more latex table -- footnote tables

Link: https://texfaq.org/FAQ-footintab : explanatory

LaTeX headaches have no end. Footnote text in tables don't appear using \footnote. The footnote number appears where its placed in the table, but *no* number at the bottom of the page, nor its associated text. The text just disappears.

What worked: the footnotehyper package. It saves footnote texts in an environment and emits them at the end. Tabular usage might be...

\begin{savenotes}
\begin{tabular}

The footnotes appear after the enclosed environment ends, in this case after the table.

The simplest setup is supposedly the tablefootnote package. Maybe. Although it properly compiled and assigned a number, no footnote text was generated.

bibliography example

I've saved some articles and books, and put the references into a BIB file. I want a works cited (MLA) or references (APA) page at the end of an article I'm writing. What are the basics

The TEX file and the BIB file are joined at the hip and neither will compile if they're not entirely clean of syntactic errors. It's a state of near-continual anxiety.

1. the TEX file

# pacman -S texlive-bibtexextra

In the TEX heading...

\usepackage[style=mla,backend=bibtex]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{foo.bib}

In the TEX article, whenever we cite something we get the citations key number from the BIB file. In this case, lets say our citation for some article is "z023". Then...

\cite{z023}

At the end of the TEX file, just before "\end{document}"...

\printbibliography

2. The procedure

1. check the BIB file for underscores and syntax errors. Jabref can sometimes help with this. If there are failures, just come back to this step and clean the BIB file again and again.
2. ensure the BIB file is locatable in the \addlibresource filepath.
3. run the TEX a first time, using the build menu "Latex -> PDF" option (pdflatex)
4. run the TEX a second time, using the build menu "Bibtex" option (creates the BLG)
5. run the TEX a third time using the "Latex -> PDF" option (pdflatex)

library, bib, and pdflatex

Oh bibliographies. Yuck

do not use underscores in file names

Underscores are tidier than camel-case and I have relied on them over and over throughout the years. They met their match with LaTeX. I no longer use them for any filename in case I need to cite it in a LaTeX document.

old

20230705_smogreceipt

new

20230705smogreceipt

successful process

Using Geany or whatever...

1. check the bib file for underscores and cleanness
2. have the BIB file reachable by the filepath in \addlibresource
3. run the TEX a first time, using the build menu "Latex -> PDF" option (pdflatex)
4. run the TEX a second time, using the build menu "Bibtex" option (creates the BLG)
5. run the TEX a third time using the "Latex -> PDF" option (pdflatex)

bibliography failures

Bibtex and/or pdflatex fail in different ways with underscores, but by far the worst problem is the cascade failure coming from bibtex. Pdflatex makes a call to bibtex and bibtex returns a BLG file. Any underscores in the "notes" field --eg filenames -- will be included, and pdflatext will reject the entire bibliography for one underscore. This is because pdflatex requires underscores to be preceeded by either a backslash or a $ (math mode). Sometimes an underscore from bibtex causes the entire PDF not to be written by pdflatex.

Accordingly, the data retention plan described in the prior post should not rely on filenaming using underscores. The URL field is the only exception. Bibtex or pdflatex will fail downstream

BIB specific fail

There's also a way bibtex can fail independently of pdflatex. In that case, it fails to send a BLG to pdflatex at all. This comes from the "crossreference" field often used by ppl to store notes about file locations of their saved journals and so on. When the Bibtex subroutine runs, it attempts to verify this location, even going through the Web or whatever. It's obviously not going to locate the thumbdrive folder that you left yourself a note about. And thus from one "crossref" failure, it will fail to produce a BLG file. Thus no bibliography.

BIB file include

Generally, author, title, date, url (can use underscores), DOI, abstract, pages, ISBN or ISSN. Leave out notes and crossref.

Populate your bib files with all the information to span whatever style you've decided upon (MLA, APA, etc), but never include or enter anything into the "crossref" field, which causes large problems when finally compiling via bibtex

This way, if a publisher does eventually look at the work, a person can reformat their TEX file to use that style of citation. Some of this is manual decision making.

Note that large organizations like grammarly.com probably are influencers and have inertia, so they might be a good resource to consider, eg this MLA v APA page. Works cited (MLA) and Reference (APA) is a key distinction. Frankly, I believe the format should be listed along with the title to keep people from being confused.

LaTeX integration of BIB

Once all of these are connected, how do we work them into our LaTeX documents. What codes do we need? How can we have consistent citations? For one thing, the document doesn't need to access the articles, just the BIB file. Yes, we need to look those, and typically save the research articles somewhere, but the document doesn't need any of that to compile, it just needs BIB file access.

In Arch, probably need the 37Mbbiblatex package to get anything to compile.

# pacman -S texlive-bibtexextra

More is described here, but the basics...

• package -- \usepackage[style=mla,backend=bibtex]{biblatex}
• BIB file -- underneath package \addbibresource {BIB filename}. Append the path to the filename if it's in a different directory.
• Inline citations -- use \cite{[BIB item key]}. This can be alpha-numeric. No underscores of course.
• Multiple BIBS -- described here.

bibliography checklist

NO UNDERSCORED ANYTHING IN ANY BIB FILE EXCEPT THE "URL" FIELD WITHIN ITS CURLY BRACES.

DO NOT SAVE ANY DOCUMENTS WITH UNDERSCORES, NOR NAME TEX OR BIB FILES WITH UNDERSCORES. Bibliographies will not print.

Order: pdflatex, bibtex, pdflatex.

Bibtex itself fails if any file in "crossref" field cannot be located within it.

arch version of latex

ARCH wiki

It's sort of a PITA, but less so than going to TUG and downlading 10G or whatever is the latest. Seems like most things can be done for approximately 1G of space, though more like 2G if adding Jabref and significant Math compiling support .

Another note: to search for a specific style, when not sure which package it's in, use the "F" option in pacman. I used this to find the "ulem" package since I wanted to strike-out some text...

$ pacman -F ulem.sty
extra/texlive-plaingeneric 2023.66594-19 (texlive)
usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ulem/ulem.sty

...and then I installed "texlive-plaingeneric" 24Mb (see below)

basic

These 4 will compile most letters and articles

# pacman -S texlive-latex texlive-basic texlive-latexrecommended texlive-plaingeneric

To include any URL's (hyperref) and some math, then additionally need (150Mb):

# pacman -S texlive-latexextra

If it fails for a font size unable to compile, then add (150Mb!):

# pacman -S texlive-fontsrecommended

math

If getting serious with math (+18MB)

# pacman -S texlive-mathscience

troubleshoot

delete old aux files

Moving from one machine to another, delete the aux file if fails for being able to, eg, locate the basic letter.cls document class.

check at command line

say I have a letter thats not compiling in my api. Try it at the command line.

$ pdflatex fooletter.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.25 (TeX Live 2023/Arch Linux)
(preloaded format=pdflatex)
restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./fooletter.tex
LaTeX2e <2022-11-01> patch level 1
L3 programming layer <2023-02-22>

! LaTeX Error: File `letter.cls' not found.

I found the answer here I think I can put paths in .Xinitrc.

bibtex

Goes in oK with the latex versions above, but consider two additionals 1, additional styles, and 2) jabref.

$ yay -S jabref-latest
$ jabref

This 280MB behomoth allows a person to easily edit their BibTex files and check for integrity of formatting and so on. Really helps with large bibliographies.

paperhater - classification issues (minus database)

We want to organize electronic media as much as possible, without a database, for at least two reasons: 1) if we can reach file organization and "findability" goals without the database, then we've saved the expense, 2) if our situation ultimately requires a database, the need for one becomes more cleary defined. For this reason, the first steps are the same, database or no ultimate database.

overview

We begin with an entirely non-homogenous mess of files, a deck of scattered cards but without names or suits. Our pile includes everything from receipts, code, diplomas, research articles, manuals, correspondence, old emails, and on. Some of these files are active, some are reference, some are family history, and on.

first cut

Our first cleavage is between all the articles, texts, and manuals which might be used as a reference, or cited in a thesis, etc. Call this our library. The second pile (receipts, forms, photos) is... everything else. We'll overlay a universal file and folder naming convention to both categories. However libraries require an additional handling step due to standardized citation requirements.

There's help for both categories. 1) for library items, ISBN/ISSNs, Dewey Decimal(since 1876), and/or a Library of Congress classifications, already exist. We can organize these using BibTeX. 2) for everything else, think back to the paper era. Records management had proven ways to organize these. This process has become electronic records management (ISO 15489), and is just as helpful. See the first video below.

records basics (25:31) US National Archives Records Management, 2009 Doubling info every two years. 11:00 paper's been lost -- we used to know how to do it. sample basic structure. 17:00 She recommends a file plan.
file management (1:23:57) Nicholas Andre 2013. Windows-based lecture, but clear thinking fellow gives good context for what we're after. Backgrounder. Corning (NY) Community College course.

naming - files

3 part naming convention. Subject, date, code. These vary in order depending on what's most important to the user of that file.

file naming conventions (10:00) Simpletivity, 2018. Ad first 1:36. Uses 3 part naming, succinctly described. Probably best at .75 speed. Comments excellent.

naming - folders(directories)

Mostly the naming is the same as the files, but arranged vertically. 3 layer naming convention. Function, subfunction, action. Thinking of the deck of cards, we can arrange by suit, by number, by color. What's the fastest way to find a card if they're in folders? Might depend on my style of play. NARA notes that granularity of folders depends on number of docs for that folder.

folders - website (8:19) John Morris, 2018. Standard website folder organization.

plan - file & folder

This step is the combination of the decisions on naming of files and folders. Government suggested in General records schedule from the NARM website.

records basics (25:31) US National Archives Records Management, 2014. Donna Read. informatioin doubling every two years. 11:00 paper's been lost -- we used to know how to do it. sample basic structure. 17:00 She recommends a file plan.
file plan basics (47:44) US National Archives Records Management, 2013. Jeff Benson. staff consensus, record retention,
holding to center (10:46) Luke Smith, 2020. Part of sticking to a file plan is understanding that what works for a person can be useful.
federal social media (43:37) US National Archives Records Management, 2013. Bethany Cron. Federal records, con

A. non-research example

This is the thing for say, billings or other saved items.

B. research/library example

We rarely seem to get New Yorker articles directly related to Bay Area unless it's a controversial topic: presumably editors don't want to research on their home NYC turf and alienate locals. Let's say I want to keep one such article to cite later. The information panel.

Step 1 - gather info

Very difficult without a physical copy. There's no online index for magazine volume and numbers cross-referenced with date, at least that I've found. With a physical copy of the New Yorker, I can get the info -- ISSN 0028792X, Volume 98, No 4, Mar 14, 2022. NYC, NY. The article of interest in this example: "The Access Trap", is from Nathan Heller, pgs 34-45. I've scanned these pages into a PDF, as yet unnamed. If online, we may also find other control numbers we want to include. Eg, if we had a dissertation to cite, we know that, "There is no single source for a comprehensive dissertation search." We might encounter a different control number at different sites and want to include them.

Step 2 - PDF name - first cut

Revisit the PDF name and evaluate the 3 part name. It should include a date, name, and subject code, in a way that at least hints at the file contents. In this case, we might, eg

20220314_NY_LowellEquity.pdf

Step 3 - BibTeX it

Information for storage, retrieval, and citation (chicago, mla, apa) could come from a bibtex BIB file. Bibtex files can be massaged in the document for any citation format. The question we'll want to ask later is how many BIB files ? since we can't have just one immense BIB file for ever article we have -- and of course we need to create a custom one for any document we create -- we're going to run into meta-problems. In this case we'd "@article" template, minimally...

@article{uniquecitekey,
author = "Heller, Nathan",
title = "The Access Trap",
journal = "The New Yorker",
year = 2022,
volume = "98",
number = "4",
month = "Mar",
pages = "34--45",
issn = "0028-792X",
doi = "20220314_NY_LowellEquity.pdf",
note = "Lowell HS equity clause"
}

We probably don't need 11 fields in a database, but BibTeX has these readymade. Review the DOI and see that it corresponds with the filename -- make any adjustments.

apa style bibtex (2:53) Charles Clayton, 2016. Also does IEEE. Important about making certain filenames match. Probably best at .75 speed. Comments excellent.
latex review (59:42) Derek Banas, 2019. Typical Banas killer review. He uses "TexShop", which appears to have autocomplete
bibtex citation (7:38) Center of Math, 2015 Have to run it twice, like a table of contents.

Step 4 - filename and folder again

Review the filename, folder, and BibTex information. Or, if a random receipt, review retreival issues again, such as the folder depth (no more than 3) and the filename (gives some info).

C. database or not?

ISSN number searchable here, topic, Somtimes we have subtopics

path - environment variable

NB: This post is related to a prior one this month regarding 3rd party package managers.

---

There are two types of environment variables, global (system) level, and local (user) level. Paths are just another environment variable. The tricky part: even though paths are a terminal environment file (see ~.bashrc or ~.profile), applications launched in an X session are presumed to come via the terminal, and so use terminal variables interact with the kernel. Users can also do this directly by exporting variables to the kernel. If we want to see them all

$ printenv

Environment Variables (7:55) Maloco, 2017. Goes over each, notes that they are kept in the

Times when paths are extremely important...

• installing applications without using the package manager
• making some change in an application's libraries because updates killed the link to its dependencies

package manager case (LaTeX)

I get a lot of use out of LaTeX and occasionally add special stylesheets or other packages. Accordingly, I install TexLive (4GB) directly into a home directory folder (typically "latex") and oversee it separately from Arch's package manager. Oversight is with tlmgr. During install, options appear to change the install path to a local directory if wanted. Once completed, the install will give the following message to update PATHs...

Accordingly...

$ nano .bashrc export PATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2020/bin/x86_64-linux/:$PATH export INFOPATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/info:INFOPATH export MANPATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/man:MANPATH

Then one can also add pdf-latex into their completion on Geany or whatever.

package manager case (Python)

Before going further, Colab is the easy Python coding solution through one's browser, and is generously hosted by Google. But we still might have occasion to code Python while offline, on our own system. In 2020, that's probably...

# pacman -S python-pipenv

... still how did we get here? It used to be complicated. Our goal was to cleanly install Python in a user directory, so that it didn't contaminate our distribution if we used pip to add any non-Arch Python modules. We wanted it a solution that:

• allowed interaction with all Arch installed apps
• allowed updating or enhancements using pip, but without contaminating the Arch install.
• allowed libs whether inside our user directory or the larger Arch distro.

This was not an easy prospect, as succinctly described here. The thread overall advises us that we should use our distribution as much as we can and limit pip use to our "user setup" (local directory), and virtual environments. Anaconda is probably the most well known virtual environment/sandbox for Python, but the newer option of Pipenv (# pacman -S python-pipenv)looks even better.

Pipenv (20:48) Corey Schafer, 2018. Schafer now prefers this VE over Anaconda. Arch repository for the pipenv updates, but use pip inside the VE .
Anaconda use (20:48) Corey Schafer, 2017. This fellow uses both Anaconda and pip.

non-standard application managers -- wine, python, git, latex (pacman conflicts)

In most Linux distributions, there's a package manager ("PM") application we use to update our OS and any installed applications. The Arch PM is pacman, and full updates require an internet connection for its use. It's a relatively simple process:

# pacman -Syu

The problems begin with applications that have built-in package managers specific to that application. There's only a few, but they are often called upon and u. For example:

1. LaTeX package manager =tlmgr (TeXLive)
2. Git package manager = complicated unless at user level. If at user level, install git with pacman and run it as a user, it will just make a directory of source. Otherwise, git apparently downloads "clones" (versions) into /opt, but then generally you want to chmod the clone to foo:foo and move it to a ~/ directory for building, then pacman to install it.
3. Python package manager = pip
4. Wine package manager = complicated. Each dll installing in Wine attempts to update itself and will prompt for it. None should be authorized. Also, building a version of Wine that is custom configured for the MSoft app is critical, but the underlying Arch version of wine tends to wipe them out any time it is called.

Using any of these application-specific updaters within Arch leads to failures during the next "pacman". Don't use them at all except when knowing the workarounds (see below). Essentially, there are zero problems for users who install and update the Arch Linux OS and applications using only pacman. Again, the most reliable complete update command:

# pacman -Syu

...or for application removal...

# pacman -Rs

There's also one workaround in Arch that doesn't f*ck up the index: if I download source into some directory and run...

$ makepkg -si [somepkg]

... it will make the package, and then prompt me for the password for install ("-i" flag) at the end and perform a pacman -U [package] at the end of the make. This # pacman -U properly updates the pacman index. As far as I know, # pacman -U is the only way to install outside packages without farking an install. This also means we can reliably use # pacman -Rs to uninstall packages put in through this method.

1. LaTeX - tlmgr 5Gb

2022 edit: I now use pacman, until work on thesis or something, then can do a -Rsn uninstall and do it here.

Don't install any version of LaTex with pacman. It doesn't have enough templates.

Install Tex-Live (LaTeX) directly into a user subdirectory (eg. "/home/foo/latex") and update it through the TexLive PM (tlmgr), but only at the user level, so that no admin level changes, or files used by pacman are affected.

$ cd /home/foo/latex/bin/x86_64-linux
$ tlmgr update --self
$ tlmgr update --all

UNLESS, it's the next year and haven't updated. This is called a "cross-release" update. I had to download that year's update-tlmgr.sh and run it. Described further down in post and here.

2. Git - pacman + manually configure

This took me the longest to learn, as this site agrees. Configuring for upstreaming -- if using as VCS -- is time consuming, but it's different if downloading some source. Update the git app with pacman, update the sources using git commands. Here's the Arch page.

1. install the foundational Git application using # pacman -S git.

3.Python - pip 2Gb

Nearly every program uses Python, so we want to be sure not to break our Python installation.

The solution required three independent solutions, all three of which I install. I select one of the solutions depending on what the application requires/expects.This solution takes up several gigabytes.

• initialize a Colab account in Google. See my post here, because there's a few steps to it. Colab handles Jupyter-type operations online. I do this development online (and save files .PY to Drive). I used to do Jupyter environment on the desktop, and this was the heaviest pip user, disrupting pacman almost entirely. IMO, Colab is practically a godsend from Google.
• when an application requires it, a pacman install of Python. Other applications installed using pacman, may also call for additional Python modules which they add to the basic Python, and/or they may also require an older version of Python to be installed.
• using pacman install a virtual environment for the

For Python, we can use pip, and for LaTex we can use tlmgr, to upgrade or add features to each app. The overall OS also has a package manager. For Arch, this is pacman. We can use pacman to upgrade or add packages to the Arch OS, including adding Arch versions of Python and LaTeX. The problem is, any actions accomplished with pip or tlmgr are not recorded in the pacman application index. Discrepancies between pacman's index and pip and tlmgr operations lead to significant application and OS problems. Prevention requires decisions during installation.
Contents

• problems
• solutions
• prevention

problems

The Python case is more complicated to *solve* than the LaTeX situation, because a variety of applications depend on Python, unlike LaTeX. However, both situations equally *cause* pacman update fails for the same, indexing, reason, so that both the Python and the LaTeX cases must be solved.

Python

Many applications rely upon Python. More technically, Python is a dependency for for many applications.

Imagine some application with a Python dependency, say youtube-dl. Imagine that both Python and youtube-dl were installed by pacman. They both work fine. Now suppose the user decides to add a Python module using pip instead of pacman. Everything might be fine with some applications that depend on Python, but youtube-dl is an example of an application sensitive to Python changes. The youtube-dl app looks for versions of Python installed by Arch, but will instead detect versions updated by pip. This discrepancy in turn leads youtube-dl to spawn errors, and errors in turn lead to the application exiting. How can this be solved?

$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLpz7PtiP2k
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 6, in
from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3259, in
def _initialize_master_working_set():
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3242, in _call_aside
f(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3271, in _initialize_master_working_set
working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 584, in _build_master
ws.require(__requires__)
File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 901, in require
needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))

More drastically, this can happen with an entire OS. Say the user keeps his OS up to date with pacman, and decides to install Python using pacman. Later, he upgrades Python using Python's pip manager. Still later, the user attempts to update the entire OS, which is a pacman action. As part of its upgrade procedure, pacman verifies the integrity of all installed applications against its index. Since the changes made to Python via pip were not registered into pacman's version index, pacman cannot resolve the pip installed modules against the pacman index. These discrepancies cause the pacman update to exit with errors. No update will be accomplished. How can this be solved?

LaTeX

If having any problems with LaTeX updates, even the tug.org website recommends just replacing with latest edition. However, there is one workaround if things aren't more than a year or two old.

$ tlmgr update --self
tlmgr: Local TeX Live (2020) is older than remote repository (2021).
Cross release updates are only supported with
update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) -- --upgrade
See https://tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html for details.

For the problem above, download update-tlmgr-latest.sh, make it executable (chmod +x or file manager), and put it in /home/foo/latex or wherever your latex user-level top directory is at. Go into that directory and:

$ sh update-tlmgr-latest.sh -- --upgrade
$ tlmgr update --self
$ tlmgr update --all

.

Wine

Wine also can pull-in specific packages, when we try to make wine bottles. However, any time there's an OS update, pacman will write a new wine directory in ~/.wine. After it's overwritten, it will use that vanilla version instead of the wine bottle we built for the app. How can this be solved?

solutions

In the case of an app like youtube-dl, it's easy to uninstall the entire app (# pacman -Rns) and reinstall. Or to play with uninstalling its pieces until one has a hit

The levels of involvement vary, but the strategy is the same for both Python and for LaTeX: install these independently of Arch from the start, in /home/user directory, and then update any path statements necessary for the Arch installed apps to find the program. Once these are in at the user level, there's no problem updating them with pip and tlmgr, because the updates are strictly within one's home directory, not the larger Arch installation. Accordingly, one can add features at will, which is often desirable when running the latest Spyder or what have you. For LaTeX, it's even less of a hassle, because there are no dependencies: one just needs to update $PATH statements following install. One can create an install in either case using, eg. $ mkdir /home/foo/latex and similarly with Python, though perhaps using a new folder for any version changes.

In the case of the OS update failure, one has no pleasant choices :uninstall then reinstall all of Python (immense time drain), or update the OS using an override (# pacman -SyuI), which then leaves a potentially unstable Python install for its dependencies. This is true with LaTeX also, but nearly zero apps depend on LaTeX.

install notes

I've decided to use the 3rd party updaters to both install (Python - pip, LaTeX - tlmgr for TexLive), There are a couple of considerations.

• Install in user-level directory
• update path statements afterward, so the installation can find them. Path statements can be complex, because there are various Path statements to consider.

prevention

Sometimes one doesn't have a choice but to install packages via pip, but then what happens downstream with a pacman upgrade is ugly. It will look like this, and there's a couple of workarounds.

• uninstall the pip upgrades, upgrade the system via pacman, then go back to pip and install whatever necessary pip packages.
• add the --overwrite=* flag to the standard "Syu". This causes pacman to simply overwrite any python files that seem inaccurate. This places pacman in the boss position over pip, but it also farks-up the pip version of the installation which, downstream, is a b*tch.

LaTeX -- updating the 2015 installation (TexLive)

TexLive is a large install, typically 4 GB. I keep mine in a home directory folder (easier to update and back up - no root privileges necessary). Between 2015 and 2016 however, the internal structure of the update database apparently changed.

So, in 2016 (edit: also 2021), sometimes tlmgr update is finnicky. A common fail is to see:

Unknown directive ...containerchecksum [etc]

This is a slight pain, so I've written the steps (for future reference). There are five steps:
1) DO
2) A
3) CLEAN
4) 2016
5) INSTALL

Next, update one's path statement in ~/.bashrc

Steps (1 hr, excluding download and burn)

• Create some home directory, eg, ~/latex and delete the one with the last install. Frees about 4 GB.
• Delete old ~/texmf and any ~/.tex* files
• Download the latest iso from TexLive, about 3.7GB. New ones come out once a year, about in April.
• $ md5sum [nameofiso].iso
• $ growisofs -speed=2 -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=nameofiso.iso
• Put DVD in, install...

  $ cat /etc/mtab |grep "TexLive"
  /dev/sr0 /run/media/foo/TeXLive2016 iso9660...
  $ cd /run/media/foo/TeXLive2016
  $ ./install-tl -no-verify-downloads

• select item "D" and give the home directory folder to all variables: eg ~/foo/latex
• select item "O" and give letter paper size, as opposed to A4, if desired
• Wait an hour or two while all 3500 files are installed.

Below, some features of these two methods of install, DVD and Internet...

DVD (1 hr)

Not verifying the downloads ("no-verify-downloads") is important even when installing offline with a DVD. Otherwise random checksum failures will likely occur installing one of the ~3500 packages, at which time the entire installation will dump without recovery options. There is nothing in the crude installer to, say, skip one or another package(s) and try it later. After install, the tlmgr can of course ignore specified packages but... that's after the installation is complete. A second potential problem is heat from high CPU usage. A friend's 2008 Toshiba laptop would fail around 2000/3500 packages with an overheat lock-up. I tried it also on a 3.4 GHz i7, and it maxed that processor throughout the install as well, although it could remain cool since it was a desktop with fans. Why the maxing of CPU in a simple install? My guess is the TexLive installer is probably c. 1995 coding, with a lot of subsequent bolt-ons, in such a way that the kernel can't smoothly allocate resources. Just a guess.

Internet (2 hrs)

An Internet install runs cooler because it has installation pauses between each package -- each package takes a few moments to download, as opposed to the near-instant draw from a DVD. The Internet install is launched from a small "tl-install" file. The file initiates a download (TUG site) and installs the packages in sequence.

Post install

• update PATHs in /etc/profile or, as I prefer, in~/.bashrc (user permissions), eg.
  

  $ nano .bashrc
  export PATH=/home/foo/latex/bin/x86_64-linux/:$PATH
  export INFOPATH=/home/foo/latex/texmf-dist/doc/info:INFOPATH
  export MANPATH=/home/foo/latex/texmf-dist/doc/man:MANPATH
  

• Logout, and log back in
• $ tlmgr update --self
• $ tlmgr update --all
• $ texhash # typically only necessary following an installation of a non-repo package, etc, but I prefer to be certain. Secondly, as noted on this great page, the way to determine which configuration file,
  or even if it's been created, is to

  $ tlmgr conf tlmgr

  Thirdly, a list of installed packages sent to text file:

  $ tlmgr list --only-installed > installed_texlive_packages.txt

• Verify with a complex .tex file compile, eg the .tex for a book.
• Smile. Go outside in the sun. Arguably, read the New Yorker.

If one has the time, one can also keep tabs on various fonts (scroll down to "updmap"), or install non-repo packages.

problems

There's a reliable internet connection, but...

$ tlmgr update --self No connection to the internet. Unable to download the checksum of the remote TeX Live database, but found a local copy so using that.

I ran into that when my installation, including tlmgr, became about 2 years out of date. I could have downloaded a fresh install and then updated all the paths for it in /etc/profile, but it should have been easier. Headed to the tlmgr page and got the Unix script for the latest tlmgr, update-tlmgr-latest.sh.

[solved] distributed install (Tex Live info also)

Typically, the details I need to operate within Linux are difficult to find on the Net, yet what I don't need seems written again and again nearly everywhere on the Net. I often must acknowledge to myself later that, what I couldn't find at the time was too simple for anyone to even bother typing.

Recent example. For years, I've wanted to backup my data directory quickly, so I could have a cron backup script to automate it. "Quickly" to me also meant "dd" (data destroyer, lol) instead of "rsync" or "cp". In turn, "dd" meant "unmounted" --- I don't want "live acquisition" for a directory as important as "/home". But I could not grasp how a separate, unmountable, partition for "/home" would work exactly.

The allocations for each partition seemed easy: I used...

$ du -ch

... to determine usage, and formulated a plan for splitting-up the drive: 10G swap, 30G install, the rest to /home. But I couldn't figure out how to do it. How would applications find the partition containing the data files? Dual booters run into that problem, for example.

fstab - the key

One day, I was struggling with the problem and I finally recalled a Linux basic: everything is a network, everything is a file. For example, how does a worker in Building A access his home directory on a server in Building B? Of course! fstab would simply mount it. Fstab was the solution and it was so simple it's little wonder no one had bothered to explain this in their distributed install instructions.

new Arch install

Solution in hand, the new install had 3 pieces: "/home", "/", and "swap" (some add a separate boot partition also). Using cfdisk, I sized each partition as noted above. Then...

# mkswap /dev/sda3
# swapon /dev/sda3
# mount -rw -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount -rw -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/home
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

...and all was good. The rest of the install was normal. Knowing the mounting commands and their order were the key. The root directory had to be mounted first, then other directories, such as /home.

I also put the TexLive distro (4.5G) into /home, since it's so large. I don't use the Arch repo version, since the full install is more complete. To install, create a directory called, eg., "/home/foo/latex" and, using command "D" during the install, supply the directory information. TL will create the necessary environment within your userspace, no root required. You will just have to update your PATH variables subsequently (see below).

$ cd /home/foo/latex/install-tl-20150525/
$ ./install-tl
command: D
/home/foo/latex/2015

After install, TexLive provides a reminder about paths.

Add /home/foo/latex/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/info to INFOPATH.
Add /home/foo/latex/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/man to MANPATH
(if not dynamically found).

Most importantly, add /home/foo/latex/texlive/2015/bin/x86_64-linux
to your PATH for current and future sessions.

Welcome to TeX Live!

You can test the PATH by attempting to compile,say,a small test TEX file with $ pdflatex test.tex". If the command isn't found, then bash needs the PATHs. You could 1) make a small executable to add paths in /etc/profile.d./ or, 2) add:

$ nano .bashrc
export PATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2015/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH
export INFOPATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH
export MANPATH=/home/foo/latex/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH

Exit the X session and logout of the user (eg, "foo"), then log back in. The bash paths should be updated and TexLive normally available from non-X terminal, xterm, geany, etc.

backups

Simple now.The format of "dd":

dd if=[source] of=[target] bs=[byte size]

Essentially, "dd" goes from a device to a file. The easiest large file is probably an ISO. One other thing, "dd" copies the entire device, including the empty areas -- it's a copy -- so the target device has to be as large as the source, unless one compresses.
Steps: assume here that home directory /dev/sda2 is to be backed up to a usb drive, /dev/sdb1.

• boot-up into CLI
• determine the block/byte size of /dev/sda2 (typically 4k these days), by writing an extremely small file, far below the size of a full block (for example a file only containing the number "1"), and then checking its disk usage (du):

  $ echo 1 > test
  $ du -h test
    4.0 Kb   test
  

• Verify the file system format, eg Reiser, ext3, etc. You can use "lsblk -fs /dev/sda2" or "file -sL /dev/sd*".
• # umount /dev/sda2 (no writing to the partition; we want a clean backup)
• attach the usb drive (/dev/sdb)
• dd if=[source] of=[target] bs=[byte size]
• # dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sdb1/20150210.iso bs=4k conv=sync,noerror
• profit.

Profit unless you inverted your source and target drive names ("i" and "o" are next to each other on the keyboard) -- in which case dd wrote from the back-up drive to your HDD, destroying your HDD data.

Medieval Cyrillic fonts in LaTeX (or XeLaTeX)

Links: tfm font install :: ttf fonts available :: old bulgarian lcyw
Note: a short note about LibreOffice at bottom

---

The name of one of the intstalled (2021) LaTeX packages is fonts-churchslavonic. And there's a good explanation of how to implement it here: https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/fonts-churchslavonic.Overall however, we'd want to write in Latin fonts, but then convert them in our markup. LaTeX does also contain some TTF utilities.

LaTeX - installed cyrillic fonts

LaTeX font files have an associated .tfm file. Find their directory by following the variable (TEXMFLOCAL) which points to it. The list of directories for various fonts is underneath it...

$ kpsewhich --var-value TEXMFLOCAL
$ ls ~/latex/2013/texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/
$ cd latex/2013/texmf-dist/doc/fonts/

Inside here, we can see most any of the codes we need for the \renewcommand{\sfdefault}{some code}\normalfont command. I don't know of any definitive listing of all of them, but some have Cyrillic characters and some don't, eg Cantarell has Cyrillics and its code is "fca". To switch to Cantarell

\renewcommand{\sfdefault}{fca}\normalfont

For proper line breaks, it's additionally good to point out "\textcyrillic{}", eg.

\textcyrillic{машина}

And of course code is needed at the top of the TEX document:

\usepackage[T2A,T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[russian,english]{babel}

pdflatex - packages

In a TexLive installation, Old Slavonic text pasted from this posting compiled in pdflatex with the following headers...

\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm,amssymb}
\usepackage{mathtext}

\usepackage[T2A]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english,bulgarian,russian,ukrainian]{babel}
\begin{document}
Russian text block
\end{document}

...however T2A coding is not a solution because it produced mostly Ukrainian versions instead of OCS. Close, but no cigar. Substituting T2C did slightly better, for example with "theta", but otherwise mostly produced Serbian versions. X2 coding provided only one dot over the "I", and so on. So we were left with pieces of success, but mostly failure (with respect to OCS), in each option. Unless I've overlooking something, it's possible one would have to build their own glyphs to properly code the OCS using pdflatex. Further, we'd still have run T1 coding if we have English (latin alphabet) portions in the document.

pdflatex - take two

I decided to seek from an Old Bulgarian angle. A Macro was located here, which included an INS with the DTX.

$ kpsewhich --var-value TEXMFHOME
$ unzip lcwy.zip -d ~/texmf
$ texhash

xelatex - packages

Using xelatex, the following compiled...

\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{xunicode}
\usepackage{xltxtra}

\setmainfont{DejaVu Sans}

\begin{document}
Russian text block
\end{document}

... but produces a severe, sans-serif Ukrainian.

alphabetum

LibreOffice - ttf

For WYSIWYG, a partial solution is true-type fonts. We can obtain fonts here for some medieval slavic fonts. One researcher particularly liked "dilyan.ttf", and "BukyVede-Regular.ttf"; he said they were accurate except for lacking diacritics. I explained he could place TTF's into LibreOffice /usr/share/fonts or ~/.fonts, directory (I prefer ~./fonts); they were immediately available on his font list the next time he opened LibreOffice.

LaTeX hijinx

links
latex forum  TexLive install (zenwalk)   TeX Live guide   summary of commands   general guide   general guide  latex basics   latex basics   formatting   formatting tips   font info  more font   equations   graphing information  graphing instructions   photos/graphics   complex graphs   tables  lines, boxes  templates: letters, tables  BibTeX   BibTeX  Hongzhi's Notes   convert latex to png

---

Note: If Perl or Tk version problems appear running tlmgr or tlmgr -gui, it might be searching on the DVD instead of the HDD installation. The way to confirm this is to run $ tlmgr update --list which will attempt to evaluate what packages could be updated by examining the database. If it comes back unable to find the database and the folder is the DVD, not the HDD, update where it looks:

$ tlmgr option location http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet

Also update tlmgr, before checking anything else.

$ tlmgr update --self

---

Latex

Unlike MS Word, LaTeX is not WYSIWYG, but we it's features are transparent,non-proprietary, and configurable to very fine grain. LaTeX seems slightly ungainly initially, before one understands what set of binaries they will typically use. One becomes more efficient as they learn, but the easiest approach for a noob appears to be to download a complete 2.8 GB TexLive or MiKTeX iso, that has all potential binaries and many templates. Just burn it to DVD and then install it to the hard-drive from the DVD. One will avoid encountering missing binary requirements by having a complete installation. The greatest advantage of the basic LaTeX being in ASCII text is that it is easily searchable w/grep, unlike proprietary formats (eg. Word). Additionally, publishers often produce .cls files which automatically, or nearly automatically, format one's text for the style of the journal's submission requirements. After placing in the appropriate directory, one only need change one line at the top of their document eg: \documentclass{theircls}.

tex files
The basic LaTeX file is the ascii .tex file. It can be edited with any text editor. Once complete, the source .tex is compiled into a .dvi file (device independent), but it can also be compiled into other formats, such as .pdf, .ps, .ep, etc.

tex file syntax
The default settings for margins are huge, around 2" in every direction. In the basic .tex file below, I added {geometry} package information to overcome this but, if the default geometry is desired, {geometry} can be deleted. One can create their own style sheets and call them with \usepackage, applying desired behavior across any document, similar to the way a css sheet does in an html document.

test.tex
% percents are comments
\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[left=3cm,top=3cm,right=3cm,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
% \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} accents, umlauts, etc
% \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} chinese characters
% \usepackage{graphicx} if photos
% \usepackage{indentfirst} indents first para in section
% \usepackage[scaled]{helvet} sans serif pt1
% \renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault} sans serif pt2
\author{\LaTeX Newbie}
\title{A Quick Example}

\begin{document}
\section{Notes Wk 1}
Math 674 -- Spring 2010
\subsection{20100116 Introduction}
We review the syllabus and introductions. A primary concern seems to be the use of a calculator.\\

Here are a couple of equations that are pretty well known, the second being the quadractic formula. I'm uncertain how to make a larger space between the two equations:
\begin{displaymath}
E = mc^2
\begin{array}{*{20}c} {x = \frac{{ - b \pm \sqrt {b^2 - 4ac} }}{{2a}}} &
{{\rm{when}}} & {ax^2 + bx + c = 0} \\ \end{array}
\end{displaymath}
\noindent
Just a short follow-up text
\end{document}

If we then compiled it into a .pdf with the command, say $ pdflatex test.tex , it looks like this:



graphs and photos
Many people creates graphs or plots of equations outside LaTeX and "\include" the results, while also using a package to process it. The main packages are eepic, graphicx, and tikz. Eepic is not known to work with pdflatex, which I use to compile my docs into PDF files. It appears a simple way is to use gnuplot from the command line, and export the resulting graph as an *.eps file. In the main document, use the graphicx package ("\usepackage {graphicx}") and then, where graphics are desired, call the eps file(s) using \includegraphics with the file name to insert the graphic. Graphicx can also import jpgs pngs and the like, as described in this wiki primer.

Another option is tikz, which is actual vector graphics. The package is \usepackage{tikz}, and then the callout is \begin{figure}, which is apparently the graphics area. Nested, we use \begin{tikzpicture} with associated code then entered to create the graph. Tikz apparently is a user application layer for a program called "pgf". The info on pgf along with some typical tikz examples is available at the pgf site. Chapter 12 of the TIKZ manual there is particularly helpful for mathematics graphing, but does not manage equations and smooth curves easily. It is possible, and looks clean, as seen here.

currency symbols inside math mode
Since dollar signs are a special operator used to delimit math mode, suppose we need actual dollar signs to display in a math output? Unfortunately, the only answer I've found to date is to insert: \text{\$}

tex to html, open office, word
Link: Geico Caveman's attempt
In TexLive, tex4ht appears worthless. For straight html, I didn't find anything better than $ htlatex foo.tex . this created an html document and associated css stylesheet that properly rendered math and text. At least in Firefox. The css stylesheet was bulky for a css and a few features will not parse, notably dfrac.

combining multiple documents
I can't write it any better than this excellent post for combining multiple .tex files into a book or other larger document.