A small shell script to convert LaTeX code to SVG

latex2svg

#!/usr/bin/env bash

#######################################################
### REQUIREMENTS ######################################
#######################################################
## XeLaTeX: Available through most TeX distributions ##
## dvisvgm: Available through most TeX distributions ##
## svgo (optional, but highly recommended)           ##
#######################################################
### Usage #############################################
#######################################################
## The script is accessed purely through pipes. For  ##
## example: cat somefile.tex | latex2svg > somefile.svg
## Errors handling is built in; it will show the     ##
## standard `! LaTeX Error` as well as the line      ##
## number through `stderr`.                          ##
#######################################################

declare -r temp_dir=$(mktemp -d -t tikz)

trap "rm -rf $temp_dir" EXIT

die() {
    if [[ -e "$temp_dir/source.log" ]]; then
        cat "$temp_dir/source.log" | grep "^! LaTeX Error\|^l\.\d" 1>&2
    fi
    exit 1
}

cd $temp_dir
echo "$(</dev/stdin)" >source.tex

xelatex -interaction=nonstopmode -no-pdf -no-shell-escape -halt-on-error -output-directory=$temp_dir source.tex 1>/dev/null 2>&1

if [[ ! -e source.xdv ]]; then
    die
fi

if ! type svgo 1> /dev/null 2>&1; then
    dvisvgm -v 0 -s source.xdv | cat
else
    dvisvgm -v 0 -s source.xdv | svgo -i - -o - | cat
fi