Build LaTeX

build-latex.md

LaTeX to pdf on MacOS and Windows

Using Sublime Text on MacOS

1. Select Tools > Build System > New Build System... and replace the entire pre-populated JSON instruction with the following:

   {
     "cmd": ["/Library/TeX/texbin/xelatex", "$file"],
     "selector": "text.tex.latex"
   }

   In the above, xelatex is being used as the type-setting system. For this, one must have a working LaTeX system pre-installed. (BasicTeX is good for my general needs. It's small; packages can be installed on demand with tlmgr.)

2. Save it as LaTeX.sublime-build. (It'll be saved under the folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/User/.)

This above allows one to type-set with Cmd+B.

A minor wrinkle with the build system is that unlike running xelatex from Terminal, building from within Sublime Text does not recognise artefacts (like class and style files) placed within ~/texmf folder, and so common resources require a full path. Following is an example. Note, e.g., ckunte.sty (style) file has been given a full path like so:

\usepackage{/Users/ckunte/texmf/ckunte}

Same goes for any resource within ~/texmf/ckunte.sty. For instance, I use a custom pythonhighlight.sty within ~/texmf/ckunte.sty. That needs to have a full path as well:

\usepackage{/Users/ckunte/texmf/pythonhighlight}

Using Sublime Text on Windows (WSL)

My LaTeX.sublime-build looks like so in Windows 10:

{
  "cmd" : ["bash", "-c", "/usr/local/texlive/2022/bin/x86_64-linux/xelatex ${file_name}"],
  "shell" : true,
  "working_dir" : "${file_path}",
  "selector" : "text.tex.latex"
}

For a successful compilation, any user style called must have the full path.

Using Sublime Text on Windows (Cygwin)

My LaTeX-Cyg.sublime-build looks like so in Windows 10:

{   
  "shell_cmd" : "xelatex \"$file_name\"",
  "selector" : "source.tex",
  "path" : "C:\\Cygwin\\<path-to-xelatex>;$path",
  "working_dir" : "$file_path"
}

Using GitHub Actions

A workflow is a set of instructions to be carried out as actions in a container provided by GitHub. These instructions are to be based inside a subfolder of the repository like so .github/workflows/release.yml, whose contents are as below:

name: Build LaTeX document
on: 
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*.*.*"

permissions:
  contents: write
  
jobs:
  build_latex:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Set up Git repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Compile LaTeX document
        uses: xu-cheng/latex-action@v3
        with:
          root_file: test.tex
          latexmk_use_xelatex: true
      - name: release
        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
        if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/')
        with:
          files: |
            test.pdf

The build is triggered when a commit has a tag number (e.g. v1.0.3) with tag pushed to GitHub.