4.1. Latex settings in VScode

last update: Feb 07, 2024

4.1.1. Install TexLive on macOS

Download install-tl-unx.tar.gz

$ curl -OL http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz

Open install-tl-unx.tar.gz

$ tar xvf install-tl-unx.tar.gz

Change directory to the installer:

$ cd install-tl-2*

Install TexLive

$ sudo ./install-tl -no-gui -repository http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/

To start installation, type I and enter.

Actions:
 <I> start installation to hard disk
 <H> help
 <Q> quit
Enter command: I

Add a symbolic link to /usr/local/bin

$ sudo /usr/local/texlive/????/bin/*/tlmgr path add

4.1.2. Setting in VScode

1. Install LaTeX Workshop extension.

2. Open settings.json in VScode. In macOS, you can open it by typing the following command in the terminal.

   code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json
   

3. Add the following code to settings.json. You have two recipes, ptex2pdf*3 and ptex2pdf -> pbibtex -> ptex2pdf*2. The former is to compile .tex files without .bib, and the latter is for .tex files with .bib. Please refer to this page for more details.

   {
       // ...
       
       // latex
       "latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
           {
               "name":"ptex2pdf",
               "command": "ptex2pdf",
               "args": [
                   "-l",
                   "-ot",
                   "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                   "-kanji=utf8 -synctex=1", // for Japanese
                   "%DOC%"
               ]
           },
           {
               "name": "pbibtex",
               "command": "pbibtex",
               "args": [
                   "-kanji=utf8", // for Japanese
                   "%DOCFILE%"
               ]
           },
           {
               "name": "biber",
               "command": "biber",
               "args": [
                   "--bblencoding=utf8",
                   "-u",
                   "-U",
                   "--output_safechars",
                   "%DOCFILE%"
               ]
           },
       ],
       "latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
           {
               "name": "ptex2pdf*3",
               "tools":[
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "ptex2pdf",
               ]
           },
           {
               "name": "ptex2pdf -> pbibtex -> ptex2pdf*3",
               "tools":[
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "pbibtex",
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "ptex2pdf",
               ]
           },
           {
               "name": "ptex2pdf -> biber -> ptex2pdf * 2",
               "tools":[
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "biber",
                   "ptex2pdf",
                   "ptex2pdf",
               ]
           },
       ],
       "latex-workshop.latex.clean.fileTypes":
       [
           "*.bbl", "*.blg", "*.idx", "*.ind", "*.lof", "*.lot", "*.out", "*.toc", "*.acn", "*.acr", "*.alg",
           "*.glg", "*.glo", "*.gls", "*.ist", "*.fls", "*.log", "*.fdb_latexmk", "*.synctex.gz",
           "_minted*", "*.nav", "*.snm", "*.vrb",
       ],
       "latex-workshop.latex.autoClean.run": "onBuilt",
       "latex-workshop.latex.autoBuild.run": "onFileChange",
       "latex-workshop.synctex.afterBuild.enabled": true,
       "latex-workshop.view.pdf.viewer": "tab",
   }
   

4.1.3. Let’s compile your \(\LaTeX\) file!

Let’s make a test latex directory. Please download article-template from here. Then, open the directory in VScode. You can edit sections/intro.tex and compile it by cmd + S (Mac). Finally, you will get the modified main.pdf.

The directory structure is as follows:

article-template
|-- img/
|-- preamble.tex
|-- main.tex
|-- main.pdf
|-- ref.bib
`-- sections/
    |-- intro.tex
    |-- method.tex
    ...
    `-- appendix.tex

You can divide your main.tex into several files as above and include them in main.tex as follows:

\begin{document}
\maketitle
...

\input{sections/intro.tex}
\input{sections/method.tex}
...
\newpage
\bibliographystyle{abbrv}
\bibliography{ref}
\newpage
\input{sections/appendix.tex}

\end{document}