Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- pdflatex [February 16, 2026 at 00:54] – yanevskiv
+++ pdflatex [May 14, 2026 at 11:38] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+# pdflatex
+**pdflatex** is the most common [[latex|LaTeX]] compiler.
+You compile latex source code by running `pdflatex main.tex`. This creates a PDF file `main.pdf`. It also creates a log file `main.log` and an auxiliary file `main.aux` used to build references. You can ignore these latter two and `rm -f *.aux *.log`.
+The following is a minimal latex source code you can use to try it out.
+```latex
+% Compile: pdflatex main.tex
+% View:    xdg-view main.pdf
+\documentclass{article}
+\begin{document}
+Hello world
+\end{document}
+```
+## Install
+On Debian GNU/Linux, you install latex by installing `texlive-latex-*` packages. At a minimum, you should install `texlive-latex-base` and `texlive-latex-extra`. If you want everything, you can install `texlive-full`.
+```
+ $ apt install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra
+```
+This will give you the `pdflatex` compiler + a myriad of useful packages. To give it a test, create a file `main.tex` with the following content,
+```latex
+\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
+\usepackage{lipsum}
+\begin{document}
+\section{Introduction}
+\lipsum[1-5]
+\end{document}
+```
+Compile the document with `pdflatex main.tex`. You should see something of the following:
+```
+ $ pdflatex main.tex
+This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.26 (TeX Live 2025/dev/Debian) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
+ restricted \write18 enabled.
+entering extended mode
+(./main.tex
+LaTeX2e <2024-11-01> patch level 2
+L3 programming layer <2025-01-18>
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
+Document Class: article 2024/06/29 v1.4n Standard LaTeX document class
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/lipsum/lipsum.sty
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3packages/l3keys2e/l3keys2e.sty
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3kernel/expl3.sty
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-pdftex.def)))
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/lipsum/lipsum.ltd.tex)) (./main.aux)
+Package lipsum Warning: Unknown language 'latin'. Hyphenation patterns for
+(lipsum)                'english' will be used instead.
+[1{/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}]
+[2] (./main.aux) )</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm
+/cmbx12.pfb></usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10
+.pfb>
+Output written on main.pdf (2 pages, 34145 bytes).
+Transcript written on main.log.
+```
+When you list files with `ls` you should see 4 files
+```
+ $ ls
+main.aux main.log main.pdf main.tex
+```
+ - `main.tex` - This file contains your latex source code
+ - `main.log` - This file is contains more detailed logs than terminal output
+ - `main.aux` - This file is an "auxiliary" file and contains info used to generate references
+ - `main.pdf` - This is the resulting PDF document
+At this point, you can safely ignore the `*.log` and `*.aux` files.
+The resulting PDF contains 2 pages of random latin text. This text is [Lorem ipsum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum). It's random gibberish used to test how a document looks like. It's provided by the `\usepackage{lipsum}` package which implements the `\lipsum[1-5]` command. `[1-5]` just defines how long should the text be. Because square bracket arguments are optional, you can use the command without any arguments like `\lipsum`, or you can specify different arguments like `\lipsum[1-10]`.
+## Syntax error
+When you make a syntax error, `pdflatex` shows you the error, but also expects you to fix the document interactively.
+As an example, the following is a document that doesn't close a curly brace `{`.
+```latex
+\documentclass{article}
+\begin{document}
+Hello \textbf{World... oh no! Dropped a closing brace
+\end{document}
+```
+When you run `pdflatex main.tex`
+```
+ $ pdflatex main.tex
+This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.26 (TeX Live 2025/dev/Debian) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
+ restricted \write18 enabled.
+entering extended mode
+(./main.tex
+LaTeX2e <2024-11-01> patch level 2
+L3 programming layer <2025-01-18>
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
+Document Class: article 2024/06/29 v1.4n Standard LaTeX document class
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
+(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-pdftex.def)
+(./main.aux))
+Runaway argument?
+{World.. oh no! Dropped a closing brace \end {document}
+! File ended while scanning use of \textbf .
+<inserted text>
+                \par
+<*> main.tex
+?
+```
+At this point, `pdflatex` doesn't end and expects you to fix the document interactively. When you first encounter this, you'll likely find it frustrating to exit it. The way to exit it is to type in `X` and hit Enter. Or you press 'Ctrl + D' which sends an 'End of file' character to the program.
+The interactive mode is annoying and you can disable it with `-interaction=nonstopmode` option.
+```
+ $ pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex
+```
+## Less output noise (texfot)
+As you might have noticed `pdflatex` is extremely noisy. Most of its output is gibberish you probably don't care about. So a tool was created called `texfot` to cull the `pdflatex` clutter.
+First, you have to install a package that provides it:
+```
+apt install texlive-extra-utils
+```
+Then you use it like so:
+```
+texfot pdflatex main.tex
+```
+## Makefile
+The following is a Makefile that compiles `main.tex` to `build/main.pdf` by running `make`. The build directory will also contain all the transient files `*.aux *.log *.toc *.out` and so on.
+```make
+# Configuration
+TARGET      := main
+SOURCE      := $(TARGET).tex
+OUTPUT      := $(TARGET).pdf
+LATEX       := pdflatex
+LATEX_FLAGS := -interaction=nonstopmode -halt-on-error -file-line-error
+BUILD_DIR   := build
+# Derived paths
+BUILD_PDF   := $(BUILD_DIR)/$(OUTPUT)
+BUILD_TEX   := $(BUILD_DIR)/$(SOURCE)
+# Phony targets
+.PHONY: all clean view vars
+# Default target
+all: $(BUILD_PDF)
+# Build rules
+$(BUILD_DIR):
+	mkdir -p $(BUILD_DIR)
+$(BUILD_TEX): $(SOURCE) | $(BUILD_DIR)
+	cp $(SOURCE) $(BUILD_TEX)
+$(BUILD_PDF): $(BUILD_TEX)
+	cd $(BUILD_DIR) && $(LATEX) $(LATEX_FLAGS) $(SOURCE)
+	cd $(BUILD_DIR) && $(LATEX) $(LATEX_FLAGS) $(SOURCE)
+# Utility targets
+clean:
+	rm -rf $(BUILD_DIR)
+view: $(BUILD_PDF)
+	xdg-open $(BUILD_PDF) >/dev/null 2>&1 || open $(BUILD_PDF)
+vars:
+	@echo "TARGET=$(TARGET)"
+	@echo "SOURCE=$(SOURCE)"
+	@echo "OUTPUT=$(OUTPUT)"
+	@echo "BUILD_DIR=$(BUILD_DIR)"
+```
+Usage:
+ - `make` to compile `main.tex` to `build/main.pdf`
+ - `make clean` to remove the `build/` directory
+ - `make view` to open the PDF with default `application/pdf` viewer
+ - `make vars` to see the Makefile variables