[R] seeking latex peace

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 25/05/2014, 6:17 AM, Jim Lemon wrote:
> Hi all,
> I realize that this is not an R question, but in attempting to build a new
> version of a package, I have encountered the error:
>
> Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet,  :
>    pdflatex is not available
>
> As I could not find any way to install pdflatex (it didn't appear on a yum
> search), I tried a method that claimed to install pdflatex via a package
> named "texlive". Almost 300 packages later and minus over 300 Mb of
> disk space, I then got the error:
>
> ! LaTeX Error: File `zi4.sty' not found.
>
> This seems to be an updated version of the "inconsolata.sty" error that
> used to torment me (and after reading a lot of messages about this,
> many other people as well), so I found the file "zi4.sty" and copied it into
> what I thought was the appropriate directory. It seems to be, as I now get
> the error:
>
> ! LaTeX Error: File `upquote.sty' not found.
>
> At this point, I wonder if someone would be kind enough to inform me
> whether this is a potentially infinite task of finding ".sty" files, in which
> case I will live without them, or if there is an easier method of satisfying
> the apparently immense appetite of LaTeX? Thanks.

I don't use TeXLive, but most LaTeX distributions offer a way to 
automatically install packages as needed.

But if you can't find it, you can just install them one by one:  it's 
not actually an infinite task.  I believe there are only about 4700 
packages on CTAN (the equivalent of CRAN for TeX, in fact I believe it 
was the first C*AN). At 5 minutes per attempt, you'll be done in a 
couple of weeks!

Duncan Murdoch