Re: Publish to PDF on Linux: An impossible task?

[John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 6:01 PM Nathan Neff <nathan.neff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> After using org-mode for 10 years, I run for the doorway when
> I even think about trying to convert an org-mode file to PDF.
>
> *** I quiver when I see errors such as:
>
> warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these directories: /usr/bin:/usr/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf/web2c:/usr:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c:/://share/texmf-local/web2c://share/texmf-dist/web2c://share/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c://texmf-dist/web2c://texmf/web2c.
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Arch Linux) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
>
> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
> mktexfmt: No such file or directory
> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!

These look like latex errors to me, nothing to do with Org. Guessing
you used the arch package? I'm on arch myself, but after getting
bitten by package mismatches and things being hopelessly broken, I
switched to just using texlive directly:
- https://www.tug.org/texlive/

It's not that bad. There's even a quick guide to walk you through the
tl-install script. If you'd rather troubleshoot what you have going on
now, here's some places to start:
- you're missing files... figure out which package is supposed to
provide them and install it
- check your paths
- google the error and see what you find

> *** I run for cover when I read documentation such as:
>
> https://orgmode.org/manual/LaTeX-Export.html#LaTeX-Export
>
> I think people who have been using LaTex and related tools for a long time have
> no issue with this (seemingly) insurmountable feat.  However, I am not familiar with
> such a myriad of tools and I'm simply looking for the "easiest" way to convert/export an org
> mode file to PDF on Linux.

I would save this for last. For now, just take your document and
export to the .tex file (don't compile). Then go to a command line and
do:

$ pdflatex ./file.tex

and see what happens. Until you can do that manually, nothing from the
Org side will help you. In fact, Org just assumes that this stuff
exists, spits out the right .tex file based on your markdown, and
leverages the existing latex system utilities to process it. This will
end up being that you don't have a functioning latex setup on your
system, and thus Org can't work its magic.


John

>
> Can anyone point me to some tutorials?  I'm sorry if I miss something obvious.
>
> Thanks,
> --Nate