LaTeX is a markup language for describing a document. If you have used HTML, or edited a wiki then you will be familiar with the idea of using symbols or commands within a text file to describe the layout of text. LaTeX is commonly used in scientific publishing. It helps you to make well formatted papers, with good looking formulae. It also helps keep track of figure and equation numbers. LaTeX files can be converted into a huge number of formats such as PDF, PostScript, DVI, and HTML.
A LaTeX file is an ASCII file containing the text and markup commands. It can be written in a text editor such as Gedit or vim. It is converted into an output format using a LaTeX compiler. Some people like to write LaTeX files in a more integrated environment, with menus and buttons for formatting commands. There are also many add on packages that add features to LaTeX.
Installing
Like Linux, LaTeX is a collection of many interdependent tools and files. Rather than find and install them all you use a LaTeX distribution. LaTeX distributions in the Ubuntu repositories are:
- TeX Live
- teTeX (no longer supported, some of the teTeX packages in Ubuntu are transitionary packages to TeX Live)
TeX Live
One LaTeX distribution you can install is TeX Live. TeX Live has a more comprehensive selection of LaTeX tools than teTeX but takes up more space. It is also a newer addition to Ubuntu than teTeX. It is available for Ubuntu from version 6.10 and is in the Universe repository.
To install TeX Live, install texlive. This will install a basic subset of TeX Live's functionality. To install the complete TeX Live distribution, install texlive-full.
Note: As of October 2011 the texlive package that ships with Ubuntu (TeX Live 2009) is lagging more than two years behind the current TeX Live release (TeX Live 2011). If you don't have big space constraints and want the latest version of TeX Live, you can install it directly from the TeX Live website (this does not interfere with the packages in Ubuntu).
teTeX
teTeX was a common LaTeX distribution for Linux. This is in the Main and Universe Ubuntu repositories and can be installed with synaptic or apt-get. At a minimum you will need to install the packages tetex-base, and tetex-bin. Extra packages for teTeX can be found in tetex-extra.
Add on packages
LaTeX can be extended using add on packages. Packages can either be installed using Ubuntu's packaging system, or by manually copying the files to the respective locations.
Installing packages manually
If a package you desire is not in Ubuntu's repositories, you may look on CTAN's web site or TeX Catalogue Online to see if they have the package. If they do, download the archive containing the files. In this example, we'll install example package foo, contained in foo.tar.gz.
Once foo.tar.gz has finished downloading, we unzip it somewhere in our home directory:
tar xvf foo.tar.gz
This expands to folder foo/. We cd into foo/ and see foo.ins. We now run LaTeX on the file:
latex foo.ins
This will generate foo.sty. We now have to copy this file into the correct location. This can be done in two ways. After these, you can use your new package in your LaTeX document by inserting \usepackage{foo} in the preamble.
User install
We will copy this into our personal texmf tree. The advantages of this solution are that if we migrate our files to a new computer, we will remember to take our texmf tree with us, resulting in keeping the same packages we had. The disadvantages are that if multiple users want to use the same packages, the tree will have to be copied to each user's home folder.
We'll first create the necessary directory structure:
cd ~ mkdir -p texmf/tex/latex/foo
Notice that the final directory created is labeled foo. It is a good idea to name directories after the packages they contain. The -pattribute to mkdir tells it to create all the necessary directories, since they don't exist. Now, using either the terminal, or the file manager, copy foo.sty into the directory labeled foo.
Now, we must make LaTeX recognize the new package:
texhash ~/texmf
System install
We will copy the foo to the LaTeX system tree. The advantages are that every user on the computer can access these files. The disadvantages are, that the method uses superuser privileges, and in a possible reformat/reinstall you have to repeat the procedure.
First, go to the folder your foo is located. The following commands will create a new directory for your files and copy it to the new folder:
sudo mkdir /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/foo sudo cp foo.sty /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/foo
Then update the LaTeX package cache:
sudo texhash
Tips & Tricks
Inverse Search
Inverse search is a feature where a mouse click in the DVI viewer can open an editor with the corresponding place in the (La)TeX source (also called "reverse search"). In xdvi, the default is Ctrl-Left click. In kdvi, Middle click is the default. For information seehttp://xdvi.sourceforge.net/inverse-search.html.
Emacs and xdvi
Add the following line to the file .emacs in your home directory:
(server-start)
Add the following line to .Xresources
xdvi.editor: emacsclient --no-wait +%l %f
Now run in the terminal:
xrdb .Xresources
Common between Emacs/xdvi and Kile/kdvi
We will need to have a specific LaTeX package in place to enable this feature. Download and install the LaTeX package srcltx. There is help on installing a LaTeX package manually.
Once srcltx is installed, you need to include it in your LaTeX file. Put \usepackage[active]{srcltx} in the preamble of your LaTeX document.
Sharing packages with another LaTeX installation
You can tell TeXLive to use packages from another location by editing /etc/texmf/texmf.d/05TeXMF.cnf. Just edit the line beginning with TEXMFDIST and add the path of the packages you want to include. Make sure to separate paths with a semicolon (;). For example, to make TeXLive use packages from an existing MiKTeX installation, /etc/texmf/texmf.d/05TeXMF.cnf could be edited so that the following line:
% The main distribution tree: TEXMFDIST = /usr/share/texmf-texlive
Is changed to
% The main distribution tree: TEXMFDIST = /usr/share/texmf-texlive;/media/Windows_Partition/MiKTeX
Note that you can add more than one path, if needed. Ensure that the path you have added is correct. Then run:
sudo update-texmf && sudo texhash && sudo mktexlsr
Resources
- TeX Users Group Includes links to resources around the web
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