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83 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
83 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: A Working Latex Install that Doesn't Suck
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tags:
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- linux
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- difficulty-easy
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- programming
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- writing
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date: 2024-08-15
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lastmod: 2024-08-15
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draft: false
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---
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$\LaTeX$ is a programming language and environment well-suited to academic writing (and it can be embedded in Quartz, too!). There are many different ways to use it in your work. The absolute easiest will be [Overleaf](https://overleaf.com), an online collaborative editor with many document templates and all common packages available. But for more specific use cases, or offline work, a latex "distribution" can be installed on your computer for you to manage your own packages.
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Now, system packages are seamless install-wise, but for latex distros specifically, they can be hard to navigate, especially on a distro like Arch which has rearranged its latex packages. Below is my guide for a no-frills, opinionated, "I want to use LaTeX" installation, complete with explanations for all the choices along the way.
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## TLDR
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```sh
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$ sudo pacman --needed -S texlive-basic texlive-bin texlive-binextra texlive-bibtexextra texlive-latex texlive-latexrecommended okular neovim
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$ nvim afile.tex
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$ pdflatex afile.tex
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```
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## SETUP
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```bash
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$ sudo pacman -Qsq ".*texlive.*|.*latex.*" # List all installed packages matching the regex
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texlive-basic
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texlive-bibtexextra
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texlive-bin
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texlive-binextra
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texlive-latex
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texlive-latexrecommended
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$
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```
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Installing all of the above will allow you to create `.tex` files and compile them to various outputs (PDF, HTML) with `latex file.tex` or `pdflatex file.tex`.
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Install `texstudio` for a seamlessly integrated editor. Otherwise, read on for an [[Programs I Like/code-editors#Neovim|nvim]] configuration recipe.
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If you're like me and like to modify where a program stores things to comport with the XDG basedir spec, please review the [table of environment variables](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TeX_Live#texmf_trees_and_Kpathsea) on the archwiki.
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## Editor
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[VimTeX](https://github.com/lervag/vimtex) is a great plugin supporting live view, inverse search, and more. Lazy config:
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```lua
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{
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"lervag/vimtex",
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lazy = false,
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init = function()
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vim.g.vimtex_view_method = "general"
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end,
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},
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```
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It also requires global variables to be set up correctly for its features:
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```lua
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-- Your nvim distro may have a native way to set globals, may also be done with vimscript
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-- Modify both lines as needed for your chosen viewer
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vim.g.vimtex_view_general_viewer = "okular"
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vim.g.vimtex_view_general_options = "--unique file:@pdf#src:@line@tex" -- Goes in Okular -> Options -> Configure Okular -> Editor -> Custom -> command
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```
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## Explanation of packages
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First off, I use TeXlive over MikTeX for security and feature reasons. I recommend `pdflatex` because of the [comparison by Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Articles/The_TeX_family_tree%3A_LaTeX%2C_pdfTeX%2C_XeTeX%2C_LuaTeX_and_ConTeXt). And Okular is a fairly feature-packed but still performant pdf viewer/annotator, pretty common over Vimtex's other supported alternatives like Zathura and muPDF.
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Certain packages house the basic commands used to configure your install or generate files. Use `sudo pacman -F $(which someprogram)` to learn which package installs a specific command. Those are:
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```
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texlive-basic
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texlive-bin
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texlive-binextra
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```
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The *TeX* packages needed to generate most files are housed in other *arch* packages. You can find which CPAN is in which arch package with `tlmgr info thepackagename | grep collection`. It'll return `collection-somename`, which means that you need to install `texlive-somename` with pacman. I needed to install all these to resolve warnings and errors:
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```
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texlive-bibtexextra
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texlive-latex
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texlive-latexrecommended
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```
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Hope that helps! |