "$latex='latex %O -shell-escape %S'" file.tex
499 The last two examples will NOT work with UNIX/Linux command
501 shells.
502 (Note: the above examples show are to show how to use the -e to
504 specify initialization code to be executed. But the particular
505 effect can be achieved also by the use of the -latex option with
506 less problems in dealing with quoting.)
507 -f Force latexmk to continue document processing despite errors.
510 Normally, when latexmk detects that LaTeX or another program has
511 found an error which will not be resolved by further processing,
512 no further processing is carried out.
513 Note: "Further processing" means the running of other programs
515 or the rerunning of latex (etc) that would be done if no errors
516 had occurred. If instead, or additionally, you want the latex
517 (etc) program not to pause for user input after an error, you
518 should arrange this by an option that is passed to the program,
519 e.g., by latexmk's option -interaction=nonstopmode (which la‐
520 texmk passes to *latex).
521 -f- Turn off the forced processing-past-errors such as is set by the
524 -f option. This could be used to override a setting in a con‐
525 figuration file.
526 -g Force latexmk to process document fully, even under situations
529 where latexmk would normally decide that no changes in the
530 source files have occurred since the previous run. This option
531 is useful, for example, if you change some options and wish to
532 reprocess the files.
533 -g- Turn off -g.
536 -gg "Super go mode" or "clean make": clean out generated files as if
539 -C had been given, and then do a regular make.
540 -h or-non-help
543 Print help information.
544 -jobname=STRING
547 Set the basename of output files(s) to STRING, instead of the
548 default, which is the basename of the specified TeX file. (At
549 present, STRING should not contain spaces.)
550 This is like the same option for current implementations of the
552 *latex, and the passing of this option to these programs is part
553 of latexmk's implementation of -jobname.
554 There is one enhancement, that the STRING may contain the place‐
556 holder '%A'. This will be substituted by the basename of the TeX
557 file. The primary purpose is when multiple files are specified
558 on the command line to latexmk, and you wish to use a jobname
559 with a different file-dependent value for each file. For exam‐
560 ple, suppose you had .tex files test1.tex and test2.tex, and you
561 wished to compare the results of compilation by *latex and those
562 with xelatex. Then under a unix-type operating system you could
563 use the command line
564 latexmk -pdf -jobname=%A-pdflatex *.tex
566 latexmk -pdfxe -jobname=%A-xelatex *.tex
567 Then the .aux, .log, and .pdf files from the use of pdflatex
569 would have basenames test1-pdflatex and test2-pdflatex, while
570 from xelatex, the basenames would be test1-xelatex and test2-xe‐
571 latex.
572 Under MS-Windows with cmd.exe, you would need to double the per‐
574 cent sign, so that the percent character is passed to latexmk
575 rather than being used to substitute an environment variable:
576 latexmk -pdf -jobname=%%A-pdflatex *.tex
578 latexmk -pdfxe -jobname=%%A-xelatex *.tex
579 -l Run in landscape mode, using the landscape mode for the preview‐
582 ers and the dvi to postscript converters. This option is not
583 normally needed nowadays, since current previewers normally de‐
584 termine this information automatically.
585 -l- Turn off -l.
588 -latex This sets the generation of dvi files by latex, and turns off
591 the generation of pdf and ps files.
592 Note: to set the command used when latex is specified, see the
594 -latex="COMMAND" option.
595 -latex="COMMAND"
598 This sets the string specifying the command to run latex, and is
599 typically used to add desired options. Since the string nor‐
600 mally contains spaces, it should be quoted, e.g.,
601 latexmk -latex="latex --shell-escape %O %S" foo.tex
603 The specification of the contents of the string are the same as
605 for the $latex configuration variable. Depending on your oper‐
606 ating system and the command-line shell you are using, you may
607 need to change the single quotes to double quotes (or something
608 else).
609 Note: This option when provided with the COMMAND argument only
611 sets the command for invoking latex; it does not turn on the use
612 of latex. That is done by other options or in an initialization
613 file.
614 To set the command for running pdflatex (rather than the command
616 for latex) see the -pdflatex option.
617 -logfilewarninglist
620 -logfilewarnings After a run of *latex, give a list of warnings
621 about undefined citations and references (unless silent mode is
622 on).
623 See also the $silence_logfile_warnings configuration variable.
625 -logfilewarninglist-
628 -logfilewarnings- After a run of *latex, do not give a list of
629 warnings about undefined citations and references. (Default)
630 See also the $silence_logfile_warnings configuration variable.
632 -lualatex
635 Use lualatex. That is, use lualatex to process the source
636 file(s) to pdf. The generation of dvi and postscript files is
637 turned off.
638 This option is equivalent to using the following set of options
640 -pdflua -dvi- -ps-
642 (Note: Note that the method of implementation of this option,
644 but not its intended effect, differ from some earlier versions
645 of latexmk.)
646 -lualatex="COMMAND"
649 This sets the string specifying the command to run lualatex. It
650 behaves like the -pdflatex option, but sets the variable $luala‐
651 tex.
652 Note: This option when provided with the COMMAND argument only
654 sets the command for invoking lualatex; it does not turn on the
655 use of lualatex. That is done by other options or in an initial‐
656 ization file.
657 -M Show list of dependent files after processing. This is equiva‐
660 lent to the -deps option.
661 -MF file
664 If a list of dependents is made, the -MF specifies the file to
665 write it to.
666 -MP If a list of dependents is made, include a phony target for each
669 source file. If you use the dependents list in a Makefile, the
670 dummy rules work around errors the program make gives if you re‐
671 move header files without updating the Makefile to match.
672 -makeindexfudge
675 Turn on the change-directory fudge for makeindex. See documen‐
676 tation of $makeindex_fudge for details.
677 -makeindexfudge-
680 Turn off the change-directory fudge for makeindex. See documen‐
681 tation of $makeindex_fudge for details.
682 -MSWinBackSlash
685 This option only has an effect when latexmk is running under MS-
686 Windows. This is that when latexmk runs a command under MS-Win‐
687 dows, the Windows standard directory separator "\" is used to
688 separate directory components in a file name. Internally, la‐
689 texmk uses "/" for the directory separator character, which is
690 the character used by Unix-like systems.
691 This is the default behavior. However the default may have been
693 overridden by a configuration file (latexmkrc file) which sets
694 $MSWin_back_slash=0.
695 -MSWinBackSlash-
698 This option only has an effect when latexmk is running under MS-
699 Windows. This is that when latexmk runs a command under MS-Win‐
700 dows, the substitution of "\" for the separator character be‐
701 tween directory components of a file name is not done. Instead
702 the forward slash "/" is used, the same as on Unix-like systems.
703 This is acceptable in most situations under MS-Windows, provided
704 that filenames are properly quoted, as latexmk does by default.
705 See the documentation for the configuration variable
707 $MSWin_back_slash for more details.
708 -new-viewer
711 When in continuous-preview mode, always start a new viewer to
712 view the generated file. By default, latexmk will, in continu‐
713 ous-preview mode, test for a previously running previewer for
714 the same file and not start a new one if a previous previewer is
715 running. However, its test sometimes fails (notably if there is
716 an already-running previewer that is viewing a file of the same
717 name as the current file, but in a different directory). This
718 option turns off the default behavior.
719 -new-viewer-
722 The inverse of the -new-viewer option. It puts latexmk in its
723 normal behavior that in preview-continuous mode it checks for an
724 already-running previewer.
725 -nobibtex
728 Never run bibtex or biber. Equivalent to the -bibtex- option.
729 -nobibtexfudge or -nobibfudge
732 Turn off the change-directory fudge for bibtex. See documenta‐
733 tion of $bibtex_fudge for details.
734 -norc Turn off the automatic reading of initialization (rc) files.
737 N.B. Normally the initialization files are read and obeyed, and
739 then command line options are obeyed in the order they are en‐
740 countered. But -norc is an exception to this rule: it is acted
741 on first, no matter where it occurs on the command line.
742 -nomakeindexfudge
745 Turn off the change-directory fudge for makeindex. See documen‐
746 tation of $makeindex_fudge for details.
747 -outdir=FOO or -output-directory=FOO
750 Sets the directory for the output files of *latex. This
752 achieves its effect by the -output-directory option of *latex,
753 which currently (Dec. 2011 and later) is implemented on the com‐
754 mon versions of *latex, i.e., MiKTeX and TeXLive. It may not be
755 present in other versions.
756 See also the -auxdir/-aux-directory options, and the $aux_dir,
758 $out_dir, and $search_path_separator configuration variables of
759 latexmk. In particular, see the documentation of $out_dir for
760 some complications on what directory names are suitable.
761 If you also use the -cd option, and the specified output direc‐
763 tory is a relative path, then the path is interpreted relative
764 to the document directory.
765 -output-format=FORMAT
768 This option is one that is allowed for latex, lualatex, and
769 pdflatex. But it is not passed to these programs. Instead la‐
770 texmk emulates it in a way suitable for the context of latexmk
771 and its workflows.
772 If FORMAT is dvi, then dvi output is turned on, and postscript
774 and pdf output are turned off. This is equivalent to using the
775 options -dvi -ps- -pdf-.
776 If FORMAT is pdf, then pdf output is turned on, and dvi and
778 postscript output are turned off. This is equivalent to using
779 the options -pdf -ps- -dvi-.
780 If FORMAT is anything else, latexmk gives an error.
782 -p Print out the document. By default the file to be printed is
785 the first in the list postscript, pdf, dvi that is being made.
786 But you can use the -print=... option to change the type of file
787 to be printed, and you can configure this in a start up file (by
788 setting the $print_type variable).
789 However, printing is enabled by default only under UNIX/Linux
791 systems, where the default is to use the lpr command and only on
792 postscript files. In general, the correct behavior for printing
793 very much depends on your system's software. In particular, un‐
794 der MS-Windows you must have suitable program(s) available, and
795 you must have configured the print commands used by latexmk.
796 This can be non-trivial. See the documentation on the $lpr,
797 $lpr_dvi, and $lpr_pdf configuration variables to see how to set
798 the commands for printing.
799 This option is incompatible with the -pv and -pvc options, so it
801 turns them off.
802 -pdf Generate pdf version of document using pdflatex. (If you wish
805 to use lualatex or xelatex, you can use whichever of the options
806 -pdflua, -pdfxe, -lualatex or -xelatex applies.) To configure
807 latexmk to have such behavior by default, see the section on
808 "Configuration/initialization (rc) files".
809 -pdfdvi
812 Generate pdf version of document from the dvi file, by default
813 using dvipdf.
814 -pdflua
817 Generate pdf version of document using lualatex.
818 -pdfps Generate pdf version of document from the .ps file, by default
821 using ps2pdf.
822 -pdfxe Generate pdf version of document using xelatex. Note that to
825 optimize processing time, latexmk uses xelatex to generate an
826 .xdv file rather than a pdf file directly. Only after possibly
827 multiple runs to generate a fully up-to-date .xdv file does la‐
828 texmk then call xdvipdfmx to generate the final .pdf file.
829 (Note: The reason why latexmk arranges for xelatex to make an
831 .xdv file instead of the xelatex's default of a .pdf file is as
832 follows: When the document includes large graphics files, espe‐
833 cially .png files, the production of a .pdf file can be quite
834 time consuming, even when the creation of the .xdv file by xela‐
835 tex is fast. So the use of the intermediate .xdv file can re‐
836 sult in substantial gains in procesing time, since the .pdf file
837 is produced once rather than on every run of xelatex.)
838 -pdf- Turn off generation of pdf version of document. (This can be
841 used to override a setting in a configuration file. It may get
842 overridden if some other option requires the generation of a pdf
843 file.)
844 If after all options have been processed, pdf generation is
846 still turned off, then generation of a dvi file will be turned
847 on, and then the program used to compiled a document will be la‐
848 tex (or, more precisely, whatever program is configured to be
849 used in the $latex configuration variable).
850 -pdflatex
853 This sets the generation of pdf files by pdflatex, and turns off
854 the generation of dvi and ps files.
855 Note: to set the command used when pdflatex is specified, see
857 the -pdflatex="COMMAND" option.
858 -pdflatex="COMMAND"
861 This sets the string specifying the command to run pdflatex, and
862 is typically used to add desired options. Since the string nor‐
863 mally contains spaces, it should be quoted, e.g.,
864 latexmk -pdf -pdflatex="pdflatex --shell-escape %O %S"
866 foo.tex
867 The specification of the contents of the string are the same as
869 for the $pdflatex configuration variable. (The option -pdflatex
870 in fact sets the variable $pdflatex.) Depending on your operat‐
871 ing system and the command-line shell you are using, you may
872 need to change the single quotes to double quotes (or something
873 else).
874 Note: This option when provided with the COMMAND argument only
876 sets the command for invoking pdflatex; it does not turn on the
877 use of pdflatex. That is done by other options or in an initial‐
878 ization file.
879 To set the command for running latex (rather than the command
881 for pdflatex) see the -latex option.
882 -pdflualatex="COMMAND"
885 Equivalent to -lualatex="COMMAND".
886 -pdfxelatex="COMMAND"
889 Equivalent to -xelatex="COMMAND".
890 -pretex=CODE
893 Given that CODE is some TeX code, this options sets that code to
895 be executed before inputting source file. This only works if
896 the command for invoking the relevant *latex is suitably config‐
897 ured. See the documentation of the variable $pre_tex_code, and
898 the substitution strings %P and %U for more details. This op‐
899 tion works by setting the variable $pre_tex_code.
900 See also the -usepretex option.
902 An example:
904 latexmk -pretex='\AtBeginDocument{Message\par}' -usepretex
906 foo.tex
907 But this is better written
909 latexmk -usepretex='\AtBeginDocument{Message\par}' foo.tex
911 If you already have a suitable command configured, you only need
913 latexmk -pretex='\AtBeginDocument{Message\par}' foo.tex
915 -print=dvi, -print=ps, -print=pdf, -print=auto,
918 Define which kind of file is printed. This option also ensures
919 that the requisite file is made, and turns on printing.
920 The (default) case -print=auto determines the kind of print file
922 automatically from the set of files that is being made. The
923 first in the list postscript, pdf, dvi that is among the files
924 to be made is the one used for print out.
925 -ps Generate postscript version of document.
928 -ps- Turn off generation of postscript version of document. This can
931 be used to override a setting in a configuration file. (It may
932 get overridden by some other option that requires a postscript
933 file, for example a request for printing.)
934 -pF Postscript file filtering. The argument to this option is a
937 filter which will generate a filtered postscript file with the
938 extension ".psF". All extra processing (e.g. preview, printing)
939 will then be performed on this filtered postscript file.
940 Example of usage: Use psnup to print two pages on the one page:
942 latexmk -ps -pF 'psnup -2' foo.tex
944 or
946 latexmk -ps -pF "psnup -2" foo.tex
948 Whether to use single or double quotes round the "psnup -2" will
950 depend on your command interpreter, as used by the particular
951 version of perl and the operating system on your computer.
952 -pv Run file previewer. If the -view option is used, this will se‐
955 lect the kind of file to be previewed (.dvi, .ps or .pdf). Oth‐
956 erwise the viewer views the "highest" kind of file selected, by
957 the -dvi, -ps, -pdf, -pdfps options, in the order .dvi, .ps,
958 .pdf (low to high). If no file type has been selected, the dvi
959 previewer will be used. This option is incompatible with the -p
960 and -pvc options, so it turns them off.
961 -pv- Turn off -pv.
964 -pvc Run a file previewer and continually update the .dvi, .ps,
967 and/or .pdf files whenever changes are made to source files (see
968 the Description above). Which of these files is generated and
969 which is viewed is governed by the other options, and is the
970 same as for the -pv option. The preview-continuous option -pvc
971 can only work with one file. So in this case you will normally
972 only specify one filename on the command line. It is also in‐
973 compatible with the -p and -pv options, so it turns these op‐
974 tions off.
975 The -pvc option also turns off force mode (-f), as is normally
977 best for continuous preview mode. If you really want force
978 mode, use the options in the order -pvc -f.
979 With a good previewer the display will be automatically updated.
981 (Under some but not all versions of UNIX/Linux "gv -watch" does
982 this for postscript files; this can be set by a configuration
983 variable. This would also work for pdf files except for an ap‐
984 parent bug in gv that causes an error when the newly updated pdf
985 file is read.) Many other previewers will need a manual update.
986 Important note: the acroread program on MS-Windows locks the pdf
988 file, and prevents new versions being written, so it is a bad
989 idea to use acroread to view pdf files in preview-continuous
990 mode. It is better to use a different viewer: SumatraPDF and
991 gsview are good possibilities.
992 There are some other methods for arranging an update, notably
994 useful for many versions of xdvi and xpdf. These are best set
995 in latexmk's configuration; see below.
996 Note that if latexmk dies or is stopped by the user, the
998 "forked" previewer will continue to run. Successive invocations
999 with the -pvc option will not fork new previewers, but latexmk
1000 will normally use the existing previewer. (At least this will
1001 happen when latexmk is running under an operating system where
1002 it knows how to determine whether an existing previewer is run‐
1003 ning.)
1004 -pvc- Turn off -pvc.
1007 -pvctimeout
1010 Do timeout in pvc mode after period of inactivity, which is 30
1011 min. by default. Inactivity means a period when latexmk has de‐
1012 tected no file changes and hence has not taken any actions like
1013 compiling the document.
1014 -pvctimeout-
1017 Don't do timeout in pvc mode after inactivity.
1018 -pvctimeoutmins=<time>
1021 Set period of inactivity in minutes for pvc timeout.
1022 -quiet Same as -silent
1025 -r <rcfile>
1028 Read the specified initialization file ("RC file") before pro‐
1029 cessing.
1030 Be careful about the ordering: (1) Standard initialization files
1032 -- see the section below on "Configuration/initialization (RC)
1033 files" -- are read first. (2) Then the options on the command
1034 line are acted on in the order they are given. Therefore if an
1035 initialization file is specified by the -r option, it is read
1036 during this second step. Thus an initialization file specified
1037 with the -r option can override both the standard initialization
1038 files and previously specified options. But all of these can be
1039 overridden by later options.
1040 The contents of the RC file just comprise a piece of code in the
1042 Perl programming language (typically a sequence of assignment
1043 statements); they are executed when the -r option is encountered
1044 during latexmk's parsing of its command line. See the -e option
1045 for a way of giving initialization code directly on latexmk's
1046 command line. An error results in latexmk stopping. Multiple
1047 instances of the -r and -e options can be used, and they are ex‐
1048 ecuted in the order they appear on the command line.
1049 -recorder
1052 Give the -recorder option with *latex. In (most) modern ver‐
1053 sions of these programs, this results in a file of extension
1054 .fls containing a list of the files that these programs have
1055 read and written. Latexmk will then use this file to improve
1056 its detection of source files and generated files after a run of
1057 *latex. This is the default setting of latexmk, unless overrid‐
1058 den in an initialization file.
1059 For further information, see the documentation for the $recorder
1061 configuration variable.
1062 -recorder-
1065 Do not supply the -recorder option with *latex.
1066 -rules Show a list of latemk's rules and dependencies after processing.
1069 -rules-
1072 Do not show a list of latexmk's rules and dependencies after
1073 processing. (This is the default.)
1074 -showextraoptions
1077 Show the list of extra *latex options that latexmk recognizes,
1078 but that it simply passes through to the programs *latex when
1079 they are run. These options are (currently) a combination of
1080 those allowed by the TeXLive and MiKTeX implementations. (If a
1081 particular option is given to latexmk but is not handled by the
1082 particular implementation of *latex that is being used, that
1083 program will probably give a warning or an error.) These op‐
1084 tions are very numerous, but are not listed in this documenta‐
1085 tion because they have no effect on latexmk's actions.
1086 There are a few options (e.g., -includedirectory=dir, -initial‐
1088 ize, -ini) that are not recognized, either because they don't
1089 fit with latexmk's intended operations, or because they need
1090 special processing by latexmk that isn't implemented (at least,
1091 not yet).
1092 There are certain options for *latex (e.g., -recorder) that
1094 trigger special actions or behavior by latexmk itself. Depending
1095 on the action, they may also be passed in some form to the
1096 called *latex program, and/or may affect other programs as well.
1097 These options do have entries in this documentation. Among
1098 these options are: -jobname=STRING, -aux-directory=dir, -output-
1099 directory=DIR, -quiet, and -recorder.
1100 There are also options that are accepted by *latex, but instead
1102 trigger actions purely by latexmk: -help, -version.
1103 -silent
1106 Run commands silently, i.e., with options that reduce the amount
1107 of diagnostics generated. For example, with the default set‐
1108 tings, the command "latex -interaction=batchmode" is used for
1109 latex, and similarly for its friends.
1110 See also the -logfilewarninglist and -logfilewarninglist- op‐
1112 tions.
1113 Also reduce the number of informational messages that latexmk
1115 itself generates.
1116 To change the options used to make the commands run silently,
1118 you need to configure latexmk with changed values of its config‐
1119 uration variables, the relevant ones being $bib‐
1120 tex_silent_switch, $biber_silent_switch, $dvipdf_silent_switch,
1121 $dvips_silent_switch, $latex_silent_switch, $luala‐
1122 tex_silent_switch $makeindex_silent_switch, $pdfla‐
1123 tex_silent_switch, and $xelatex_silent_switch
1124 -stdtexcmds
1127 Sets the commands for latex, etc, so that they are the standard
1128 ones. This is useful to override special configurations.
1129 The result is that $latex = 'latex %O %S', and similarly for
1131 $pdflatex, $lualatex, and $xelatex. (The option -no-pdf needed
1132 for $xelatex is provided automatically, given that %O appears in
1133 the definition.)
1134 -time Show CPU time used. See also the configuration variable
1137 $show_time.
1138 -time- Do not show CPU time used. See also the configuration variable
1141 $show_time.
1142 -use-make
1145 When after a run of *latex, there are warnings about missing
1146 files (e.g., as requested by the LaTeX \input, \include, and
1147 \includgraphics commands), latexmk tries to make them by a cus‐
1148 tom dependency. If no relevant custom dependency with an appro‐
1149 priate source file is found, and if the -use-make option is set,
1150 then as a last resort latexmk will try to use the make program
1151 to try to make the missing files.
1152 Note that the filename may be specified without an extension,
1154 e.g., by \includegraphics{drawing} in a LaTeX file. In that
1155 case, latexmk will try making drawing.ext with ext set in turn
1156 to the possible extensions that are relevant for latex (or as
1157 appropriate pdflatex, lualatex, xelatex).
1158 See also the documentation for the $use_make_for_missing_files
1160 configuration variable.
1161 -use-make-
1164 Do not use the make program to try to make missing files. (De‐
1165 fault.)
1166 -usepretex
1169 Sets the command lines for latex, etc, so that they use the code
1170 that is defined by the variable $pre_tex_code or that is set by
1171 the option -pretex=CODE to execute the specified TeX code before
1172 the source file is read. This option overrides any previous
1173 definition of the command lines.
1174 The result is that $latex = 'latex %O %P', and similarly for
1176 $pdflatex, $lualatex, and $xelatex. (The option -no-pdf needed
1177 for $xelatex is provided automatically, given that %O appears in
1178 the definition.)
1179 -usepretex=CODE
1182 Equivalent to -pretex=CODE -usepretex. Example
1183 latexmk -usepretex='\AtBeginDocument{Message\par}' foo.tex
1185 -v or -version
1188 Print version number of latexmk.
1189 -verbose
1192 Opposite of -silent. This is the default setting.
1193 -view=default, -view=dvi, -view=ps, -view=pdf, -view=none
1196 Set the kind of file used when previewing is requested (e.g., by
1197 the -pv or -pvc switches). The default is to view the "highest"
1198 kind of requested file (in the low-to-high order .dvi, .ps,
1199 .pdf).
1200 Note the possibility -view=none where no viewer is opened at
1202 all. One example of is use is in conjunction with the -pvc op‐
1203 tion, when you want latexmk to do a compilation automatically
1204 whenever source file(s) change, but do not want a previewer to
1205 be opened.
1206 -Werror
1209 This causes latexmk to return a non-zero status code if any of
1210 the files processed gives a warning about problems with cita‐
1211 tions or references (i.e., undefined citations or references or
1212 about multiply defined references). This is after latexmk has
1213 completed all the runs it needs to try and resolve references
1214 and citations. Thus -Werror causes latexmk to treat such warn‐
1215 ings as errors, but only when they occur on the last run of *la‐
1216 tex and only after processing is complete. Also can be set by
1217 the configuration variable $warnings_as_errors.
1218 -xelatex
1221 Use xelatex. That is, use xelatex to process the source file(s)
1222 to pdf. The generation of dvi and postscript files is turned
1223 off.
1224 This option is equivalent to using the following set of options
1226 -pdfxe -dvi- -ps-
1228 [Note: Note that the method of implementation of this option,
1230 but not its intended primary effect, differ from some earlier
1231 versions of latexmk. Latexmk first uses xelatex to make an .xdv
1232 file, and does all the extra runs needed (including those of
1233 bibtex, etc). Only after that does it make the pdf file from
1234 the .xdv file, using xdvipdfmx. See the documentation for the
1235 -pdfxe for why this is done.]
1236 -xelatex="COMMAND"
1239 This sets the string specifying the command to run xelatex. It
1240 sets the variable $xelatex.
1241 Warning: It is important to ensure that the -no-pdf is used when
1243 xelatex is invoked, since latexmk expects xelatex to produce an
1244 .xdv file, not a .pdf file. If you provide %O in the command
1245 specification, this will be done automatically. See the docu‐
1246 mentation for the -pdfxe option for why latexmk makes a .xdv
1247 file rather than a .pdf file when xelatex is used.
1248 An example of the use of the -pdfxelatex option:
1250 latexmk -pdfxe -pdfxelatex="xelatex --shell-escape %O %S"
1252 foo.tex
1253 Note: This option when provided with the COMMAND argument only
1255 sets the command for invoking lualatex; it does not turn on the
1256 use of lualatex. That is done by other options or in an initial‐
1257 ization file.
1258 Compatibility between options
1261 The preview-continuous option -pvc can only work with one file. So in
1263 this case you will normally only specify one filename on the command
1264 line.
1265 Options -p, -pv and -pvc are mutually exclusive. So each of these op‐
1267 tions turns the others off.
1268
1271 % latexmk thesis # run latex enough times to resolve
1272 cross-references
1273 % latexmk -pvc -ps thesis# run latex enough times to resolve
1275 cross-references, make a postscript
1276 file, start a previewer. Then
1277 watch for changes in the source
1278 file thesis.tex and any files it
1279 uses. After any changes rerun latex
1280 the appropriate number of times and
1281 remake the postscript file. If latex
1282 encounters an error, latexmk will
1283 keep running, watching for
1284 source file changes.
1285 % latexmk -c # remove .aux, .log, .bbl, .blg, .dvi,
1287 .pdf, .ps & .bbl files
1288
1292 Some possibilities:
1293 a. If you get a strange error, do look carefully at the output that is
1295 on the screen and in log files. While there is much that is notori‐
1296 ously verbose in the output of latex (and that is added to by latexmk),
1297 the verbosity is there for a reason: to enable the user to diagnose
1298 problems. Latexmk does repeat some messages at the end of a run that
1299 it thinks would otherwise be easy to miss in the middle of other out‐
1300 put.
1301 b. Generally, remember that latexmk does its work by running other pro‐
1303 grams. Your first priority in dealing with errors should be to examine
1304 what went wrong with the individual programs. Then you need to correct
1305 the causes of errors in the runs of these programs. (Often these come
1306 from errors in the source document, but they could also be about miss‐
1307 ing LaTeX packages, etc.)
1308 c. If latexmk doesn't run the programs the way you would like, then you
1310 need to look in this documentation at the list of command line options
1311 and then at the sections on configuration/initialization files. A lot
1312 of latexmk's behavior is configurable to deal with particular situa‐
1313 tions. (But there is a lot of reading!)
1314 The remainder of these notes consists of ideas for dealing with more
1316 difficult situations.
1317 d. Further tricks can involve replacing the standard commands that la‐
1319 texmk runs by other commands or scripts.
1320 e. For possible examples of code for use in an RC file, see the direc‐
1322 tory example_rcfiles in the distribution of latexmk (e.g., at
1323 http://mirror.ctan.org/support/latexmk/example_rcfiles). Even if these
1324 examples don't do what you want, they may provide suitable inspiration.
1325 f. There's a useful trick that can be used when you use lualatex in‐
1327 stead of pdflatex (and in some related situations). The problem is
1328 that latexmk won't notice a dependency on a file, bar.baz say, that is
1329 input by the lua code in your document instead of by the LaTeX part.
1330 (Thus if you change bar.baz and rerun latexmk, then latexmk will think
1331 no files have changed and not rerun lualatex, whereas if you had '\in‐
1332 put{bar.baz}' in the LaTeX part of the document, latexmk would notice
1333 the change.) One solution is just to put the following somewhere in
1334 the LaTeX part of the document:
1335 \typeout{(bar.baz)}
1337 This puts a line in the log file that latexmk will treat as implying
1339 that the file bar.baz was read. (At present I don't know a way of do‐
1340 ing this automatically.) Of course, if the file has a different name,
1341 change bar.baz to the name of your file.
1342 g. See also the section "Advanced Configuration: Some extra resources".
1344 h. Look on tex.stackexchange, i.e., at http://tex.stackex‐
1346 change.com/questions/tagged/latexmk Someone may have already solved
1347 your problem.
1348 i. Ask a question at tex.stackexchange.com.
1350 j. Or ask me (the author of latexmk). My e-mail is at the end of this
1352 documentation.
1353
1357 When one of the latex engines is run, the usual situation is that latex
1358 produces a .dvi file, while pdflatex and lualatex produce a .pdf file.
1359 For xelatex the default is to produce a .pdf file, but to optimize pro‐
1360 cessing time latexmk runs xelatex its -no-pdf option so that it pro‐
1361 duces an .xdv file. Further processing by latexmk takes this as a
1362 starting point.
1363 However, the actual output file may differ from the normal expectation;
1365 and then latexmk can adjust its processing to accommodate this situa‐
1366 tion. The difference in output file type can happen for two reasons:
1367 One is that for latex, pdflatex and lualatex the document itself can
1368 override the defaults. The other is that there may be a configuration,
1369 or misconfiguration, such that the program that latexmk invokes to com‐
1370 pile the document is not the expected one, or is given options incom‐
1371 patible with what latexmk initially expects.
1372 Under latex and pdflatex, control of the output format by the document
1374 is done by setting the \pdfoutput macro. Under lualatex, the \output‐
1375 mode macro is used instead.
1376 One example of an important use-case for document control of the output
1378 format is a document that uses the psfrag package to insert graphical
1379 elements in the output file. The psfrag package achieves its effects by
1380 inserting postscript code in the output of the compilation of the docu‐
1381 ment. This entails the use of compilation to a .dvi file, followed by
1382 the use of conversion to a postscript file (either directly, as by
1383 dvips or implicitly, as an intermediate step by dvipdf). Then it is
1384 useful to force output to be of the .dvi format by inserting \pdfout‐
1385 put=0 in the preamble of the document.
1386 Another example is where the document uses graphics file of the .pdf,
1388 .jpg, and png types. With the default setting for the graphicx pack‐
1389 age, these can be processed in compilation to .pdf but not with compi‐
1390 lation to .dvi. In this case, it is useful to insert \pdfoutput=1 in
1391 the preamble of the document to force compilation to .pdf output for‐
1392 mat.
1393 In all of these cases, it is needed that latexmk has to adjust its pro‐
1395 cessing to deal with a mismatch between the actual output format (out
1396 of .pdf, .dvi, .xdv) and the initially expected output, if possible.
1397 Latexmk does this provided the following conditions are met.
1398 The first is that latexmk's $allow_switch configuration variable is set
1400 to a non-zero value as it is by default. If this variable is zero, a
1401 mismatch of filetypes in the compilation results in an erro.
1402 The second condition for latexmk to be able to handle a change of out‐
1404 put type is that no explicit requests for .dvi or .ps output files are
1405 made. Explicit requests are by the -dvi and -ps, -print=dvi,
1406 -print=ps, -view=dvi, and -view=ps options, and by corresponding set‐
1407 tings of the $dvi_mode, $postscript_mode, $print_type, and $view con‐
1408 figuration variables. The print-type and view-type restrictions only
1409 apply when printing and viewing are explicitly requested, respectively.
1410 For this purpose, the use of the -pdfdvi and -pdfps options (and the
1411 corresponding setting of the $pdf_mode variable) does not count as an
1412 explicit request for the .dvi and .ps files; they are merely regarded
1413 as a request for making a .pdf file together with an initial proposal
1414 for the processing route to make it.
1415 Note that when accommodating a change in output file type, there is in‐
1417 volved a substantial change in the network of rules that latexmk uses
1418 in its actions. The second condition applied to accommodate a change
1419 is to avoid situations where the change in the rule network is too rad‐
1420 ical to be readily handled automatically.
1421
1425 In this section is explained which configuration files are read by la‐
1426 texmk. Subsequent sections "How to Set Variables in Initialization
1427 Files", "Format of Command Specifications", "List of Configuration
1428 Variables Usable in Initialization Files", "Custom Dependencies", and
1429 "Advanced Configuration" give details on what can be configured and
1430 how.
1431 Latexmk can be customized using initialization files, which are read at
1433 startup in the following order:
1434 1) The system RC file, if it exists.
1436 On a UNIX system, latexmk searches for following places for its sys‐
1437 tem RC file, in the following order, and reads the first it finds:
1438 "/opt/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
1439 "/usr/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
1440 "/usr/local/lib/latexmk/LatexMk".
1441 On a Fedora system, it only looks for "/etc/latexmk.conf".
1442 On a MS-Windows system it looks for "C:\latexmk\LatexMk".
1443 On a cygwin system (i.e., a MS-Windows system in which Perl is that
1444 of cygwin), latexmk reads the first it finds of
1445 "/cygdrive/c/latexmk/LatexMk",
1446 "/opt/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
1447 "/usr/local/share/latexmk/LatexMk",
1448 "/usr/local/lib/latexmk/LatexMk".
1449 In addition, it then tries the same set of locations, but with the file
1451 name replaced "LatexMk" replaced by "latexmkrc".
1452 If the environment variable LATEXMKRCSYS is set, its value is used as
1454 the name of the system RC file, instead of any of the above.
1455 2) The user's RC file, if it exists. This can be in one of two places.
1457 The traditional one is ".latexmkrc" in the user's home directory. The
1458 other possibility is "latexmk/latexmkrc" in the user's XDG configura‐
1459 tion home directory. The actual file read is the first of "$XDG_CON‐
1460 FIG_HOME/latexmk/latexmkrc" or "$HOME/.latexmkrc" which exists. (See
1461 https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-lat‐
1462 est.html for details on the XDG Base Directory Specification.)
1463 Here $HOME is the user's home directory. [Latexmk determines the
1465 user's home directory as follows: It is the value of the environment
1466 variable HOME, if this variable exists, which normally is the case on
1467 UNIX-like systems (including Linux and OS-X). Otherwise the environ‐
1468 ment variable USERPROFILE is used, if it exists, which normally is the
1469 case on MS-Windows systems. Otherwise a blank string is used instead of
1470 $HOME, in which case latexmk does not look for an RC file in it.]
1471 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is the value of the environment variable XDG_CON‐
1473 FIG_HOME if it exists. If this environment variable does not exist,
1474 but $HOME is non-blank, then $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set to the default
1475 value of $HOME/.config. Otherwise $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is blank, and la‐
1476 texmk does not look for an RC file under it.
1477 3) The RC file in the current working directory. This file can be
1480 named either "latexmkrc" or ".latexmkrc", and the first of these to be
1481 found is used, if any.
1482 4) Any RC file(s) specified on the command line with the -r option.
1484 Each RC file is a sequence of Perl commands. Naturally, a user can use
1486 this in creative ways. But for most purposes, one simply uses a se‐
1487 quence of assignment statements that override some of the built-in set‐
1488 tings of Latexmk. Straightforward cases can be handled without knowl‐
1489 edge of the Perl language by using the examples in this document as
1490 templates. Comment lines are introduced by the "#" character.
1491 Note that command line options are obeyed in the order in which they
1493 are written; thus any RC file specified on the command line with the -r
1494 option can override previous options but can be itself overridden by
1495 later options on the command line. There is also the -e option, which
1496 allows initialization code to be specified in latexmk's command line.
1497 For possible examples of code for in an RC file, see the directory ex‐
1499 ample_rcfiles in the distribution of latexmk (e.g., at http://mir‐
1500 ror.ctan.org/support/latexmk/example_rcfiles).
1501
1504 The important variables that can be configured are described in the
1505 section "List of configuration variables usable in initialization
1506 files". (See the earlier section "Configuration/Initialization (rc)
1507 Files" for the files where the configurations are done.) Syntax for
1508 setting these variables is of the following forms:
1509 $bibtex = 'bibtex %O %S';
1511 for the setting of a string variable,
1513 $preview_mode = 1;
1515 for the setting of a numeric variable, and
1517 @default_files = ('paper', 'paper1');
1519 for the setting of an array of strings. It is possible to append an
1521 item to an array variable as follows:
1522 push @default_files, 'paper2';
1524 Note that simple "scalar" variables have names that begin with a $
1526 character and array variables have names that begin with a @ character.
1527 Each statement ends with a semicolon.
1528 Strings should be enclosed in single quotes. (You could use double
1530 quotes, as in many programming languages. But then the Perl program‐
1531 ming language brings into play some special rules for interpolating
1532 variables into strings. People not fluent in Perl will want to avoid
1533 these complications.)
1534 You can do much more complicated things, but for this you will need to
1536 consult a manual for the Perl programming language.
1537
1542 Some of the variables set the commands that latexmk uses for carrying
1543 out its work, for example to generate a .dvi file from a .tex file or
1544 to view a postscript file. This section describes some important fea‐
1545 tures of how the commands are specified. (Note that some of the possi‐
1546 bilities listed here do not apply to the $kpsewhich variable; see its
1547 documentation.)
1548 Placeholders: Supposed you wanted latexmk to use the command elatex in
1550 place of the regular latex command, and suppose moreover that you
1551 wanted to give it the option "--shell-escape". You could do this by
1552 the following setting:
1553 $latex = 'elatex --shell-escape %O %S';
1555 The two items starting with the % character are placeholders. These
1557 are substituted by appropriate values before the command is run. Thus
1558 %S will be replaced by the source file that elatex will be applied to,
1559 and %O will be replaced by any options that latexmk has decided to use
1560 for this command. (E.g., if you used the -silent option in the invoca‐
1561 tion of latexmk, it results in the replacement of %O by "-interac‐
1562 tion=batchmode".)
1563 The available placeholders are:
1565 %A basename of the main tex file. Unlike %R, this is unaffected by
1567 the setting of a jobname by the -jobname option or the $jobname
1568 configuration value.
1569 %B base of filename for current command. E.g., if a postscript
1571 file document.ps is being made from the dvi file document.dvi,
1572 then the basename is document.
1573 %D destination file (e.g., the name of the postscript file when
1575 converting a dvi file to postscript).
1576 %O options
1578 %P If the variable $pre_tex_code is non-empty, then %P is substi‐
1580 tuted by the contents of $pre_tex_code followed by \in‐
1581 put{SOURCE}, where SOURCE stands for the name of the source
1582 file. Appropriate quoting is done. This enables TeX code to be
1583 passed to one of the *latex engines to be executed before the
1584 source file is read.
1585 If the variable $pre_tex_code is the empty string, then %P is
1587 equivalent to %S.
1588 %R root filename. This is the base name for the main tex file.
1590 By default this is the basename of the main tex file. However
1592 the value can be changed by the use of the -jobname option or
1593 the $jobname configuration variable.
1594 %S source file (e.g., the name of the dvi file when converting a
1596 .dvi file to ps).
1597 %T The name of the primary tex file.
1599 %U If the variable $pre_tex_code is non-empty, then its value is
1601 substituted for %U (appropriately quoted). Otherwise it is re‐
1602 placed by a null string.
1603 %Y Name of directory for auxiliary output files (see the configura‐
1605 tion variable $aux_dir). A directory separation character ('/')
1606 is appended if $aux_dir is non-empty and does not end in a suit‐
1607 able character, with suitable characters being those appropriate
1608 to UNIX and MS-Windows, i.e., ':', '/' and '\'. Note that if
1609 after initialization, $out_dir is set, but $aux_dir is not set
1610 (i.e., it is blank), then latexmk sets $aux_dir to the same
1611 value $out_dir.
1612 %Z Name of directory for output files (see the configuration vari‐
1614 able $out_dir). A directory separation character ('/') is ap‐
1615 pended if $out_dir is non-empty and does not end in a suitable
1616 character, with suitable characters being those appropriate to
1617 UNIX and MS-Windows, i.e., ':', '/' and '\'.
1618 If for some reason you need a literal % character in your string not
1620 subject to the above rules, use "%%".
1621 Appropriate quoting will be applied to the filename substitutions, so
1623 you mustn't supply them yourself even if the names of your files have
1624 spaces in them. (But if your TeX filenames have spaces in them, beware
1625 that some older versions of the TeX program cannot correctly handle
1626 filenames containing spaces.) In case latexmk's quoting does not work
1627 correctly on your system, you can turn it off -- see the documentation
1628 for the variable $quote_filenames.
1629 See the default values in the section "List of configuration variables
1631 usable in initialization files" for what is normally the most appropri‐
1632 ate usage.
1633 If you omit to supply any placeholders whatever in the specification of
1635 a command, latexmk will supply what its author thinks are appropriate
1636 defaults. This gives compatibility with configuration files for previ‐
1637 ous versions of latexmk, which didn't use placeholders.
1638 "Detaching" a command: Normally when latexmk runs a command, it waits
1640 for the command to run to completion. This is appropriate for commands
1641 like latex, of course. But for previewers, the command should normally
1642 run detached, so that latexmk gets the previewer running and then re‐
1643 turns to its next task (or exits if there is nothing else to do). To
1644 achieve this effect of detaching a command, you need to precede the
1645 command name with "start ", as in
1646 $dvi_previewer = 'start xdvi %O %S';
1648 This will be translated to whatever is appropriate for your operating
1650 system.
1651 Notes: (1) In some circumstances, latexmk will always run a command de‐
1653 tached. This is the case for a previewer in preview continuous mode,
1654 since otherwise previewing continuously makes no sense. (2) This pre‐
1655 cludes the possibility of running a command named start. (3) If the
1656 word start occurs more than once at the beginning of the command
1657 string, that is equivalent to having just one. (4) Under cygwin, some
1658 complications happen, since cygwin amounts to a complicated merging of
1659 UNIX and MS-Windows. See the source code for how I've handled the
1660 problem.
1661 Command names containing spaces: Under MS-Windows it is common that the
1663 name of a command includes spaces, since software is often installed in
1664 a subdirectory of "C:\Program Files". Such command names should be en‐
1665 closed in double quotes, as in
1666 $lpr_pdf = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p
1668 %S';
1669 $pdf_previewer = 'start "c:/Program Files/SumatraPDF/Suma‐
1670 traPDF.exe" %O %S';
1671 $pdf_previewer = 'start "c:/Program Files/SumatraPDF (x86)/Suma‐
1672 traPDF.exe" %O %S';
1673 (Note about the above example: Under MS-Windows forward slashes are
1676 equivalent to backslashes in a filename under almost all circumstances,
1677 provided that the filename is inside double quotes. It is easier to
1678 use forward slashes in examples like the one above, since then one does
1679 not have to worry about the rules for dealing with forward slashes in
1680 strings in the Perl language.)
1681 Command names under Cygwin: If latexmk is executed by Cygwin's Perl,
1683 be particularly certain that pathnames in commands have forward slashes
1684 not the usual backslashes for the separator of pathname components.
1685 See the above examples. Backslashes often get misinterpreted by the
1686 Unix shell used by Cygwin's Perl to execute external commands. Forward
1687 slashes don't suffer from this problem, and (when quoted, as above) are
1688 equally acceptable to MS-Windows.
1689 Using MS-Windows file associations: A useful trick under modern ver‐
1691 sions of MS-Windows (e.g., WinXP) is to use just the command 'start' by
1692 itself:
1693 $dvi_previewer = 'start %S';
1695 Under MS-Windows, this will cause to be run whatever program the system
1697 has associated with dvi files. (The same applies for a postscript
1698 viewer and a pdf viewer.) But note that this trick is not always suit‐
1699 able for the pdf previwer, if your system has acroread for the default
1700 pdf viewer. As explained elsewhere, acroread under MS-Windows does not
1701 work well with latex and latexmk, because acroread locks the pdf file.
1702 Not using a certain command: If a command is not to be run, the command
1704 name NONE is used, as in
1705 $lpr = 'NONE lpr';
1707 This typically is used when an appropriate command does not exist on
1709 your system. The string after the "NONE" is effectively a comment.
1710 Options to commands: Setting the name of a command can be used not only
1712 for changing the name of the command called, but also to add options to
1713 command. Suppose you want latexmk to use latex with source specials
1714 enabled. Then you might use the following line in an initialization
1715 file:
1716 $latex = 'latex --src-specials %O %S';
1718 Running a subroutine instead of an external command: Use a specifica‐
1720 tion starting with "internal", as in
1721 $latex = 'internal mylatex %O %S';
1723 sub mylatex {
1724 my @args = @_;
1725 # Possible preprocessing here
1726 return system 'latex', @args;
1727 }
1728 For some of the more exotic possibilities that then become available,
1730 see the section "ADVANCED CONFIGURATION: Some extra resources and ad‐
1731 vanced tricks". Also see some of the examples in the directory exam‐
1732 ple_rcfiles in the latexmk distribution.
1733 Advanced tricks: Normally one specifies a single command for the com‐
1735 mands invoked by latexmk. Naturally, if there is some complicated ad‐
1736 ditional processing you need to do in your special situation, you can
1737 write a script (or batch file) to do the processing, and then configure
1738 latexmk to use your script in place of the standard program.
1739 You can also use a Perl subroutine instead of a script -- see above.
1741 This is generally the most flexible and portable solution.
1742 It is also possible to configure latexmk to run multiple commands. For
1744 example, if when running pdflatex to generate a pdf file from a tex
1745 file you need to run another program after pdflatex to perform some ex‐
1746 tra processing, you could do something like:
1747 $pdflatex = 'pdflatex --shell-escape %O %S; pst2pdf_for_latexmk
1749 %B';
1750 This definition assumes you are using a UNIX-like system (which in‐
1752 cludes Linux and OS-X), so that the two commands to be run are sepa‐
1753 rated by the semicolon in the middle of the string.
1754 If you are using MS-Windows, you would replace the above line by
1756 $pdflatex = 'cmd /c pdflatex --shell-escape %O %S'
1758 . '&& pst2pdf_for_latexmk %B';
1759 Here, the UNIX command separator ; is replaced by &&. In addition,
1761 there is a problem that some versions of Perl on MS-Windows do not obey
1762 the command separator; this problem is overcome by explicitly invoking
1763 the MS-Windows command-line processor cmd.exe.
1764
1767 In this section are specified the variables whose values can be ad‐
1768 justed to configure latexmk. (See the earlier section "Configura‐
1769 tion/Initialization (rc) Files" for the files where the configurations
1770 are done.)
1771 Default values are indicated in brackets. Note that for variables that
1773 are boolean in character, concerning whether latexmk does or does not
1774 behave in a certain way, a non-zero value, normally 1, indicates true,
1775 i.e., the behavior occurs, while a zero value indicates a false value,
1776 i.e., the behavior does not occur.
1777 $allow_switch [1]
1780 This controls what happens when the output extension of latex,
1782 pdflatex, lualatex or xelatex differs from what is expected.
1783 (The possible extensions are .dvi, .pdf, .xdv.) This can happen
1784 with the use of the \pdfoutput macro in a document compiled un‐
1785 der latex or pdflatex, or with the use of the \outputmode macro
1786 under lualatex. It can also happen with certain kinds of incor‐
1787 rect configuration.
1788 In such a case, latexmk can appropriately adjust its network of
1790 rules. The adjustment is made if $allow_switch is on, and if no
1791 request for a dvi or ps file has been made.
1792 See the section ALLOWING FOR CHANGE OF OUTPUT EXTENSION.
1794 $always_view_file_via_temporary [0]
1797 Whether .ps and .pdf files are initially to be made in a tempo‐
1798 rary directory and then moved to the final location. (This ap‐
1799 plies to dvips, dvipdf, and ps2pdf operations, and the filtering
1800 operators on .dvi and .ps files. It does not apply to pdflatex,
1801 unfortunately, since pdflatex provides no way of specifying a
1802 chosen name for the output file.)
1803 This use of a temporary file solves a problem that the making of
1805 these files can occupy a substantial time. If a viewer (notably
1806 gv) sees that the file has changed, it may read the new file be‐
1807 fore the program writing the file has not yet finished its work,
1808 which can cause havoc.
1809 See the $pvc_view_file_via_temporary variable for a setting that
1811 applies only if preview-continuous mode (-pvc option) is used.
1812 See $tmpdir for the setting of the directory where the temporary
1813 file is created.
1814 $analyze_input_log_always [1]
1817 After a run of latex (etc), always analyze .log for input files
1819 in the <...> and (...) constructions. Otherwise, only do the
1820 analysis when fls file doesn't exist or is out of date.
1821 Under normal circumstances, the data in the fls file is reli‐
1823 able, and the test of the log file gets lots of false positives;
1824 usually $analyze_input_log_always is best set to zero. But the
1825 test of the log file is needed at least in the following situa‐
1826 tion: When a user needs to persuade latexmk that a certain file
1827 is a source file, and latexmk doesn't otherwise find it. Then
1828 the user can write code that causes a line with (...) to be
1829 written to log file. One important case is for lualatex, which
1830 doesn't always generate lines in the .fls file for input lua
1831 files. (The situation with lualatex is HIGHLY version depen‐
1832 dent, e.g., there was a big change between TeXLive 2016 and
1833 TeXLive 2017.)
1834 To keep backward compatibility with older versions of latexmk,
1836 the default is to set $analyze_input_log_always to 1.
1837 $auto_rc_use [1]
1840 Whether to automatically read the standard initialization (rc)
1841 files, which are the system RC file, the user's RC file, and the
1842 RC file in the current directory. The command line option -norc
1843 can be used to turn this setting off. Each RC file could also
1844 turn this setting off, i.e., it could set $auto_rc_use to zero
1845 to prevent automatic reading of the later RC files.
1846 This variable does not affect the reading of RC files specified
1848 on the command line by the -r option.
1849 $aux_dir [""]
1851 The directory in which auxiliary files (aux, log, etc) are to be
1852 written by a run of *latex. If this variable is not set, but
1853 $out_dir is set, then $aux_dir is set to $out_dir, which is the
1854 directory to which general output files are to be written.
1855 Important note: The effect of $aux_dir, if different from
1857 $out_dir, is achieved by giving *latex the -aux-directory. Cur‐
1858 rently (Dec. 2011 and later) this only works on the MiKTeX ver‐
1859 sion of *latex.
1860 See also the documentation of $out_dir for some complications on
1862 what directory names are suitable.
1863 If you also use the -cd option, and $out_dir (or $aux_dir) con‐
1865 tains a relative path, then the path is interpreted relative to
1866 the document directory.
1867 $banner [0]
1869 If nonzero, the banner message is printed across each page when
1870 converting the dvi file to postscript. Without modifying the
1871 variable $banner_message, this is equivalent to specifying the
1872 -d option.
1873 Note that if $banner is nonzero, the $postscript_mode is assumed
1875 and the postscript file is always generated, even if it is newer
1876 than the dvi file.
1877 $banner_intensity [0.95]
1879 Equivalent to the -bi option, this is a decimal number between 0
1880 and 1 that specifies how dark to print the banner message. 0 is
1881 black, 1 is white. The default is just right if your toner car‐
1882 tridge isn't running too low.
1883 $banner_message ["DRAFT"]
1885 The banner message to print across each page when converting the
1886 dvi file to postscript. This is equivalent to the -bm option.
1887 $banner_scale [220.0]
1889 A decimal number that specifies how large the banner message
1890 will be printed. Experimentation is necessary to get the right
1891 scale for your message, as a rule of thumb the scale should be
1892 about equal to 1100 divided by the number of characters in the
1893 message. The Default is just right for 5 character messages.
1894 This is equivalent to the -bs option.
1895 @BIBINPUTS
1897 This is an array variable, now mostly obsolete, that specifies
1898 directories where latexmk should look for .bib files. By de‐
1899 fault it is set from the BIBINPUTS environment variable of the
1900 operating system. If that environment variable is not set, a
1901 single element list consisting of the current directory is set.
1902 The format of the directory names depends on your operating sys‐
1903 tem, of course. Examples for setting this variable are:
1904 @BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "C:\\bibfiles" );
1906 @BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "\\server\bibfiles" );
1907 @BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "C:/bibfiles" );
1908 @BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "//server/bibfiles" );
1909 @BIBINPUTS = ( ".", "/usr/local/texmf/bibtex/bib" );
1910 Note that under MS Windows, either a forward slash "/" or a
1912 backward slash "\" can be used to separate pathname components,
1913 so the first two and the second two examples are equivalent.
1914 Each backward slash should be doubled to avoid running afoul of
1915 Perl's rules for writing strings.
1916 Important note: This variable is now mostly obsolete in the cur‐
1918 rent version of latexmk, since it has a better method of search‐
1919 ing for files using the kpsewhich command. However, if your
1920 system is an unusual one without the kpsewhich command, you may
1921 need to set the variable @BIBINPUTS.
1922 $biber ["biber %O %S"]
1924 The biber processing program.
1925 $biber_silent_switch ["--onlylog"]
1927 Switch(es) for the biber processing program when silent mode is
1928 on.
1929 $bibtex ["bibtex %O %S"]
1931 The BibTeX processing program.
1932 $bibtex_fudge [1]
1934 When using bibtex, whether to change directory to $aux_dir be‐
1935 fore running bibtex.
1936 The need arises as follows:
1938 a. With bibtex before about 2019, if the filename given to it
1940 contains a path component, there was a bug that bibtex would not
1941 find extra aux files, as produced by the \include command in
1942 TeX.
1943 b. With all moderately recent versions of bibtex, bibtex may
1945 refuse to write its bbl and blg files, for security reasons, for
1946 certain cases of the path component of the filename given to it.
1947 However, there are also rare cases where the change-directory
1949 method prevents bibtex from finding certain bib or bst files.
1950 Then $bibtex_fudge needs to be set to 0.
1951 $bibtex_silent_switch ["-terse"]
1954 Switch(es) for the BibTeX processing program when silent mode is
1955 on.
1956 $bibtex_use [1]
1958 Under what conditions to run bibtex or biber. When latexmk dis‐
1959 covers from the log file that one (or more) bibtex/biber-gener‐
1960 ated bibliographies are used, it can run bibtex or biber when‐
1961 ever it appears necessary to regenerate the bbl file(s) from
1962 their source bib database file(s). But sometimes, the bib
1963 file(s) are not available (e.g., for a document obtained from an
1964 external archive), but the bbl files are provided. In that case
1965 use of bibtex or biber will result in incorrect overwriting of
1966 the precious bbl files. The variable $bibtex_use controls
1967 whether this happens, and also controls whether or not .bbl
1968 files are deleted in a cleanup operation.
1969 The possible values of $bibtex_use are:
1971 0: never use BibTeX or biber; never delete .bbl files in a
1972 cleanup.
1973 1: only use bibtex or biber if the bib files exist; never
1974 delete .bbl files in a cleanup.
1975 1.5: only use bibtex or biber if the bib files exist; condi‐
1976 tionally delete .bbl files in a cleanup (i.e., delete them only
1977 when the bib files all exist).
1978 2: run bibtex or biber whenever it appears necessary to update
1979 the bbl files, without testing for the existence of the bib
1980 files; always delete .bbl files in a cleanup.
1981 Note that the value 1.5 does not work properly if the document
1983 uses biber instead of bibtex. (There's a long story why not.)
1984 $cleanup_includes_cusdep_generated [0]
1987 If nonzero, specifies that cleanup also deletes files that are
1988 generated by custom dependencies. (When doing a clean up, e.g.,
1989 by use of the -C option, custom dependencies are those listed in
1990 the .fdb_latexmk file from a previous run.)
1991 $cleanup_includes_generated [0]
1993 If nonzero, specifies that cleanup also deletes files that are
1994 detected in the fls file (or failing that, in log file) as being
1995 generated. It will also include files made from these first
1996 generation generated files.
1997 This operation is somewhat dangerous, and can have unintended
1999 consequences, since the files to be deleted are determined from
2000 a file created by *latex, which can contain erroneous informa‐
2001 tion. Therefore this variable is turned off by default, and then
2002 files to be deleted are restricted to those explictly specified
2003 by patterns configured in the variables clean_ext,
2004 clean_full_ext, and @generated_exts, together with those very
2005 standard cases that are hardwired into latexmk (e.g., .log
2006 files).
2007 $cleanup_mode [0]
2009 If nonzero, specifies cleanup mode: 1 for full cleanup, 2 for
2010 cleanup except for .dvi, .ps and .pdf files, 3 for cleanup ex‐
2011 cept for dep and aux files. (There is also extra cleaning as
2012 specified by the $clean_ext, $clean_full_ext and @generated_exts
2013 variables.)
2014 This variable is equivalent to specifying one of the -c or -C
2016 options. But there should be no need to set this variable from
2017 an RC file.
2018 $clean_ext [""]
2020 Extra extensions of files for latexmk to remove when any of the
2021 clean-up options (-c or -C) is selected. The value of this
2022 variable is a string containing the extensions separated by spa‐
2023 ces.
2024 It is also possible to specify a more general pattern of file to
2026 be deleted, by using the place holder %R, as in commands, and it
2027 is also possible to use wildcards. Thus setting
2028 $clean_ext = "out %R-blx.bib %R-figures*.log pythontex-
2030 files-%R/*";
2031 in an initialization file will imply that when a clean-up opera‐
2033 tion is specified, not only is the standard set of files
2034 deleted, but also files of the form FOO.out, FOO-blx.bib, FOO-
2035 figures*.log, and pythontex-files-FOO/*, where FOO stands for
2036 the basename of the file being processed (as in FOO.tex).
2037 The files to be deleted are relative to the directory specified
2039 by $aux_dir. (Note that if $out_dir but not $aux_dir is set,
2040 then in its initialization, latexmk sets $aux_dir equal to
2041 $out_dir. A normal situation is therefore that $aux_dir equals
2042 $out_dir, which is the only case supported by TeXLive, unlike
2043 MiKTeX.)
2044 The filenames specfied for a clean-up operation can refer not
2046 only to regular files but also to directories. Directories are
2047 only deleted if they are empty. An example of an application is
2048 to pythontex, which creates files in a particular directory.
2049 You can arrange to remove both the files and the directory by
2050 setting
2051 $clean_ext = "pythontex-files-%R pythontex-files-%R";
2053 See also the variable @generated_exts.
2055 $clean_full_ext [""]
2057 Extra extensions of files for latexmk to remove when the -C op‐
2058 tion is selected, i.e., extensions of files to remove when the
2059 .dvi, etc files are to be cleaned-up.
2060 More general patterns are allowed, as for $clean_ext.
2062 The files specified by $clean_full_ext to be deleted are rela‐
2064 tive to the directory specified by $out_dir.
2065 $compiling_cmd [""], $failure_cmd [""], $warning_cmd [""], $success_cmd
2068 [""]
2069 These variables specify commands that are executed at certain
2071 points of compilations. One motivation for their existance is
2072 to allow very useful convenient visual indications of compila‐
2073 tion status even when the window receiving the screen output of
2074 the compilation is hidden. This is particularly useful in pre‐
2075 view-continuous mode.
2076 The commands are executed at the following points: $compil‐
2078 ing_cmd at the start of compilation, $success_cmd at the end of
2079 a completely successful compilation, $failure_cmd at the end of
2080 an unsuccessful compilation, $warning_cmd at the of an otherwise
2081 successful compilation that gives warnings about undefined cita‐
2082 tions or references or about multiply defined references. If any
2083 of above variables is undefined or blank (the default situa‐
2084 tion), then the corresponding command is not executed.
2085 However, when $warning_cmd is not set, then in the case of a
2087 compilation with warnings about references or citations, but
2088 with no other error, one or other of $success_cmd or $fail‐
2089 ure_cmd is used (if it is set) according to the setting of
2090 $warnings_as_errors.
2091 An example of a simple setting of these variables is as follows
2093 $compiling_cmd = "xdotool search --name \"%D\" set_window
2095 --name \"%D compiling\"";
2096 $success_cmd = "xdotool search --name \"%D\" set_window
2097 --name \"%D OK\"";
2098 $warning_cmd = "xdotool search --name \"%D\" ".
2099 "set_window --name \"%D CITE/REF ISSUE\"";
2100 $failure_cmd = "xdotool search --name \"%D\" set_window
2101 --name \"%D FAILURE\"";
2102 These assume that the program xdotool is installed, that the
2104 previewer is using an X-Window system for display, and that the
2105 title of the window contains the name of the displayed file, as
2106 it normally does. When the commands are executed, the place‐
2107 holder string %D is replaced by the name of the destination
2108 file, which is the previewed file. The above commands result in
2109 an appropriate string being appended to the filename in the win‐
2110 dow title: " compiling", " OK", or " FAILURE".
2111 Other placeholders that can be used are %S, %T, and %R, with %S
2113 and %T normally being identical. These can be useful for a com‐
2114 mand changing the title of the edit window. The visual indica‐
2115 tion in a window title can useful, since the user does not have
2116 to keep shifting attention to the (possibly hidden) compilation
2117 window to know the status of the compilation.
2118 More complicated situations can best be handled by defining a
2120 Perl subroutine to invoke the necessary commands, and using the
2121 "internal" keyword in the definitions to get the subroutine to
2122 be invoked. (See the section "Format of Command Specifications"
2123 for how to do this.)
2124 Naturally, the above settings that invoke the xdotool program
2126 are only applicable when the X-Window system is used for the
2127 relevant window(s). For other cases, you will have to find what
2128 software solutions are available.
2129 @cus_dep_list [()]
2132 Custom dependency list -- see section on "Custom Dependencies".
2133 @default_excluded_files [()]
2135 When latexmk is invoked with no files specified on the command
2136 line, then, by default, it will process all files in the current
2137 directory with the extension .tex. (In general, it will process
2138 the files specified in the @default_files variable.)
2139 But sometimes you want to exclude particular files from this de‐
2141 fault list. In that case you can specify the excluded files in
2142 the array @default_excluded_files. For example if you wanted to
2143 process all .tex files with the exception of common.tex, which
2144 is a not a standard alone LaTeX file but a file input by some or
2145 all of the others, you could do
2146 @default_files = ("*.tex");
2148 @default_excluded_files = ("common.tex");
2150 If you have a variable or large number of files to be processed,
2152 this method saves you from having to list them in detail in @de‐
2153 fault_files and having to update the list every time you change
2154 the set of files to be processed.
2155 Notes: 1. This variable has no effect except when no files are
2157 specified on the latexmk command line. 2. Wildcards are allowed
2158 in @default_excluded_files.
2159 @default_files [("*.tex")]
2161 Default list of files to be processed.
2162 If no filenames are specified on the command line, latexmk pro‐
2164 cesses all tex files specified in the @default_files variable,
2165 which by default is set to all tex files ("*.tex") in the cur‐
2166 rent directory. This is a convenience: just run latexmk and it
2167 will process an appropriate set of files. But sometimes you
2168 want only some of these files to be processed. In this case you
2169 can list the files to be processed by setting @default_files in
2170 an initialization file (e.g., the file "latexmkrc" in the cur‐
2171 rent directory). Then if no files are specified on the command
2172 line then the files you specify by setting @default_files are
2173 processed.
2174 Three examples:
2176 @default_files = ("paper_current");
2178 @default_files = ("paper1", "paper2.tex");
2180 @default_files = ("*.tex", "*.dtx");
2182 Note that more than file may be given, and that the default ex‐
2184 tension is ".tex". Wild cards are allowed. The parentheses are
2185 because @default_files is an array variable, i.e., a sequence of
2186 filename specifications is possible.
2187 If you want latexmk to process all .tex files with a few excep‐
2189 tions, see the @default_excluded_files array variable.
2190 $dependents_phony [0]
2192 If a list of dependencies is output, this variable determines
2193 whether to include a phony target for each source file. If you
2194 use the dependents list in a Makefile, the dummy rules work
2195 around errors make gives if you remove header files without up‐
2196 dating the Makefile to match.
2197 $dependents_list [0]
2199 Whether to display a list(s) of dependencies at the end of a
2200 run.
2201 $deps_file ["-"]
2203 Name of file to receive list(s) of dependencies at the end of a
2204 run, to be used if $dependesnt_list is set. If the filename is
2205 "-", then the dependency list is set to stdout (i.e., normally
2206 the screen).
2207 $do_cd [0]
2209 Whether to change working directory to the directory specified
2210 for the main source file before processing it. The default be‐
2211 havior is not to do this, which is the same as the behavior of
2212 *latex programs. This variable is set by the -cd and -cd- op‐
2213 tions on latexmk's command line.
2214 $dvi_filter [empty]
2216 The dvi file filter to be run on the newly produced dvi file be‐
2217 fore other processing. Equivalent to specifying the -dF option.
2218 $dvi_mode [See below for default]
2220 If nonzero, generate a dvi version of the document. Equivalent
2221 to the -dvi option.
2222 The variable $dvi_mode defaults to 0, but if no explicit re‐
2224 quests are made for other types of file (postscript, pdf), then
2225 $dvi_mode will be set to 1. In addition, if a request for a
2226 file for which a .dvi file is a prerequisite, then $dvi_mode
2227 will be set to 1.
2228 $dvi_previewer ["start xdvi %O %S" under UNIX]
2230 The command to invoke a dvi-previewer. [Under MS-Windows the
2231 default is "start"; then latexmk arranges to use the MS-Windows
2232 start program, which will cause to be run whatever command the
2233 system has associated with .dvi files.]
2234 Important note: Normally you will want to have a previewer run
2236 detached, so that latexmk doesn't wait for the previewer to ter‐
2237 minate before continuing its work. So normally you should pre‐
2238 fix the command by "start ", which flags to latexmk that it
2239 should do the detaching of the previewer itself (by whatever
2240 method is appropriate to the operating system). But sometimes
2241 letting latexmk do the detaching is not appropriate (for a vari‐
2242 ety of non-trivial reasons), so you should put the "start " bit
2243 in yourself, whenever it is needed.
2244 $dvi_previewer_landscape ["start xdvi %O %S"]
2246 The command to invoke a dvi-previewer in landscape mode. [Under
2247 MS-Windows the default is "start"; then latexmk arranges to use
2248 the MS-Windows start program, which will cause to be run what‐
2249 ever command the system has associated with .dvi files.]
2250 $dvipdf ["dvipdf -dALLOWPSTRANSPARENCY %O %S %D"]
2252 Command to convert .dvi to .pdf file. A common reconfiguration
2253 is to use the dvipdfm command, which needs its arguments in a
2254 different order:
2255 $dvipdf = "dvipdfm %O -o %D %S";
2257 WARNING: The default dvipdf script generates pdf files with
2259 bitmapped fonts, which do not look good when viewed by acroread.
2260 That script should be modified to give dvips the options "-P
2261 pdf" to ensure that type 1 fonts are used in the pdf file.
2262 $dvipdf_silent_switch ["-q"]
2264 Switch(es) for dvipdf program when silent mode is on.
2265 N.B. The standard dvipdf program runs silently, so adding the
2267 silent switch has no effect, but is actually innocuous. But if
2268 an alternative program is used, e.g., dvipdfmx, then the silent
2269 switch has an effect. The default setting is correct for
2270 dvipdfm and dvipdfmx.
2271 $dvips ["dvips %O -o %D %S"]
2273 The program to used as a filter to convert a .dvi file to a .ps
2274 file. If pdf is going to be generated from pdf, then the value
2275 of the $dvips_pdf_switch variable -- see below -- will be in‐
2276 cluded in the options substituted for "%O".
2277 $dvips_landscape ["dvips -tlandscape %O -o %D %S"]
2279 The program to used as a filter to convert a .dvi file to a .ps
2280 file in landscape mode.
2281 $dvips_pdf_switch ["-P pdf"]
2283 Switch(es) for dvips program when pdf file is to be generated
2284 from .ps file.
2285 $dvips_silent_switch ["-q"]
2287 Switch(es) for dvips program when silent mode is on.
2288 $dvi_update_command [""]
2290 When the dvi previewer is set to be updated by running a com‐
2291 mand, this is the command that is run. See the information for
2292 the variable $dvi_update_method for further information, and see
2293 information on the variable $pdf_update_method for an example
2294 for the analogous case of a pdf previewer.
2295 $dvi_update_method [2 under UNIX, 1 under MS-Windows]
2297 How the dvi viewer updates its display when the dvi file has
2298 changed. The values here apply equally to the $pdf_up‐
2299 date_method and to the $ps_update_method variables.
2300 0 => update is automatic,
2301 1=> manual update by user, which may only mean a mouse click
2302 on the viewer's window or may mean a more serious action.
2303 2 => Send the signal, whose number is in the variable
2304 $dvi_update_signal. The default value under UNIX is suitable
2305 for xdvi.
2306 3 => Viewer cannot do an update, because it locks the file.
2307 (As with acroread under MS-Windows.)
2308 4 => run a command to do the update. The command is speci‐
2309 fied by the variable $dvi_update_command.
2310 See information on the variable $pdf_update_method for an exam‐
2312 ple of updating by command.
2313 $dvi_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGUSR1, which is a system-dependent
2315 value]
2316 The number of the signal that is sent to the dvi viewer when it
2317 is updated by sending a signal -- see the information on the
2318 variable $dvi_update_method. The default value is the one ap‐
2319 propriate for xdvi on a UNIX system.
2320 $failure_cmd [undefined]
2322 See the documentation for $compiling_cmd.
2323 $fdb_ext ["fdb_latexmk"]
2325 The extension of the file which latexmk generates to contain a
2326 database of information on source files. You will not normally
2327 need to change this.
2328 $filetime_causality_threshold [5]; $filetime_offset_report_threshold
2330 [30]. (Units of seconds.)
2331 These variables control how latexmk deals with the following is‐
2333 sue, which can affect the use of files that are on a remote
2334 filesystem (network share) instead of being on a file system lo‐
2335 cal to the computer running latexmk. Almost users will not have
2336 to worry about these settings, and can ignore the following ex‐
2337 planation.
2338 In almost all situations, latexmk does not need to use the time
2340 stamps of the files it works with. However, there are a couple
2341 of situations when it needs to know whether a certain file was
2342 created in the current run of a program (e.g., *latex) or is a
2343 leftover file from a previous run. It does this by comparing the
2344 modification time of the file with the system time just before
2345 the program was started. If the modification time is earlier
2346 than when the program was started, the file is a leftover file,
2347 which latexmk treats as if it were not created. If the filetime
2348 is at least the program start time, then it can be assumed that
2349 the file was created in the current run.
2350 Unfortunately, this test can fail if the file is on a remote
2352 system, since its system time is not necessarily synchronized
2353 with that of the local system; the timestamps on the remote
2354 files are set by the remote system, not the local system. Gen‐
2355 erally, modern operating systems regularly synchronize their
2356 time with a server, so the non-synchronization is mostly small
2357 (a second or so, or a few seconds). But even a small difference
2358 can mess up latexmk's test.
2359 Latexmk measures the time difference between the time on the two
2361 systems and compensates for this. But the measurement (in a
2362 system-independent way) is only accurate to a second or two. So
2363 latexmk allows for a threshold on the difference between file
2364 and system time before it concludes that a file is a leftover
2365 file from a previous run. The configuration variable $file‐
2366 time_causality_theshhold, which in units of seconds, specifies
2367 this threshold. Luckily high precision is not needed. The pre‐
2368 vious run is normally the previous run in a human run-edit-run
2369 cycle, and is at least many seconds back. A few seconds is
2370 therefore appropriate for the threshold, $filetime_causal‐
2371 ity_theshhold; it should be non-negative always, and should be
2372 bigger than 2 if a remote filesystem or network share is used.
2373 If the difference in system times on the two systems is large,
2375 it normally indicates that at least one of the systems is mis‐
2376 configured. The variable $filetime_offset_report_threshold
2377 specifies the smallest size of the difference (or offset) in
2378 seconds between the times of the local and remote system beyond
2379 which the offset is reported. This is reported at the point in
2380 the latexmk's progress that it measures the offset. The report
2381 is made if silent mode is used and diagnostic mode is not on.
2382 $force_mode [0]
2385 If nonzero, continue processing past minor latex errors includ‐
2386 ing unrecognized cross references. Equivalent to specifying the
2387 -f option.
2388 @generated_exts [( aux , bbl , idx , ind , lof , lot , out , toc ,
2390 $fdb_ext )]
2391 This contains a list of extensions for files that are generated
2392 during a LaTeX run and that are read in by LaTeX in later runs,
2393 either directly or indirectly.
2394 This list specifies files known to be generated by *latex. It
2396 is used in two ways: (a) The specified files are deleted in a
2397 cleanup operation (with the -c, -C, -CA, -g and -gg options),
2398 and (b) It affects the determination of whether a rerun of *la‐
2399 tex is needed after a run that gives an error.
2400 (Concerning item (b): Normally, a change of a source file during
2402 a run should provoke a rerun. This includes a file generated by
2403 LaTeX, e.g., an aux file, that is read in on subsequent runs.
2404 But after a run that results in an error, a new run should not
2405 occur until the user has made a change in the files. But the
2406 user may have corrected an error in a source .tex file during
2407 the run. So latexmk needs to distinguish user-generated and au‐
2408 tomatically generated files; it determines the automatically
2409 generated files as those with extensions in the list in @gener‐
2410 ated_exts.)
2411 A convenient way to add an extra extension to the list, without
2413 losing the already defined ones is to use a push command in the
2414 line in an RC file. E.g.,
2415 push @generated_exts, "end";
2417 adds the extension "end" to the list of predefined generated ex‐
2419 tensions. (This extension is used by the RevTeX package, for
2420 example.)
2421 $go_mode [0]
2423 If nonzero, process files regardless of timestamps, and is then
2424 equivalent to the -g option.
2425 %hash_calc_ignore_pattern
2427 !!!This variable is for experts only!!!
2428 The general rule latexmk uses for determining when an extra run
2430 of some program is needed is that one of the source files has
2431 changed. But consider for example a latex package that causes
2432 an encapsulated postscript file (an "eps" file) to be made that
2433 is to be read in on the next run. The file contains a comment
2434 line giving its creation date and time. On the next run the
2435 time changes, latex sees that the eps file has changed, and
2436 therefore reruns latex. This causes an infinite loop, that is
2437 only terminated because latexmk has a limit on the number of
2438 runs to guard against pathological situations.
2439 But the changing line has no real effect, since it is a comment.
2441 You can instruct latex to ignore the offending line as follows:
2442 $hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'} = '^%%CreationDate: ';
2444 This creates a rule for files with extension .eps about lines to
2446 ignore. The left-hand side is a Perl idiom for setting an item
2447 in a hash. Note that the file extension is specified without a
2448 period. The value, on the right-hand side, is a string contain‐
2449 ing a regular expresssion. (See documentation on Perl for how
2450 they are to be specified in general.) This particular regular
2451 expression specifies that lines beginning with "%%CreationDate:
2452 " are to be ignored in deciding whether a file of the given ex‐
2453 tension .eps has changed.
2454 There is only one regular expression available for each exten‐
2456 sion. If you need more one pattern to specify lines to ignore,
2457 then you need to combine the patterns into a single regular ex‐
2458 pression. The simplest method is separate the different simple
2459 patterns by a vertical bar character (indicating "alternation"
2460 in the jargon of regular expressions). For example,
2461 $hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'} = '^%%CreationDate: |^%%Ti‐
2463 tle: ';
2464 causes lines starting with either "^%%CreationDate: " or "^%%Ti‐
2466 tle: " to be ignored.
2467 It may happen that a pattern to be ignored is specified in, for
2469 example, in a system or user initialization file, and you wish
2470 to remove this in a file that is read later. To do this, you
2471 use Perl's delete function, e.g.,
2472 delete $hash_calc_ignore_pattern{'eps'};
2474 $jobname [""]
2477 This specifies the jobname, i.e., the basename that is used for
2479 generated files (.aux, .log, .dvi, .ps, .pdf, etc). If this
2480 variable is a null string, then the basename is the basename of
2481 the main tex file. (At present, the string in $jobname should
2482 not contain spaces.)
2483 The placeholder '%A' is permitted. This will be substituted by
2485 the basename of the TeX file. The primary purpose is when a va‐
2486 riety of tex files are to be processed, and you want to use a
2487 different jobname for each but one that is distinct for each.
2488 Thus if you wanted to compare compilations of a set of files on
2489 different operating systems, with distinct filenames for all the
2490 cases, you could set
2491 $jobname = "%A-$^O";
2493 in an initialization file. (Here $^O is a variable provided by
2495 perl that contains perl's name for the operating system.)
2496 Suppose you had .tex files test1.tex and test2.tex. Then when
2498 you run
2499 latexmk -pdf *.tex
2501 both files will be compiled. The .aux, .log, and .pdf files
2503 will have basenames test1-MSWin32 ante test2-MSWin32 on a MS-
2504 Windows system, test1-darwin and test2-darwin on an OS-X system,
2505 and a variety of similar cases on linux systems.
2506 $kpsewhich ["kpsewhich %S"]
2509 The program called to locate a source file when the name alone
2510 is not sufficient. Most filenames used by latexmk have suffi‐
2511 cient path information to be found directly. But sometimes, no‐
2512 tably when a .bib or a .bst file is found from the log file of a
2513 bibtex or biber run, only the base name of the file is known,
2514 but not its path. The program specified by $kpsewhich is used to
2515 find it.
2516 (For advanced users: Because of the different way in which la‐
2518 texmk uses the command specified in $kpsewhich, some of the pos‐
2519 sibilities listed in the FORMAT OF COMMAND SPECIFICATIONS do not
2520 apply. The internal and start keywords are not available. A
2521 simple command specification with possible options and then "%S"
2522 is all that is guaranteed to work. Note that for other com‐
2523 mands, "%S" is substituted by a single source file. In contrast,
2524 for $kpsewhich, "%S" may be substituted by a long list of space-
2525 separated filenames, each of which is quoted. The result on
2526 STDOUT of running the command is then piped to latexmk.)
2527 See also the @BIBINPUTS variable for another way that latexmk
2529 also uses to try to locate files; it applies only in the case of
2530 .bib files.
2531 $kpsewhich_show [0]
2533 Whether to show diagnostics about invocations of kpsewhich: the
2534 command line use to invoke it and the results. These diagnos‐
2535 tics are shown if $kpsewhich_show is non-zero or if diagnostics
2536 mode is on. (But in the second case, lots of other diagnostics
2537 are also shown.) Without these diagnostics there is nothing
2538 visible in latexmk's screen output about invocations of kpse‐
2539 which.
2540 $landscape_mode [0]
2542 If nonzero, run in landscape mode, using the landscape mode pre‐
2543 viewers and dvi to postscript converters. Equivalent to the -l
2544 option. Normally not needed with current previewers.
2545 $latex ["latex %O %S"]
2547 Specifies the command line for the LaTeX processing program.
2548 Note that as with other programs, you can use this variable not
2549 just to change the name of the program used, but also specify
2550 options to the program. E.g.,
2551 $latex = "latex --src-specials %O %S";
2553 To do a coordinated setting of all of $latex, $pdflatex, $luala‐
2555 tex, and $xelatex, see the section "Advanced Configuration".
2556 %latex_input_extensions
2559 This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
2560 finds that a LaTeX run resulted in an error that a file has not
2561 been found, and the file is given without an extension. This
2562 typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form \input{file}
2563 or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant source file does
2564 not exist.
2565 In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
2567 make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
2568 specified by the variable %latex_input_extensions. The default
2569 extensions are 'tex' and 'eps'.
2570 (For Perl experts: %latex_input_extensions is a hash whose keys
2572 are the extensions. The values are irrelevant.) Two subrou‐
2573 tines are provided for manipulating this and the related vari‐
2574 able %pdflatex_input_extensions, add_input_ext and remove_in‐
2575 put_ext. They are used as in the following examples are possi‐
2576 ble lines in an initialization file:
2577 remove_input_ext( 'latex', 'tex' );
2579 removes the extension 'tex' from latex_input_extensions
2581 add_input_ext( 'latex', 'asdf' );
2583 add the extension 'asdf to latex_input_extensions. (Naturally
2585 with such an extension, you should have made an appropriate cus‐
2586 tom dependency for latexmk, and should also have done the appro‐
2587 priate programming in the LaTeX source file to enable the file
2588 to be read. The standard extensions are handled by LaTeX and
2589 its graphics/graphicx packages.)
2590 $latex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
2592 Switch(es) for the LaTeX processing program when silent mode is
2593 on.
2594 If you use MikTeX, you may prefer the results if you configure
2596 the options to include -c-style-errors, e.g., by the following
2597 line in an initialization file
2598 $latex_silent_switch = "-interaction=batchmode -c-style-er‐
2600 rors";
2601 $lpr ["lpr %O %S" under UNIX/Linux, "NONE lpr" under MS-Windows]
2604 The command to print postscript files.
2605 Under MS-Windows (unlike UNIX/Linux), there is no standard pro‐
2607 gram for printing files. But there are ways you can do it. For
2608 example, if you have gsview installed, you could use it with the
2609 option "/p":
2610 $lpr = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p';
2612 If gsview is installed in a different directory, you will need
2614 to make the appropriate change. Note the combination of single
2615 and double quotes around the name. The single quotes specify
2616 that this is a string to be assigned to the configuration vari‐
2617 able $lpr. The double quotes are part of the string passed to
2618 the operating system to get the command obeyed; this is neces‐
2619 sary because one part of the command name ("Program Files") con‐
2620 tains a space which would otherwise be misinterpreted.
2621 $lpr_dvi ["NONE lpr_dvi"]
2623 The printing program to print dvi files.
2624 $lpr_pdf ["NONE lpr_pdf"]
2626 The printing program to print pdf files.
2627 Under MS-Windows you could set this to use gsview, if it is in‐
2629 stalled, e.g.,
2630 $lpr = '"c:/Program Files/Ghostgum/gsview/gsview32.exe" /p';
2632 If gsview is installed in a different directory, you will need
2634 to make the appropriate change. Note the double quotes around
2635 the name: this is necessary because one part of the command name
2636 ("Program Files") contains a space which would otherwise be mis‐
2637 interpreted.
2638 $lualatex ["lualatex %O %S"]
2640 Specifies the command line for the LaTeX processing program that
2641 is to be used when the lualatex program is called for (e.g., by
2642 the option -lualatex.
2643 To do a coordinated setting of all of $latex, $pdflatex, $luala‐
2645 tex, and $xelatex, see the section "Advanced Configuration".
2646 %lualatex_input_extensions
2649 This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
2650 finds that a lualatex run resulted in an error that a file has
2651 not been found, and the file is given without an extension.
2652 This typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form \in‐
2653 put{file} or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant source
2654 file does not exist.
2655 In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
2657 make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
2658 specified by the variable %pdflatex_input_extensions. The de‐
2659 fault extensions are 'tex', 'pdf', 'jpg, and 'png'.
2660 See details of the %latex_input_extensions for other information
2662 that equally applies to %lualatex_input_extensions.
2663 $lualatex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
2665 Switch(es) for the lualatex program (specified in the variable
2666 $lualatex) when silent mode is on.
2667 See details of the $latex_silent_switch for other information
2669 that equally applies to $lualatex_silent_switch.
2670 $make ["make"]
2672 The make processing program.
2673 $makeindex ["makeindex %O -o %D %S"]
2675 The index processing program.
2676 $makeindex_fudge [0]
2678 When using makeindex, whether to change directory to $aux_dir
2679 before running makeindex. Set to 1 if $aux_dir is not an ex‐
2680 plicit subdirectory of current directory, otherwise makeindex
2681 will refuse to write its output and log files, for security rea‐
2682 sons.
2683 $makeindex_silent_switch ["-q"]
2685 Switch(es) for the index processing program when silent mode is
2686 on.
2687 $max_repeat [5]
2689 The maximum number of times latexmk will run *latex before de‐
2690 ciding that there may be an infinite loop and that it needs to
2691 bail out, rather than rerunning *latex again to resolve cross-
2692 references, etc. The default value covers all normal cases.
2693 (Note that the "etc" covers a lot of cases where one run of *la‐
2695 tex generates files to be read in on a later run.)
2696 $MSWin_back_slash [1]
2698 This configuration variable only has an effect when latexmk is
2699 running under MS-Windows. With the default value of 1 for this
2700 variable, when a command is executed under MS-Windows, latexmk
2701 substitutes "\" for the separator character between components
2702 of a directory name. Internally, latexmk uses "/" for the di‐
2703 rectory separator character, which is the character used by
2704 Unix-like systems.
2705 For almost all programs and for almost all filenames under MS-
2707 Windows, both "\" and "/" are acceptable as the directory sepa‐
2708 rator character, provided at least that filenames are properly
2709 quoted. But it is possible that programs exist that only accept
2710 "\" on the command line, since that is the standard directory
2711 separator for MS-Windows. So for safety latexmk makes the sub‐
2712 stitution from "/" to "\", by default.
2713 However there are also programs on MS-Windows for which a back
2715 slash "\" is interpreted differently than as a directory separa‐
2716 tor; for these the directory separator should be "/". Programs
2717 with this behavior include all the *latex programs in the
2718 TeXLive implementation (but not the MiKTeX implementation).
2719 Hence if you use TeXLive on MS-Windows, then $MSWin_back_slash
2720 should be set to zero.
2721 $new_viewer_always [0]
2724 This variable applies to latexmk only in continuous-preview
2725 mode. If $new_viewer_always is 0, latexmk will check for a pre‐
2726 viously running previewer on the same file, and if one is run‐
2727 ning will not start a new one. If $new_viewer_always is non-
2728 zero, this check will be skipped, and latexmk will behave as if
2729 no viewer is running.
2730 $out_dir [""]
2732 If non-blank, this variable specifies the directory in which
2733 output files are to be written by a run of *latex. See also the
2734 variable $aux_dir.
2735 The effect of this variable (when non-blank) is achieved by us‐
2737 ing the -output-directory option of *latex. This exists in the
2738 usual current (Dec. 2011 and later) implementations of TeX,
2739 i.e., MiKTeX and TeXLive. But it may not be present in other
2740 versions.
2741 If you also use the -cd option, and $out_dir (or $aux_dir) con‐
2743 tains a relative path, then the path is interpreted relative to
2744 the document directory.
2745 Commonly, the directory specified for output files is a subdi‐
2747 rectory of the current working directory. However, if you spec‐
2748 ify some other directory, e.g., "/tmp/foo" or "../output", be
2749 aware that this could cause problems, e.g., with makeindex or
2750 bibtex. This is because modern versions of these programs, by
2751 default, will refuse to work when they find that they are asked
2752 to write to a file in a directory that appears not to be the
2753 current working directory or one of its subdirectories. This is
2754 part of security measures by the whole TeX system that try to
2755 prevent malicious or errant TeX documents from incorrectly mess‐
2756 ing with a user's files. If for $out_dir or $aux_dir you really
2757 do need to specify an absolute pathname (e.g., "/tmp/foo") or a
2758 path (e.g., "../output") that includes a higher-level directory,
2759 and you need to use makeindex or bibtex, then you need to dis‐
2760 able the security measures (and assume any risks). One way of
2761 doing this is to temporarily set an operating system environment
2762 variable openout_any to "a" (as in "all"), to override the de‐
2763 fault "paranoid" setting.
2764 $pdf_mode [0]
2766 If zero, do NOT generate a pdf version of the document. If
2767 equal to 1, generate a pdf version of the document using pdfla‐
2768 tex, using the command specified by the $pdflatex variable. If
2769 equal to 2, generate a pdf version of the document from the ps
2770 file, by using the command specified by the $ps2pdf variable.
2771 If equal to 3, generate a pdf version of the document from the
2772 dvi file, by using the command specified by the $dvipdf vari‐
2773 able. If equal to 4, generate a pdf version of the document us‐
2774 ing lualatex, using the command specified by the $lualatex vari‐
2775 able. If equal to 5, generate a pdf version (and an xdv ver‐
2776 sion) of the document using xelatex, using the commands speci‐
2777 fied by the $xelatex and xdvipdfmx variables.
2778 In $pdf_mode=2, it is ensured that .dvi and .ps files are also
2780 made. In $pdf_mode=3, it is ensured that a .dvi file is also
2781 made. But this may be overridden by the document.
2782 $pdflatex ["pdflatex %O %S"]
2784 Specifies the command line for the LaTeX processing program in a
2785 version that makes a pdf file instead of a dvi file.
2786 An example use of this variable is to add certain options to the
2788 command line for the program, e.g.,
2789 $pdflatex = "pdflatex --shell-escape %O %S";
2791 (In some earlier versions of latexmk, you needed to use an as‐
2793 signment to $pdflatex to allow the use of lualatex or xelatex
2794 instead of pdflatex. There are now separate configuration vari‐
2795 ables for the use of lualatex or xelatex. See $lualatex and
2796 $xelatex.)
2797 To do a coordinated setting of all of $latex, $pdflatex, $luala‐
2799 tex, and $xelatex, see the section "Advanced Configuration".
2800 %pdflatex_input_extensions
2802 This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
2803 finds that a pdflatex run resulted in an error that a file has
2804 not been found, and the file is given without an extension.
2805 This typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form \in‐
2806 put{file} or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant source
2807 file does not exist.
2808 In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
2810 make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
2811 specified by the variable %pdflatex_input_extensions. The de‐
2812 fault extensions are 'tex', 'pdf', 'jpg, and 'png'.
2813 See details of the %latex_input_extensions for other information
2815 that equally applies to %pdflatex_input_extensions.
2816 $pdflatex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
2818 Switch(es) for the pdflatex program (specified in the variable
2819 $pdflatex) when silent mode is on.
2820 See details of the $latex_silent_switch for other information
2822 that equally applies to $pdflatex_silent_switch.
2823 $pdf_previewer ["start acroread %O %S"]
2825 The command to invoke a pdf-previewer.
2826 On MS-Windows, the default is changed to "cmd /c start """; un‐
2828 der more recent versions of Windows, this will cause to be run
2829 whatever command the system has associated with .pdf files. But
2830 this may be undesirable if this association is to acroread --
2831 see the notes in the explanation of the -pvc option.]
2832 On OS-X the default is changed to "open %S", which results in
2834 OS-X starting up (and detaching) the viewer associated with the
2835 file. By default, for pdf files this association is to OS-X's
2836 preview, which is quite satisfactory.
2837 WARNING: Problem under MS-Windows: if acroread is used as the
2839 pdf previewer, and it is actually viewing a pdf file, the pdf
2840 file cannot be updated. Thus makes acroread a bad choice of
2841 previewer if you use latexmk's previous-continuous mode (option
2842 -pvc) under MS-windows. This problem does not occur if, for ex‐
2843 ample, SumatraPDF or gsview is used to view pdf files.
2844 Important note: Normally you will want to have a previewer run
2846 detached, so that latexmk doesn't wait for the previewer to ter‐
2847 minate before continuing its work. So normally you should pre‐
2848 fix the command by "start ", which flags to latexmk that it
2849 should do the detaching of the previewer itself (by whatever
2850 method is appropriate to the operating system). But sometimes
2851 letting latexmk do the detaching is not appropriate (for a vari‐
2852 ety of non-trivial reasons), so you should put the "start " bit
2853 in yourself, whenever it is needed.
2854 $pdf_update_command [""]
2856 When the pdf previewer is set to be updated by running a com‐
2857 mand, this is the command that is run. See the information for
2858 the variable $pdf_update_method.
2859 $pdf_update_method [1 under UNIX, 3 under MS-Windows]
2861 How the pdf viewer updates its display when the pdf file has
2862 changed. See the information on the variable $dvi_update_method
2863 for the codes. (Note that information needs be changed slightly
2864 so that for the value 4, to run a command to do the update, the
2865 command is specified by the variable $pdf_update_command, and
2866 for the value 2, to specify update by signal, the signal is
2867 specified by $pdf_update_signal.)
2868 Note that acroread under MS-Windows (but not UNIX) locks the pdf
2870 file, so the default value is then 3.
2871 Arranging to use a command to get a previewer explicitly updated
2873 requires three variables to be set. For example:
2874 $pdf_previewer = "start xpdf -remote %R %O %S";
2876 $pdf_update_method = 4;
2877 $pdf_update_command = "xpdf -remote %R -reload";
2878 The first setting arranges for the xpdf program to be used in
2880 its "remote server mode", with the server name specified as the
2881 rootname of the TeX file. The second setting arranges for up‐
2882 dating to be done in response to a command, and the third set‐
2883 ting sets the update command.
2884 $pdf_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGHUP, which is a system-dependent
2886 value]
2887 The number of the signal that is sent to the pdf viewer when it
2888 is updated by sending a signal -- see the information on the
2889 variable $pdf_update_method. The default value is the one ap‐
2890 propriate for gv on a UNIX system.
2891 $pid_position[1 under UNIX, -1 under MS-Windows]
2893 The variable $pid_position is used to specify which word in
2894 lines of the output from $pscmd corresponds to the process ID.
2895 The first word in the line is numbered 0. The default value of
2896 1 (2nd word in line) is correct for Solaris 2.6, Linux, and OS-X
2897 with their default settings of $pscmd.
2898 Setting the variable to -1 is used to indicate that $pscmd is
2900 not to be used.
2901 $postscript_mode [0]
2903 If nonzero, generate a postscript version of the document.
2904 Equivalent to the -ps option.
2905 If some other request is made for which a postscript file is
2907 needed, then $postscript_mode will be set to 1.
2908 $pre_tex_code ['']
2910 Sets TeX code to be executed before inputting the source file.
2912 This works if the relevant one of $latex, etc contains a suit‐
2913 able command line with a %P or %U substitution. For example you
2914 could do
2915 $latex = 'latex %O %P';
2917 $pre_tex_code = '\AtBeginDocument{An initial message\par}';
2918 To set all of $latex, $pdflatex, $lualatex, and $xelatex you
2920 could use the subroutine alt_tex_cmds:
2921 &alt_tex_cmds;
2923 $pre_tex_code = '\AtBeginDocument{An initial message\par}';
2924 $preview_continuous_mode [0]
2928 If nonzero, run a previewer to view the document, and continue
2929 running latexmk to keep .dvi up-to-date. Equivalent to the -pvc
2930 option. Which previewer is run depends on the other settings,
2931 see the command line options -view=, and the variable $view.
2932 $preview_mode [0]
2934 If nonzero, run a previewer to preview the document. Equivalent
2935 to the -pv option. Which previewer is run depends on the other
2936 settings, see the command line options -view=, and the variable
2937 $view.
2938 $printout_mode [0]
2940 If nonzero, print the document using the command specified in
2941 the $lpr variable. Equivalent to the -p option. This is recom‐
2942 mended not to be set from an RC file, otherwise you could waste
2943 lots of paper.
2944 $print_type = ["auto"]
2946 Type of file to printout: possibilities are "auto", "dvi",
2947 "none", "pdf", or "ps". See the option -print= for the meaning
2948 of the "auto" value.
2949 $pscmd Command used to get all the processes currently run by the user.
2951 The -pvc option uses the command specified by the variable
2952 $pscmd to determine if there is an already running previewer,
2953 and to find the process ID (needed if latexmk needs to signal
2954 the previewer about file changes).
2955 Each line of the output of this command is assumed to correspond
2957 to one process. See the $pid_position variable for how the
2958 process number is determined.
2959 The default for pscmd is "NONE" under MS-Windows and cygwin
2961 (i.e., the command is not used), "ps -ww -u $ENV{USER}" under
2962 OS-X, and "ps -f -u $ENV{USER}" under other operating systems
2963 (including Linux). In these specifications "$ENV{USER}" is sub‐
2964 stituted by the username.
2965 $ps2pdf ["ps2pdf -dALLOWPSTRANSPARENCY %O %S %D"]
2967 Command to convert .ps to .pdf file.
2968 $ps_filter [empty]
2970 The postscript file filter to be run on the newly produced post‐
2971 script file before other processing. Equivalent to specifying
2972 the -pF option.
2973 $ps_previewer ["start gv %O %S", but start %O %S under MS-Windows]
2975 The command to invoke a ps-previewer. (The default under MS-
2976 Windows will cause to be run whatever command the system has as‐
2977 sociated with .ps files.)
2978 Note that gv could be used with the -watch option updates its
2980 display whenever the postscript file changes, whereas ghostview
2981 does not. However, different versions of gv have slightly dif‐
2982 ferent ways of writing this option. You can configure this
2983 variable appropriately.
2984 WARNING: Linux systems may have installed one (or more) versions
2986 of gv under different names, e.g., ggv, kghostview, etc, but
2987 perhaps not one actually called gv.
2988 Important note: Normally you will want to have a previewer run
2990 detached, so that latexmk doesn't wait for the previewer to ter‐
2991 minate before continuing its work. So normally you should pre‐
2992 fix the command by "start ", which flags to latexmk that it
2993 should do the detaching of the previewer itself (by whatever
2994 method is appropriate to the operating system). But sometimes
2995 letting latexmk do the detaching is not appropriate (for a vari‐
2996 ety of non-trivial reasons), so you should put the "start " bit
2997 in yourself, whenever it is needed.
2998 $ps_previewer_landscape ["start gv -swap %O %S", but start %O %S under
3001 MS-Windows]
3002 The command to invoke a ps-previewer in landscape mode.
3003 $ps_update_command [""]
3005 When the postscript previewer is set to be updated by running a
3006 command, this is the command that is run. See the information
3007 for the variable $ps_update_method.
3008 $ps_update_method [0 under UNIX, 1 under MS-Windows]
3010 How the postscript viewer updates its display when the .ps file
3011 has changed. See the information on the variable $dvi_up‐
3012 date_method for the codes. (Note that information needs be
3013 changed slightly so that for the value 4, to run a command to do
3014 the update, the command is specified by the variable $ps_up‐
3015 date_command, and for the value 2, to specify update by signal,
3016 the signal is specified by $ps_update_signal.)
3017 $ps_update_signal [Under UNIX: SIGHUP, which is a system-dependent
3019 value]
3020 The number of the signal that is sent to the pdf viewer when it
3021 is updated by sending a signal -- see $ps_update_method. The
3022 default value is the one appropriate for gv on a UNIX system.
3023 $pvc_timeout [0]
3025 If this variable is nonzero, there will be a timeout in pvc
3026 mode after a period of inactivity. Inactivity means a period
3027 when latexmk has detected no file changes and hence has not
3028 taken any actions like compiling the document. The period of in‐
3029 activity is in the variable $pvc_timeout_mins.
3030 $pvc_timeout_mins [30]
3033 The period of inactivity, in minutes, after which pvc mode times
3034 out. This is used if $pvc_timeout is nonzero.
3035 $pvc_view_file_via_temporary [1]
3037 The same as $always_view_file_via_temporary, except that it only
3038 applies in preview-continuous mode (-pvc option).
3039 $quote_filenames [1]
3041 This specifies whether substitutions for placeholders in command
3042 specifications (as in $pdflatex) are surrounded by double
3043 quotes. If this variable is 1 (or any other value Perl regards
3044 as true), then quoting is done. Otherwise quoting is omitted.
3045 The quoting method used by latexmk is tested to work correctly
3047 under UNIX systems (including Linux and Mac OS-X) and under MS-
3048 Windows. It allows the use of filenames containing special
3049 characters, notably spaces. (But note that many versions of
3050 *latex cannot correctly deal with TeX files whose names contain
3051 spaces. Latexmk's quoting only ensures that such filenames are
3052 correctly treated by the operating system in passing arguments
3053 to programs.)
3054 $recorder [1]
3056 Whether to use the -recorder option to (latex Use of this option
3057 results in a file of extension .fls containing a list of the
3058 files that these programs have read and written. Latexmk will
3059 then use this file to improve its detection of source files and
3060 generated files after a run of *latex.
3061 It is generally recommended to use this option (or to configure
3063 the $recorder variable to be on.) But it only works if *latex
3064 supports the -recorder option, which is true for most current
3065 implementations
3066 Note about the name of the .fls file: Most implementations of
3068 *latex produce an .fls file with the same basename as the main
3069 document's LaTeX, e.g., for Document.tex, the .fls file is Docu‐
3070 ment.fls. However, some implementations instead produce files
3071 named for the program, i.e., latex.fls or pdflatex.fls. In this
3072 second case, latexmk copies the latex.fls or pdflatex.fls to a
3073 file with the basename of the main LaTeX document, e.g., Docu‐
3074 ment.fls.
3075 $search_path_separator [See below for default]
3077 The character separating paths in the environment variables TEX‐
3078 INPUTS, BIBINPUTS, and BSTINPUTS. This variable is mainly used
3079 by latexmk when the -outdir, -output-directory, -auxdir, and/or
3080 -aux-directory options are used. In that case latexmk needs to
3081 communicate appropriately modified search paths to bibtex,
3082 dvipdf, dvips, and *latex.
3083 [Comment to technically savvy readers: *latex doesn't actually
3085 need the modified search path. But, surprisingly, dvipdf and
3086 dvips do, because sometimes graphics files get generated in the
3087 output or aux directories.]
3088 The default under MSWin and Cygwin is ';' and under UNIX-like
3090 operating systems (including Linux and OS-X) is ':'. Normally
3091 the defaults give correct behavior. But there can be difficul‐
3092 ties if your operating system is of one kind, but some of your
3093 software is running under an emulator for the other kind of op‐
3094 erating system; in that case you'll need to find out what is
3095 needed, and set $search_path_separator explicitly. (The same
3096 goes, of course, for unusual operating systems that are not in
3097 the MSWin, Linux, OS-X, Unix collection.)
3098 $show_time [0]
3100 Whether to show CPU time used.
3101 $silence_logfile_warnings [0]
3103 Whether after a run of *latex to summarize warnings in the log
3104 file about undefined citations and references. Setting $si‐
3105 lence_logfile_warnings=0 gives the summary of warnings (provided
3106 silent mode isn't also set), and this is useful to locate unde‐
3107 fined citations and references without searching through the
3108 much more verbose log file or the screen output of *latex. But
3109 the summary can also be excessively annoying. The default is
3110 not to give these warnings. The command line options -si‐
3111 lence_logfile_warning_list and -silence_logfile_warning_list-
3112 also set this variable.
3113 Note that multiple occurrences for the same undefined object on
3115 the same page and same line will be compressed to a single warn‐
3116 ing.
3117 $silent [0]
3119 Whether to run silently. Setting $silent to 1 has the same ef‐
3120 fect as the -quiet of -silent options on the command line.
3121 $sleep_time [2]
3123 The time to sleep (in seconds) between checking for source file
3124 changes when running with the -pvc option. This is subject to a
3125 minimum of one second delay, except that zero delay is also al‐
3126 lowed.
3127 A value of exactly 0 gives no delay, and typically results in
3129 100% CPU usage, which may not be desirable.
3130 $texfile_search [""]
3132 This is an obsolete variable, replaced by the @default_files
3133 variable.
3134 For backward compatibility, if you choose to set $tex‐
3136 file_search, it is a string of space-separated filenames, and
3137 then latexmk replaces @default_files with the filenames in $tex‐
3138 file_search to which is added "*.tex".
3139 $success_cmd [undefined]
3141 See the documentation for $compiling_cmd.
3142 $tmpdir [See below for default]
3144 Directory to store temporary files that latexmk may generate
3145 while running.
3146 The default under MSWindows (including cygwin), is to set $tm‐
3148 pdir to the value of the first of whichever of the system envi‐
3149 ronment variables TMPDIR or TEMP exists, otherwise to the cur‐
3150 rent directory. Under other operating systems (expected to be
3151 UNIX/Linux, including OS-X), the default is the value of the
3152 system environment variable TMPDIR if it exists, otherwise
3153 "/tmp".
3154 $use_make_for_missing_files [0]
3156 Whether to use make to try and make files that are missing after
3157 a run of *latex, and for which a custom dependency has not been
3158 found. This is generally useful only when latexmk is used as
3159 part of a bigger project which is built by using the make pro‐
3160 gram.
3161 Note that once a missing file has been made, no further calls to
3163 make will be made on a subsequent run of latexmk to update the
3164 file. Handling this problem is the job of a suitably defined
3165 Makefile. See the section "USING latexmk WITH make" for how to
3166 do this. The intent of calling make from latexmk is merely to
3167 detect dependencies.
3168 $view ["default"]
3170 Which kind of file is to be previewed if a previewer is used.
3171 The possible values are "default", "dvi", "ps", "pdf". The
3172 value of "default" means that the "highest" of the kinds of file
3173 generated is to be used (among .dvi, .ps and .pdf).
3174 $warnings_as_errors [0]
3177 Normally latexmk copies the behavior of latex in treating unde‐
3178 fined references and citations and multiply defined references
3179 as conditions that give a warning but not an error. The vari‐
3180 able $warnings_as_errors controls whether this behavior is modi‐
3181 fied.
3182 When the variable is non-zero, latexmk at the end of its run
3184 will return a non-zero status code to the operating system if
3185 any of the files processed gives a warning about problems with
3186 citations or references (i.e., undefined citations or references
3187 or multiply defined references). This is after latexmk has com‐
3188 pleted all the runs it needs to try and resolve references and
3189 citations. Thus $warnings_as_errors being nonzero causes la‐
3190 texmk to treat such warnings as errors, but only when they occur
3191 on the last run of *latex and only after processing is complete.
3192 A non-zero value $warnings_as_errors can be set by the command-
3193 line option -Werror.
3194 The default behavior is normally satisfactory in the usual edit-
3196 compile-edit cycle. But, for example, latexmk can also be used
3197 as part of a build process for some bigger project, e.g., for
3198 creating documentation in the build of a software application.
3199 Then it is often sensible to treat citation and reference warn‐
3200 ings as errors that require the overall build process to be
3201 aborted. Of course, since multiple runs of *latex are generally
3202 needed to resolve references and citations, what matters is not
3203 the warnings on the first run, but the warnings on the last run;
3204 latexmk takes this into account appropriately.
3205 In addition, when preview-continuous mode is used, a non-zero
3207 value for $warnings_as_errors changes the use of the commands
3208 $failure_cmd, $warning_cmd, and $success_cmd after a complia‐
3209 tion. If there are citation or reference warnings, but no other
3210 errors, the behavior is as follows. If $warning_cmd is set, it
3211 is used. If it is not set, then then if $warnings_as_errors is
3212 non-zero and $failure_cmd is set, then $failure_cmd. Otherwise
3213 $success_cmd is used, if it is set. (The foregoing explanation
3214 is rather complicated, because latexmk has to deal with the case
3215 that one or more of the commands isn't set.)
3216 $xdvipdfmx ["xdvipdfmx -E -o %D %O %S"]
3219 The program to make a pdf file from an xdv file (used in con‐
3221 junction with xelatex when $pdf_mode=5).
3222 $xdvipdfmx_silent_switch ["-q"]
3224 Switch(es) for the xdvipdfmx program when silent mode is on.
3225 $xelatex ["xelatex %O %S"]
3227 Specifies the command line for the LaTeX processing program of
3228 when the xelatex program is called for. See the documentation
3229 of the -xelatex option for some special properties of latexmk's
3230 use of xelatex.
3231 Note about xelatex: latexmk uses xelatex to make an .xdv rather
3233 than .pdf file, with the .pdf file being created in a separate
3234 step. This is enforced by the use of the -no-pdf option. If %O
3235 is part of the command for invoking xelatex, then latexmk will
3236 insert the -no-pdf option automatically, otherwise you must pro‐
3237 vide the option yourself. See the documentation for the -pdfxe
3238 option for why latexmk makes a .xdv file rather than a .pdf file
3239 when xelatex is used.
3240 To do a coordinated setting of all of $latex, $pdflatex, $luala‐
3242 tex, and $xelatex, see the section "Advanced Configuration".
3243 %xelatex_input_extensions
3246 This variable specifies the extensions tried by latexmk when it
3247 finds that an xelatex run resulted in an error that a file has
3248 not been found, and the file is given without an extension.
3249 This typically happens when LaTeX commands of the form \in‐
3250 put{file} or \includegraphics{figure}, when the relevant source
3251 file does not exist.
3252 In this situation, latexmk searches for custom dependencies to
3254 make the missing file(s), but restricts it to the extensions
3255 specified by the variable %xelatex_input_extensions. The de‐
3256 fault extensions are 'tex', 'pdf', 'jpg, and 'png'.
3257 See details of the %latex_input_extensions for other information
3259 that equally applies to %xelatex_input_extensions.
3260 $xelatex_silent_switch ["-interaction=batchmode"]
3262 Switch(es) for the xelatex program (specified in the variable
3263 $xelatex) when silent mode is on.
3264 See details of the $latex_silent_switch for other information
3266 that equally applies to $xelatex_silent_switch.
3267
3272 In any RC file a set of custom dependencies can be set up to convert a
3273 file with one extension to a file with another. An example use of this
3274 would be to allow latexmk to convert a .fig file to .eps to be included
3275 in the .tex file.
3276 Defining a custom dependency:
3279 The old method of configuring latexmk to use a custom dependency was to
3280 directly manipulate the @cus_dep_list array that contains information
3281 defining the custom dependencies. (See the section "Old Method of
3282 Defining Custom Dependencies" for details.) This method still works,
3283 but is no longer preferred.
3284 A better method is to use the subroutines that allow convenient manipu‐
3286 lations of the custom dependency list. These are
3287 add_cus_dep( fromextension, toextension, must, subroutine )
3289 remove_cus_dep( fromextension, toextension )
3290 show_cus_dep()
3291 The arguments are as follows:
3293 from extension:
3295 The extension of the file we are converting from (e.g. "fig").
3296 It is specified without a period.
3297 to extension:
3299 The extension of the file we are converting to (e.g. "eps"). It
3300 is specified without a period.
3301 must: If non-zero, the file from which we are converting must exist,
3303 if it doesn't exist latexmk will give an error message and exit
3304 unless the -f option is specified. If must is zero and the file
3305 we are converting from doesn't exist, then no action is taken.
3306 Generally, the appropriate value of must is zero.
3307 function:
3309 The name of the subroutine that latexmk should call to perform
3310 the file conversion. The first argument to the subroutine is
3311 the base name of the file to be converted without any extension.
3312 The subroutines are declared in the syntax of Perl. The func‐
3313 tion should return 0 if it was successful and a nonzero number
3314 if it failed.
3315 Naturally add_cus_dep adds a custom dependency with the specified from
3318 and to extensions. If a custom dependency has been previously defined
3319 (e.g., in an rcfile that was read earlier), then it is replaced by the
3320 new one.
3321 The subroutine remove_cus_dep removes the specified custom dependency.
3323 The subroutine show_cus_dep causes a list of the currently defined cus‐
3324 tom dependencies to be sent to the screen output.
3325 How custom dependencies are used:
3328 An instance of a custom dependency rule is created whenever latexmk de‐
3329 tects that a run of *latex needs to read a file, like a graphics file,
3330 whose extension is the to-extension of a custom dependency. Then la‐
3331 texmk examines whether a file exists with the same name, but with the
3332 corresponding from-extension, as specified in the custom-dependency.
3333 If it does, then a corresponding instance of the custom dependency is
3334 created, after which the rule is invoked whenever the destination file
3335 (the one with the to-extension) is out-of-date with respect to the cor‐
3336 responding source file.
3337 To make the new destination file, the Perl subroutine specified in the
3339 rule is invoked, with an argument that is the base name of the files in
3340 question. Simple cases just involve a subroutine invoking an external
3341 program; this can be done by following the templates below, even by
3342 those without knowledge of the Perl programming language. Of course,
3343 experts could do something much more elaborate.
3344 One item in the specification of each custom-dependency rule, labeled
3346 "must" above, specifies how the rule should be applied when the source
3347 file fails to exist.
3348 When latex reports that an input file (e.g., a graphics file) does not
3350 exist, latexmk tries to find a source file and a custom dependency that
3351 can be used to make it. If it succeeds, then it creates an instance of
3352 the custom dependency and invokes it to make the missing file, after
3353 which the next pass of latex etc will be able to read the newly created
3354 file.
3355 Note for advanced usage: The operating system's environment variable
3357 TEXINPUTS can be used to specify a search path for finding files by la‐
3358 tex etc. Correspondingly, when a missing file is reported, latexmk
3359 looks in the directories specified in TEXINPUTS as well as in the cur‐
3360 rent directory, to find a source file from which an instance of a cus‐
3361 tom dependency can be used to make the missing file.
3362 Function to implement custom dependency, traditional method:
3365 The function that implements a custom dependency gets the information
3366 on the files to be processed in two ways. The first is through its one
3367 argument; the argument contains the base name of the source and desti‐
3368 nation files. The second way is described later.
3369 A simple and typical example of code in an initialization rcfile using
3371 the first method is:
3372 add_cus_dep( 'fig', 'eps', 0, 'fig2eps' );
3374 sub fig2eps {
3375 system( "fig2dev -Leps \"$_[0].fig\" \"$_[0].eps\"" );
3376 }
3377 The first line adds a custom dependency that converts a file with ex‐
3379 tension "fig", as created by the xfig program, to an encapsulated post‐
3380 script file, with extension "eps". The remaining lines define a sub‐
3381 routine that carries out the conversion. If a rule for converting
3382 "fig" to "eps" files already exists (e.g., from a previously read-in
3383 initialization file), the latexmk will delete this rule before making
3384 the new one.
3385 Suppose latexmk is using this rule to convert a file "figure.fig" to
3387 "figure.eps". Then it will invoke the fig2eps subroutine defined in
3388 the above code with a single argument "figure", which is the basename
3389 of each of the files (possibly with a path component). This argument
3390 is referred to by Perl as $_[0]. In the example above, the subroutine
3391 uses the Perl command system to invoke the program fig2dev. The double
3392 quotes around the string are a Perl idiom that signify that each string
3393 of the form of a variable name, $_[0] in this case, is to be substi‐
3394 tuted by its value.
3395 If the return value of the subroutine is non-zero, then latexmk will
3397 assume an error occurred during the execution of the subroutine. In
3398 the above example, no explicit return value is given, and instead the
3399 return value is the value returned by the last (and only) statement,
3400 i.e., the invocation of system, which returns the value 0 on success.
3401 If you use pdflatex, lualatex or xelatex instead of latex, then you
3403 will probably prefer to convert your graphics files to pdf format, in
3404 which case you would replace the above code in an initialization file
3405 by
3406 add_cus_dep( 'fig', 'pdf, 0, 'fig2pdf' );
3408 sub fig2pdf {
3409 system( "fig2dev -Lpdf \"$_[0].fig\" \"$_[0].pdf\"" );
3410 }
3411 Note 1: In the command lines given in the system commands in the above
3413 examples, double quotes have been inserted around the file names (im‐
3414 plemented by '\"' in the Perl language). They immunize the running of
3415 the program against special characters in filenames. Very often these
3416 quotes are not necessary, i.e., they can be omitted. But it is nor‐
3417 mally safer to keep them in. Even though the rules for quoting vary
3418 between operating systems, command shells and individual pieces of
3419 software, the quotes in the above examples do not cause problems in the
3420 cases I have tested.
3421 Note 2: One case in which the quotes are important is when the files
3423 are in a subdirectory and your operating system is Microsoft Windows.
3424 Then the separator character for directory components can be either a
3425 forward slash '/' or Microsoft's more usual backward slash ´\'. For‐
3426 ward slashes are generated by latexmk, to maintain its sanity from
3427 software like MiKTeX that mixes both directory separators; but their
3428 correct use normally requires quoted filenames. (See a log file from a
3429 run of MiKTeX (at least in v. 2.9) for an example of the use of both
3430 directory separators.)
3431 Note 3: The subroutines implementing custom dependencies in the exam‐
3433 ples given just have a single line invoking an external program.
3434 That's the usual situation. But since the subroutines are in the Perl
3435 language, you can implement much more complicated processing if you
3436 need it.
3437 Removing custom dependencies, and when you might need to do this:
3440 If you have some general custom dependencies defined in the system or
3441 user initialization file, you may find that for a particular project
3442 they are undesirable. So you might want to delete the unneeded ones.
3443 A situation where this would be desirable is where there are multiple
3444 custom dependencies with the same from-extension or the same to-exten‐
3445 sion. In that case, latexmk might choose a different one from the one
3446 you want for a specific project. As an example, to remove any "fig" to
3447 "eps" rule you would use:
3448 remove_cus_dep( 'fig', 'eps' );
3450 If you have complicated sets of custom dependencies, you may want to
3452 get a listing of the custom dependencies. This is done by using the
3453 line
3454 show_cus_dep();
3456 in an initialization file.
3458 Function implementing custom dependency, alternative methods:
3461 So far the examples for functions to implement custom dependencies have
3462 used the argument of the function to specify the base name of converted
3463 file. This method has been available since very old versions of la‐
3464 texmk, and many examples can be found, e.g., on the web.
3465 However in later versions of latexmk the internal structure of the im‐
3467 plementation of its "rules" for the steps of processing, including cus‐
3468 tom dependencies, became much more powerful. The function implementing
3469 a custom dependency is executed within a special context where a number
3470 of extra variables and subroutines are defined. Publicly documented
3471 ones, intended to be long-term stable, are listed below, under the
3472 heading "Variables and subroutines for processing a rule".
3473 Examples of their use is given in the following examples, concerning
3475 multiple index files and glossaries.
3476 The only index-file conversion built-in to latexmk is from an ".idx"
3478 file written on one run of *latex to an ".ind" file to be read in on a
3479 subsequent run. But with the index.sty package, for example, you can
3480 create extra indexes with extensions that you configure. Latexmk does
3481 not know how to deduce the extensions from the information it has. But
3482 you can easily write a custom dependency. For example if your latex
3483 file uses the command "\newindex{special}{ndx}{nnd}{Special index}" you
3484 will need to get latexmk to convert files with the extension .ndx to
3485 .nnd. The most elementary method is to define a custom dependency as
3486 follows:
3487 add_cus_dep( 'ndx', 'nnd', 0, 'ndx2nnd' );
3489 sub ndx2nnd {
3490 return system( "makeindex -o \"$_[0].nnd\" \"$_[0].ndx\"" );
3491 }
3492 push @generated_exts, 'ndx', 'nnd';
3493 Notice the added line compared with earlier examples. The extra line
3495 gets the extensions "ndx" and "nnd" added to the list of extensions for
3496 generated files; then the extra index files will be deleted by clean-up
3497 operations
3498 But if you have yet more indexes with yet different extensions, e.g.,
3500 "adx" and "and", then you will need a separate function for each pair
3501 of extensions. This is quite annoying. You can use the Run_subst
3502 function to simplify the definitions to use a single function:
3503 add_cus_dep( 'ndx', 'nnd', 0, 'dx2nd' );
3505 add_cus_dep( 'adx', 'and', 0, 'dx2nd' );
3506 sub dx2nd {
3507 return Run_subst( "makeindex -o %D %S" );
3508 }
3509 push @generated_exts, 'ndx', 'nnd', 'adx', 'and';
3510 You could also instead use
3512 add_cus_dep( 'ndx', 'nnd', 0, 'dx2nd' );
3514 add_cus_dep( 'adx', 'and', 0, 'dx2nd' );
3515 sub dx2nd {
3516 return Run_subst( $makeindex );
3517 }
3518 push @generated_exts, 'ndx', 'nnd', 'adx', 'and';
3519 This last example uses the command specification in $makeindex, and so
3521 any customization you have made for the standard index also applies to
3522 your extra indexes.
3523 Similar techniques can be applied for glossaries.
3525 Those of you with experience with Makefiles, may get concerned that the
3527 .ndx file is written during a run of *latex and is always later than
3528 the .nnd last read in. Thus the .nnd appears to be perpetually out-of-
3529 date. This situation, of circular dependencies, is endemic to latex,
3530 and is one of the issues that latexmk is programmed to overcome. It
3531 examines the contents of the files (by use of a checksum), and only
3532 does a remake when the file contents have actually changed.
3533 Of course if you choose to write random data to the .nnd (or the .aux
3535 file, etc) that changes on each new run, then you will have a problem.
3536 For real experts: See the %hash_calc_ignore_pattern if you have to deal
3537 with such problems.
3538 Old Method of Defining Custom Dependencies:
3541 In much older versions of latexmk, the only method of defining custom
3542 dependencies was to directly manipulate the table of custom dependen‐
3543 cies. This is contained in the @cus_dep_list array. It is an array of
3544 strings, and each string in the array has four items in it, each sepa‐
3545 rated by a space, the from-extension, the to-extension, the "must"
3546 item, and the name of the subroutine for the custom dependency. These
3547 were all defined above.
3548 An example of the old method of defining custom dependencies is as fol‐
3550 lows. It is the code in an RC file to ensure automatic conversion of
3551 .fig files to .eps files:
3552 push @cus_dep_list, "fig eps 0 fig2eps";
3554 sub fig2eps {
3555 return system( "fig2dev -Lps \"$_[0].fig\" \"$_[0].eps\"" );
3556 }
3557 This method still works, and is almost equivalent to the code given
3559 earlier that used the add_cus_dep subroutine. However, the old method
3560 doesn't delete any previous custom-dependency for the same conversion.
3561 So the new method is preferable.
3562
3566 For most purposes, simple configuration for latexmk along the lines of
3567 the examples given is sufficient. But sometimes you need something
3568 harder. In this section, I indicate some extra possibilities. Gener‐
3569 ally to use these, you need to be fluent in the Perl language, since
3570 this is what is used in the rc files.
3571 See also the section DEALING WITH ERRORS, PROBLEMS, ETC. See also the
3573 examples in the directory example_rcfiles in the latexmk distributions.
3574 Even if none of the examples apply to your case, they may give you use‐
3575 ful ideas
3576 Utility subroutines
3579 ensure_path( var, values ...)
3580 The first parameter is the name of one of the system's environ‐
3582 ment variables for search paths. The remaining parameters are
3583 values that should be in the variable. For each of the value
3584 parameters, if it isn't already in the variable, then it is
3585 prepended to the variable; in that case the environment variable
3586 is created if it doesn't already exist. For separating values,
3587 the character appropriate the the operating system is used --
3588 see the configuration variable $search_path_separator.
3589 Example:
3591 ensure_path( 'TEXINPUTS', './custom_cls_sty_files//' );
3593 (In this example, the trailing '//' is documented by TeX systems
3595 to mean that *latex search for files in the specified directory
3596 and in all subdirectories.)
3597 Technically ensure_path works by setting Perl's variable
3599 $ENV{var}, where var is the name of the target variable. The
3600 changed value is then passed as an environment variable to any
3601 invoked programs.
3602 Variables and subroutines for processing a rule
3605 A step in the processing is called a rule. One possibility to implement
3606 the processing of a rule is by a Perl subroutine. This is always the
3607 case for custom dependencies. Also, for any other rule, you can use a
3608 subroutine by prefixing the command specification by the word "inter‐
3609 nal" -- see the section FORMAT OF COMMAND SPECIFICATIONS.
3610 When you use a subroutine for processing a rule, all the possibilities
3612 of Perl programming are available, of course. In addition, some of la‐
3613 texmk's internal variables and subroutines are available. The ones
3614 listed below are intended to be available to (advanced) users, and
3615 their specifications will generally have stability under upgrades. Gen‐
3616 erally, the variables should be treated as read-only: Changing their
3617 values can have bad consequences, since it is liable to mess up the
3618 consistency of what latexmk is doing.
3619 $rule This variable has the name of the rule, as known to latexmk.
3621 Note that the exact contents of this variable for a given rule
3622 may be dependent on the version of latexmk
3623 $$Psource
3625 This gives the name of the primary source file. Note the double
3626 dollar signs.
3627 $$Pdest
3629 This gives the name of the main output file if any. Note the
3630 double dollar signs.
3631 rdb_ensure_file( $rule, file )
3633 This a subroutine that ensures that the given file is among the
3634 source files for the specified rule. It is typically used when,
3635 during the processing of a rule, it is known that a particular
3636 extra file is among the dependencies that latexmk should know,
3637 but its default methods don't find the dependency. Almost always
3638 the first argument is the name of the rule currently being pro‐
3639 cessed, so it is then appropriate to specify it by $rule.
3640 For examples of its use, see some of the files in the directory
3642 example_rcfiles of latexmk's distribution. Currently the cases
3643 that use this subroutine are bib2gls-latexmkrc, exceltex_la‐
3644 texmkrc and texinfo-latexmkrc. These illustrate typical cases
3645 where latexmk's normal processing fails to detect certain extra
3646 source files.
3647 rdb_remove_files( $rule, file, ... )
3649 This subroutine removes one or more files from the dependency
3650 list for the given rule.
3651 rdb_list_source( $rule )
3653 This subroutine returns the list of source files (i.e., the de‐
3654 pendency list) for the given rule.
3655 rdb_set_source( $rule, file, ... )
3657 rdb_set_source( $rule, @files )
3659 This subroutine sets the dependency list for the given rule to
3660 be the specified files. Files that are already in the list have
3661 unchanged information. Files that were not in the list are
3662 added to it. Files in the previous dependency list that are not
3663 in the newly specified list of files are removed from the depen‐
3664 dency list.
3665 Run_subst( command_spec )
3667 This subroutine runs the command specified by command_spec. The
3668 specification is a string in the format listed in the section
3669 "Format of Command Specifications". An important action of the
3670 Run_subst is to make substitutions of placeholders, e.g., %S and
3671 %D for source and destination files; these get substituted be‐
3672 fore the command is run. In addition, the command after substi‐
3673 tution is printed to the screen unless latexmk is running in
3674 silent mode.
3675 Coordinated Setting of Commands for *latex
3678 To set all of $latex, $pdflatex, $lualatex, and $xelatex to a common
3679 pattern, you can use one of the following subroutines, std_tex_cmds,
3680 alt_tex_cmds, and set_tex_cmds.
3681 They work as follows
3683 &std_tex_cmds;
3685 This results in $latex = 'latex %O %S', and similarly for $pdflatex,
3687 $lualatex, and $xelatex. Note the ampersand in the invocation; this
3688 indicates to Perl that a subroutine is being called.
3689 &alt_tex_cmds;
3691 This results in $latex = 'latex %O %P', and similarly for $pdflatex,
3693 $lualatex, and $xelatex. Note the ampersand in the invocation; this
3694 indicates to Perl that a subroutine is being called.
3695 set_tex_cmds( CMD_SPEC );
3697 Here CMD_SPEC is the command line without the program name. This re‐
3699 sults in $latex = 'CMD_SPEC', and similarly for $pdflatex, $lualatex,
3700 and $xelatex. An example would be
3701 set_tex_cmds( '--interaction=batchmode %O %S' );
3703 Advanced configuration: Using latexmk with make
3706 This section is targeted only at advanced users who use the make pro‐
3707 gram for complex projects, as for software development, with the depen‐
3708 dencies specified by a Makefile.
3709 Now the basic task of latexmk is to run the appropriate programs to
3711 make a viewable version of a LaTeX document. However, the usual make
3712 program is not suited to this purpose for at least two reasons. First
3713 is that the use of LaTeX involves circular dependencies (e.g., via .aux
3714 files), and these cannot be handled by the standard make program. Sec‐
3715 ond is that in a large document the set of source files can change
3716 quite frequently, particularly with included graphics files; in this
3717 situation keeping a Makefile manually updated is inappropriate and er‐
3718 ror-prone, especially when the dependencies can be determined automati‐
3719 cally. Latexmk solves both of these problems robustly.
3720 Thus for many standard LaTeX documents latexmk can be used by itself
3722 without the make program. In a complex project it simply needs to be
3723 suitably configured. A standard configuration would be to define cus‐
3724 tom dependencies to make graphics files from their source files (e.g.,
3725 as created by the xfig program). Custom dependencies are latexmk's
3726 equivalent of pattern rules in Makefiles.
3727 Nevertheless there are projects for which a Makefile is appropriate,
3729 and it is useful to know how to use latexmk from a Makefile. A typical
3730 example would be to generate documentation for a software project. Po‐
3731 tentially the interaction with the rest of the rules in the Makefile
3732 could be quite complicated, for example if some of the source files for
3733 a LaTeX document are generated by the project's software.
3734 In this section, I give a couple of examples of how latexmk can be use‐
3736 fully invoked from a Makefile. The examples use specific features of
3737 current versions of GNU make, which is the default on both linux and
3738 OS-X systems. They may need modifications for other versions of make.
3739 The simplest method is simply to delegate all the relevant tasks to la‐
3741 texmk, as is suitable for a straightforward LaTeX document. For this a
3742 suitable Makefile is like
3743 .PHONY : FORCE_MAKE
3745 all : try.pdf
3746 %.pdf : %.tex FORCE_MAKE
3747 latexmk -pdf -dvi- -ps- $<
3748 (Note: the last line must be introduced by a tab for the Makefile to
3750 function correctly!) Naturally, if making try.pdf from its associated
3751 LaTeX file try.tex were the only task to be performed, a direct use of
3752 latexmk without a Makefile would normally be better. The benefit of
3753 using a Makefile for a LaTeX document would be in a larger project,
3754 where lines such as the above would be only be a small part of a larger
3755 Makefile.
3756 The above example has a pattern rule for making a .pdf file from a .tex
3758 file, and it is defined to use latexmk in the obvious way. There is a
3759 conventional default target named "all", with a prerequisite of
3760 try.pdf. So when make is invoked, by default it makes try.pdf. The
3761 only complication is that there may be many source files beyond
3762 try.tex, but these aren't specified in the Makefile, so changes in them
3763 will not by themselves cause latexmk to be invoked. Instead, the pat‐
3764 tern rule is equipped with a "phony" prerequisite FORCE_MAKE; this has
3765 the effect of causing the rule to be always out-of-date, so that la‐
3766 texmk is always run. It is latexmk that decides whether any action is
3767 needed, e.g., a rerun of pdflatex. Effectively the Makefile delegates
3768 all decisions to latexmk, while make has no knowledge of the list of
3769 source files except for primary LaTeX file for the document. If there
3770 are, for example, graphics files to be made, these must be made by cus‐
3771 tom dependencies configured in latexmk.
3772 But something better is needed in more complicated situations, for ex‐
3774 ample, when the making of graphics files needs to be specified by rules
3775 in the Makefile. To do this, one can use a Makefile like the follow‐
3776 ing:
3777 TARGETS = document1.pdf document2.pdf
3779 DEPS_DIR = .deps
3780 LATEXMK = latexmk -recorder -use-make -deps \
3781 -e 'warn qq(In Makefile, turn off custom dependencies\n);' \
3782 -e '@cus_dep_list = ();' \
3783 -e 'show_cus_dep();'
3784 all : $(TARGETS)
3785 $(foreach file,$(TARGETS),$(eval -include $(DEPS_DIR)/$(file)P))
3786 $(DEPS_DIR) :
3787 mkdir $@
3788 %.pdf : %.tex
3789 if [ ! -e $(DEPS_DIR) ]; then mkdir $(DEPS_DIR); fi
3790 $(LATEXMK) -pdf -dvi- -ps- -deps-out=$(DEPS_DIR)/$@P $<
3791 %.pdf : %.fig
3792 fig2dev -Lpdf $< $@
3793 (Again, the lines containing the commands for the rules should be
3795 started with tabs.) This example was inspired by how GNU automake han‐
3796 dles automatic dependency tracking of C source files.
3797 After each run of latexmk, dependency information is put in a file in
3799 the .deps subdirectory. The Makefile causes these dependency files to
3800 be read by make, which now has the full dependency information for each
3801 target .pdf file. To make things less trivial it is specificed that
3802 two files document1.pdf and document2.pdf are the targets. The depen‐
3803 dency files are .deps/document1.pdfP and .deps/document2.pdfP.
3804 There is now no need for the phony prerequisite for the rule to make
3806 .pdf files from .tex files. But I have added a rule to make .pdf files
3807 from .fig files produced by the xfig program; these are commonly used
3808 for graphics insertions in LaTeX documents. Latexmk is arranged to
3809 output a dependency file after each run. It is given the -recorder op‐
3810 tion, which improves its detection of files generated during a run of
3811 pdflatex; such files should not be in the dependency list. The -e op‐
3812 tions are used to turn off all custom dependencies, and to document
3813 this. Instead the -use-make is used to delegate the making of missing
3814 files to make itself.
3815 Suppose in the LaTeX file there is a command \includegraphics{graph},
3817 and an xfig file "graph.fig" exists. On a first run, pdflatex reports
3818 a missing file, named "graph". Latexmk succeeds in making "graph.pdf"
3819 by calling "make graph.pdf", and after completion of its work, it lists
3820 "fig.pdf" among the dependents of the file latexmk is making. Then let
3821 "fig.fig" be updated, and then let make be run. Make first remakes
3822 "fig.pdf", and only then reruns latexmk.
3823 Thus we now have a method by which all the subsidiary processing is
3825 delegated to make.
3826
3829 latex(1), bibtex(1), lualatex(1), pdflatex(1), xelatex(1).
3830
3832 Sometimes a viewer (gv) tries to read an updated .ps or .pdf file after
3833 its creation is started but before the file is complete. Work around:
3834 manually refresh (or reopen) display. Or use one of the other preview‐
3835 ers and update methods.
3836 (The following isn't really a bug, but concerns features of preview‐
3838 ers.) Preview continuous mode only works perfectly with certain pre‐
3839 viewers: Xdvi on UNIX/Linux works for dvi files. Gv on UNIX/Linux
3840 works for both postscript and pdf. Ghostview on UNIX/Linux needs a
3841 manual update (reopen); it views postscript and pdf. Gsview under MS-
3842 Windows works for both postscript and pdf, but only reads the updated
3843 file when its screen is refreshed. Acroread under UNIX/Linux views
3844 pdf, but the file needs to be closed and reopened to view an updated
3845 version. Under MS-Windows, acroread locks its input file and so the
3846 pdf file cannot be updated. (Remedy: configure latexmk to use suma‐
3847 trapdf instead.)
3848
3850 Authors of previous versions. Many users with their feedback, and es‐
3851 pecially David Coppit (username david at node coppit.org) who made many
3852 useful suggestions that contributed to version 3, and Herbert Schulz.
3853 (Please note that the e-mail addresses are not written in their stan‐
3854 dard form to avoid being harvested too easily.)
3855
3857 Current version, by John Collins (Version 4.74). Report bugs etc to
3858 his e-mail (jcc8 at psu.edu).
3859 Released version can be obtained from CTAN:
3861 <http://www.ctan.org/pkg/latexmk/>, and from the author's website
3862 <http://www.personal.psu.edu/jcc8/latexmk/>.
3863 Modifications and enhancements by Evan McLean (Version 2.0)
3864 Original script called "go" by David J. Musliner (RCS Version 3.2)
3865 16 May 2021 LATEXMK(1)