How can I convert a .tex file to a PDF via the command line?

Question

Is there a package that contains a TeX to PDF converter/renderer available on Ubuntu 12.04?

If not, can you recommend a tool for me to download from elsewhere that can do this that is simple to install?

Answer 1

At the command line, first install the texlive package if it isn't already installed:

sudo apt-get install texlive

Then use the pdflatex utility to convert the file like this:

pdftex /path/to/myfile.tex

The path /path/to/myfile.tex is, of course, an example path. You would put the path to your own file on your system.

Notice that although the utility is called pdflatex you execute it with the command pdftex (without the la).

There are several settings that you can read about in the help for pdflatex:

pdflatex --help

The setting I use the most is the one to generate the pdf in a different directory:

pdflatex --output-directory=../otherdir /path/to/myfile.tex

The pdflatex utility is also interactive, so that if you forget to supply necessary information it will prompt you to enter it before converting the file.

Answer 2

As far as I know, you won't find a single standalone binary that will do this for you. The typical utility is called pdflatex and is part of the TeX Live package. It's in the repositories, so simply opening the terminal and typing the below will install pdflatex and lots of other essential TeX stuff:

sudo apt-get install texlive

Answer 3

You should try rubber. It is a command-line tool to handle all the tasks associated with compiling TeX documents into pdf, dvi, etc.

Answer 4

For Ubuntu 13.10 I suggest you use texlive-full. It worked for me but I'm non experienced user (:-)

To install it, open a terminal window and type or copy/paste:

sudo apt-get install texlive-full

Answer 5

Install texlive and all the extras: how to convert a .tex file to a PDF (TeX to PDF, and LaTeX to PDF)

Tested on Ubuntu 22.04.2.

In addition to the main texlive program, there are some extras and extra fonts and things you might want too. So, I've gathered the commands from this tutorial (Linux Hint: How Do I Convert a .tex Latex File to PDF in Linux?) and placed them all below:

1. Install texlive

sudo apt update

# (copy and paste and run this whole block of lines at once)
sudo apt install -y \
    texlive \
    texinfo \
    texlive-fonts-recommended \
    texlive-fonts-extra \
    texlive-latex-extra

2. Use it: produce file.pdf from file.tex

# 1: for a plain TeX format .tex file
pdftex my_TeX_file.tex

# 2: for a LaTeX format .tex file
pdflatex my_LaTeX_file.tex

From man pdftex (emphasis added):

The typical use of pdfTeX is with a pregenerated formats for which PDF output has been enabled. The pdftex command uses the equivalent of the plain TeX format, and the pdflatex command uses the equivalent of the LaTeX format.

More details, and ! Undefined control sequence. errors

Notice that you may need to use pdflatex above, not pdftex. That's because pdftex is for plain TeX format, whereas pdflatex is for LaTeX format. pdftex is more limited and doesn't process LaTeX packages at all, resulting in bad results. See here: TEX Stack Exchange: "Undefined control sequence" at beginning of any simple document.

If your .tex document has any \documentclass{} or \usepackage{} calls at all, for instance, then it is LaTeX format, and you'll have to use a tool such as latex, pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex instead of pdftex. pdflatex works very well for me.

The errors I see when I mistakenly try to process a LaTeX format document using pdftex look like this, for instance:

makani$ pdftex documentation/control/aero/aero_spec.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.22 (TeX Live 2022/dev/Debian) (preloaded format=pdftex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./documentation/control/aero/aero_spec.tex
! Undefined control sequence.
l.1 \documentclass
                  [11pt]{amsart}
? 
! Undefined control sequence.
l.2 \usepackage
               {geometry}
? 
! Undefined control sequence.
l.3 \geometry
             {letterpaper}
? 
! Undefined control sequence.
l.4 \usepackage
               {graphicx}
? 
! Undefined control sequence.
l.5 \usepackage
               {amssymb}
? 

To find the solution at the link above, I used this Google search: pdftex Undefined control sequence.

Full demo

Here's a full demo of an online LaTeX .tex file you can process. It works very well.

We will convert this LaTeX file to a PDF: https://github.com/google/makani/blob/master/documentation/control/aero/aero_spec.tex

# download this LaTeX file
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google/makani/master/documentation/control/aero/aero_spec.tex
# convert it to a PDF
pdflatex aero_spec.tex

Now, manually open up aero_spec.pdf in your favorite PDF viewer, such as Foxit Reader, which allows you to highlight, underline, write notes, etc, in the PDF.

Here's what the generated PDF looks like: