Latex-workshop: Cannot compile .tex files on MacOS

[elahmo]

Description

Compiling of the .tex files will not work, so I am not able to use the workflow in my VSCode on MacOS. I suspect this might be related to the location of my files, which are on iCloud Drive, so the path might be a bit 'ugly'.

This is the error message I get:

Latexmk: applying rule 'pdflatex'...
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
! I can't find file `"/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com"'.
<to be read again> 
                   \protect 
<*> "/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~
                                               apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/P...
(Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit)
Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<to be read again> 
                   \protect 
<*> "/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~
                                               apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/P...
!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
Transcript written on texput.log.
=== TeX engine is 'pdfTeX'
Latexmk: Errors, so I did not complete making targets

I have tried quite a few things:

• removing all whitespace from the complete path to the file
• creating a symbolic link, so ~/Paper/ is the directory where all .tex files are located
• tried hardcoding the path in the workflow in settings
• tried creating an alias command and just putting that in the workflow settings without any arguments

Whatever I do, the error appears. I am able to run the command for latexmk manually from the terminal, so if I run latexmk -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error -pdf -f ~/Paper/Thesis.tex the file gets built.

Expected behavior

I expect a PDF to be generated, that the compiling process is completed.

Actual behavior

There is an error message, with the log that I have showed above.

Log messages

LaTeX Workshop Output

file: 'file:///Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile%20Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex'
severity: 'Error'
message: 'I can't find file `"/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com"' \protect <> "/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~ apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/P... (Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit) Please type another input file name ! Emergency stop. \protect <> "/Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~ apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/P... ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced! Transcript written on texput.log. === TeX engine is 'pdfTeX' Latexmk: Errors, so I did not complete making targets
'
at: '1,1'
source: 'LaTeX'

Developer Tools Console

Additional Information

I am using MacOS X, latest version, 10.12.6.

[James-Yu]

The problem is com~apple~CloudDocs. If you create a symlink, the error should change or just disappear. Have you tried hardcode ~/Paper/Thesis.tex ?

[elahmo]

Yes, I have tried that.

I tried this:

"latex-workshop.latex.toolchainnn": [
        {
            "command": "~/Paper/compileLatex"
        }
    ]

(I have added an alias for the whole latexmk command)

as well as

   "latex-workshop.latex.toolchain": [
        {
            "command": "latexmk",
            "args": [
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "-pdf",
                "~/Paper/Thesis.tex" //as well as ./%DOCFILE%.text to avoid path being present
            ]
        }
    ]

[James-Yu]

The first setting is just wrong. Please post the log for the second setting.

[elahmo]

Seems to be empty, "RawLatexLog", as well as .log file. But the status bar shows that 'Latex toolchain terminated with error'. Problems dock also doesnt show anything.

[James-Yu]

LaTeX Workshop Output?

[elahmo]

Yeah, LaTeX Workshop: Show LaTeX Log, the one that opens the new tab for 'Raw LaTeX Log', nothing is shown there now.

[James-Yu]

To access the log, click the 'problems' icons on the statusbar, select 'OUTPUT', then select 'LaTeX Workshop' from the dropdown menu on the right.

Without full information I cannot do any diagnostic.

[James-Yu]

This is LaTeX Workshop Output. That one was LaTeX log right

[elahmo]

The project contains the code as well, so this was in subfolder 'Paper', I now tried opening just that subfolder in VSCode and still the same.

Here is the output from there:

[15:38:19] Initializing LaTeX Workshop.
[15:38:19] Creating LaTeX Workshop http and websocket server.
[15:38:19] LaTeX Workshop initialized.
[15:38:19] Found root file from active editor: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:19] Root file changed from: undefined. Find all dependencies.
[15:38:19] Instatiating new file watcher for /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Definitions.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Definitions.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Introduction.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Introduction.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/LiteratureReview.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/LiteratureReview.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Approach.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Approach.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ResultsDiscussion.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ResultsDiscussion.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Conclusions.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Conclusions.tex
[15:38:19] Adding /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/AppendixA.tex to file watcher.
[15:38:19] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/AppendixA.tex
[15:38:19] Found .bib file /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib
[15:38:19] Creating file watcher for .bib files.
[15:38:19] Parsing .bib entries from /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib
[15:38:19] Parsed 1 .bib entries from /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib.
[15:38:19] Server created on 127.0.0.1:58325
[15:38:19] LaTeX Workshop version: 3.3.0
[15:38:19] Default environments loaded
[15:38:19] Default commands loaded
[15:38:19] Default unimathsymbols loaded
[15:38:26] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.
[15:38:34] Found root file from active editor: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:34] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.
[15:38:38] BUILD command invoked.
[15:38:38] Found root file from active editor: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.
[15:38:38] Building root file: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] Build root file /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] Toolchain step 1: latexmk, -synctex=1,-interaction=nonstopmode,-file-line-error,-pdf,~/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] File watcher: responding to change in /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:38] Found .bib file /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib
[15:38:38] Adding .bib file /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib to bib file watcher.
[15:38:38] Parsing .bib entries from /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib
[15:38:38] Parsed 1 .bib entries from /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ECS.bib.
[15:38:38] Refresh outline.
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Definitions.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Introduction.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/LiteratureReview.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Approach.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/ResultsDiscussion.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Conclusions.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Parsing /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/AppendixA.tex for outline
[15:38:38] Toolchain returns with error: 11/null.
[15:38:39] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.
[15:38:41] Found root file from active editor: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex
[15:38:41] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.
[15:38:42] Root file remains unchanged from: /Users/ahmet/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper/Thesis.tex.

[James-Yu]

11 = file specified on command line not found this is latexmk error code explanation.

~/Paper/Thesis.tex The folder Paper is symlinked at your user folder?

From the log it seems the extension works without problem. [15:38:38] Toolchain step 1: latexmk, -synctex=1,-interaction=nonstopmode,-file-line-error,-pdf,~/Paper/Thesis.tex means that the extension executes the combined command, which is exactly the same as you tried in command line. latex compilers cannot recognize paths with ~, but it's non-extension-related and we cannot correct it.

I'm also a bit of curious why the icloud folder name contains ~, which is very uncommon. Apple's pattern is to use dots as delimiters. weird

[elahmo]

Paper is linked yeah, lrwxr-xr-x 1 ahmet staff 76 12 Aug 15:01 Paper -> /Users/ahmet/iCloud/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper

Anyway, I solved it it appears. Instead of ~/Paper/Thesis.tex I put the path without the ~ and now it is /users/ahmet/Paper/Thesis.tex, and it completed successfully. Weird that when the extension executes the script, the ~ thing makes the command fail, but from command line, both iTerm and VSCode terminal it works correctly.

Thanks for the prompt responses and help with this! I have to start with the dissertation now! 💃

[James-Yu]

Glad there is a workaround. Tbh I totally have no idea why $HOME won't work in child_process. Will check back later.

[ashthespy]

I had to add a shell:true option to the child_process.spawn() options to get it to recognise environment variables in the arguments.
I dunno if there are other side effects of running these commands in a separate shell?

[James-Yu]

@ashthespy Killing the sub-processes can be a problem, only my 2c. However if shell-true can overcome the tilde path issue, it is worth a try i think.

[ashthespy]

@James-Yu child_process.kill() doesn't kill the children of latexmk or arara anyway (As we found out recently over at Atom-LaTeX).
The current proposal is a 'hacky' solution of calling taskkill and pskill for windows and unix systems. That would work with the shell:true flag as well.

I will be looking forward to see how you solve this issue here, so can implement it over at your Atom package ;-)

[James-Yu]

@ashthespy Let me check how it works for this extension. I never noticed problems, but this can because my tex project is usually small enough.

[Mollenboot]

For me this works:

"latex-workshop.latex.toolchain": [
{"command": "cd",
"args" : ["%DIR%"]
},
{"command": "pdflatex",
"args": [
"-synctex=1",
"-interaction=nonstopmode",
"-file-line-error",
"%DOCFILE%"
]
}
Then the pdflatex command does not have tildes in its argument anymore.

ps sorry for duplicating before.

[rben01]

Would it be possible for LaTeX-Workshop to automatically cd into the compilation directory before compiling, rather than specify the full path to the file? This would eliminate this problem (which I understand is caused by the latex command). @Mollenboot's fix works, but is a bit annoying, especially since it had to be reworked for the new toolchain format, and may need to be reworked again in the future.

[tjohnson250]

Is there an update to this hack? I've tried to update it to the latest toolchain format, but I'm still getting the error as a result of the tilde. My user settings now look like this:

{
    "editor.autoClosingBrackets": false,
    "scm.alwaysShowProviders": true,
    "git.autofetch": true,
    "git.confirmSync": false,
    "latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
        {
            "name": "latexmk",
            "command": "latexmk",
            "args": [
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "-pdf",
                "%DOC%"
            ]
        },
        {
            "name": "cd",
            "command": "cd",
            "args" : ["%DIR%"]
        },
        {
            "name": "pdflatex",
            "command": "pdflatex",
            "args": [
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "%DOC%"
            ]
        },
        {
            "name": "bibtex",
            "command": "bibtex",
            "args": [
                "%DOCFILE%"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
        {
            "name": "latexmk",
            "tools": [
                "latexmk"
            ]
        },
        {
            "name": "pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex*2",
            "tools": [
                "cd",
                "pdflatex",
                "bibtex",
                "pdflatex",
                "pdflatex"
            ]
        }
    ],
}

[rben01]

Here's mine:

"latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
    {
        "name": "latexmk",
        "tools": ["cd_to_cwd", "latexmk"]
    },
    {
        "name": "pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex*2",
        "tools": ["cd_to_cwd", "pdflatex", "bibtex", "pdflatex", "pdflatex"]
    }
],
"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
    {
        "name": "cd_to_cwd",
        "command": "cd",
        "args": ["%DIR%"]
    },
    {
        "name": "latexmk",
        "command": "latexmk",
        "args": [
            "-synctex=1",
            "-interaction=nonstopmode",
            "-file-line-error",
            "-pdf",
            "%DOCFILE%"
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "pdflatex",
        "command": "pdflatex",
        "args": [
            "-synctex=1",
            "-interaction=nonstopmode",
            "-file-line-error",
            "%DOCFILE%"
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "bibtex",
        "command": "bibtex",
        "args": ["%DOCFILE%"]
    }
],

The key is that a) the first recipe listed is used by default; b) the recipe used has to contain the cd tool.

[tjohnson250]

That works with VSCode 1.27.2. Thanks.

[leafac]

I confirmed that the solution by @rben01 works in 1.28.2. I’d like to see this as the default recipe. Would that be possible, @James-Yu?

[leafac]

Another Workaround

1. Create a symbolic link to the iCloud folder, for example:

   $ ln -s "~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/" iCloud
   

2. Open Visual Studio Code on that folder without following the symbolic link (a feature new to 1.28), for example:

   $ code iCloud/Research/papers
   

[elahmo]

Paper is linked yeah, lrwxr-xr-x 1 ahmet staff 76 12 Aug 15:01 Paper -> /Users/ahmet/iCloud/Southampton/ProjectPrep/MScProject/Code/novelchain/Paper

Anyway, I solved it it appears. Instead of ~/Paper/Thesis.tex I put the path without the ~ and now it is /users/ahmet/Paper/Thesis.tex, and it completed successfully. Weird that when the extension executes the script, the ~ thing makes the command fail, but from command line, both iTerm and VSCode terminal it works correctly.

Thanks for the prompt responses and help with this! I have to start with the dissertation now! 💃

I used symbolic links as a workaround as well some time ago. I had an issue described above, but even in mid-2017, before 1.28, the symbolic link trick worked.

[leafac]

@elahmo From what I understood, your solution required tweaking the configuration in Visual Studio Code. This is no longer necessary.

[brandonloong]

Good to know about the symlink trick, however, even though everything ultimately works with symlink, I still get those same 2 errors every time I build the project. Is this what happens with other people?

[leafac]

I don’t get errors like these. Also, I moved my LaTeX projects to ~/Documents so that they’re synced to iCloud and don’t require the symlink.

[brandonloong]

I figured out that the errors were not related to the compilation issues of this thread. However, what do you mean when you say that your files in ~/Documents are synced with iCloud without having symlinks there? That location is outside of iCloud syncing capability.

[leafac]

However, what do you mean when you say that your files in ~/Documents are synced with iCloud without having symlinks there? That location is outside of iCloud syncing capability.

In my computer, ~/Documents and ~/Desktop are synced to iCloud.