Working with LaTeX

Compiling with latexmk

For complex LaTeX projects, the compiler command (e.g. pdflatex or xelatex) must be invoked multiple times to get things like references right. latexmk is a Perl script (available in most repos) that automatically calls the compiler enough times. The following configuration (to be put in ~/.config/latexmk/latexmkrc) makes this process even easier:

$pdflatex = 'xelatex %O %S';
$pdf_mode = 1;
$preview_continuous_mode = 1;

add_cus_dep('glo', 'gls', 0, 'makeglo2gls');
add_cus_dep('acn', 'acr', 0, 'makeglo2gls');
sub makeglo2gls {
    system("makeglossaries $_[0]");
}

This will:

• set xelatex as the compiler and pass the command line options and file name to it;
• compile the document to PDF rather than DVI;
• recompile the document automatically when it is saved;
• automate the generation of glossaries.

Cleaning build files

LaTeX produces many build files, especially when using bibliographies, glossaries or packages like minted. Cleaning scripts are rarely exhaustive, leading to a lot of frustration.

One solution to that problem is tracking all source files and resources (such as pictures, bibliography files, etc.) using git. Then, git clean -xf will remove all untracked files, leaving only the relevant ones.