latex-fast-compile

A small executable that pre-compile the preamble to speed up future compilations (with pdflatex). Then, it watches for file changes, and automatically recompile the source .tex file using this precompiled preamble.

Usage

> latex-fast-compile -h
latex-fast-compile (version: --): compile latex source using precompiled header.

Usage: latex-fast-compile [options] filename[.tex].
  If filename.fmt is missing it is build before the compilation.
  The available options are:

      --precompile              Force to create .fmt file even if it exists.
      --skip-fmt                Skip .fmt file and compile all.
      --no-synctex              Do not build .synctex file.
      --no-watch                Do not watch for file changes in the .tex file.
  -x, --xelatex                 Use xelatex in place of pdflatex.
      --compiles-at-start int   Number of compiles before to start watching. (default 1)
      --info string             The info level [no|errors|errors+log|actions|debug]. (default "actions")
      --log-sanitize string     Match the log against this regex before display, or display all if empty.
                                 (default "(?ms)^(?:! |l\\.|<recently read> ).*?$(?:\\s^.*?$){0,2}")
      --split string            The regex that defines the end of the preamble.
                                 (default "(?m)^\\s*(?:%\\s*end\\s*preamble|\\\\begin{document})")
      --temp-folder string      Folder to store all temp files, .fmt included.
      --clear string            Clear auxiliary files and .fmt at end [auto|yes|no].
                                 When watching auto=true, else auto=false.
                                In debug mode clear is false. (default "auto")
      --aux-extensions string   Extensions to remove in clear at the end procedure.
                                 (default "aux,bbl,blg,fmt,fff,glg,glo,gls,idx,ilg,ind,lof,lot,nav,out,ptc,snm,sta,stp,toc")
      --no-normalize            Keep accents and spaces in intermediate file names.
      --option strings          Additional option to pass to the compiler. Can be used multiple times.
  -v, --version                 Print the version number.
  -h, --help                    Print this help message.

Example

To compile cylinder.tex you can simply use:

> latex-fast-compile cylinder.tex
 create cylinder.body.tex
 create cylinder.preamble.tex
::::::: Precompile...done [2.0s]
::::::: Compile (use precompiled cylinder.fmt)...done [1.1s]
Watching for file changes...(to exit press Ctrl/Cmd-C).

1. The source cylinder.tex is split to cylinder.preamble.tex and cylinder.body.tex.
2. Then if the precompiled header is missing (cylinder.fmt is missing in our case) it is precompiled from cylinder.preamble.tex.
3. The file is compiled using this precompiled header (cylinder.fmt in our case) from cylinder.body.tex.
4. The program waits (except if --no-watch is used) for new changes in the .tex file. At every change the source is re-split and the body part is re-compiled using the precompiled header.

How it works

The .tex file is split into two files .preamble.tex and .body.tex. The file is split at % end preamble comment or at \begin{document} (which comes first). The file .preamble.tex is precompiled to .fmt only if needed. The file .body.tex is compiled using this .fmt file to .pdf.

The split point is controlled by the regular expression defined in the --split flag. This regular expression follows the go re2 syntax.

Printed information

The output information is controlled by the string flags --info and --log-sanitize. The regular expression set in --log-sanitize, used to sanitize the log file, follows the go re2 syntax.

Temp folder

To keep your folder clean of temporary files, precompiled .fmt included, a temp folder can be set with the --temp-folders flag. In the case of MiKTeX -aux-directory is used, but in TeX Live this option is not available so -output-directory is used, but then the resulting pdf and the corresponding synctex should be moved back to the main folder.

Bizarre file names

If the filename has non ascii symbols and/or spaces, it is normalized (except if -no-normalize is used). For example Très étrange.tex will be normalized to Tresetrange.tex and at the end the resulting Tresetrange.pdf will be renamed back to Très étrange.pdf.

latex-fast-compile Très\ étrange.tex --no-watch --compiles-at-start=2
 create Tresetrange.body.tex
 create Tresetrange.preamble.tex
::::::: Precompile...done [3.3s]
::::::: Compile draft (use precompiled Tresetrange.fmt)...done [1.9s]
::::::: Compile (use precompiled Tresetrange.fmt)...done [2.3s]
 copy Tresetrange.pdf to Très étrange.pdf
 delete Tresetrange.pdf
 move Tresetrange.synctex to Très étrange.synctex
 remove Tresetrange.preamble.tex
 remove Tresetrange.body.tex

This is necessary because this kind of filenames do not work well for precompiled .fmt files.

XeLaTex

We can use xelatex in place of pdflatex by specifying the -x (--xelatex) option. But it is good to know that fontspec and polyglossia (and any other package that access ttf or otf fonts) can't be in the precompiled header. If these two libraries are present in the preamble they are moved outside. But if they are included indirectly, the compilation will fail.

Installation

Precompiled executables

You can download the executable for your platform from the releases.

Compile it yourself

Using Go

This method will compile to executable named latex-fast-compile.

$ go get github.com/kpym/latex-fast-compile

Using goreleaser

After cloning this repo you can compile the sources with goreleaser for all available platforms:

git clone https://github.com/kpym/latex-fast-compile.git .
goreleaser --snapshot --skip-publish --clean

You will find the resulting binaries in the dist/ sub-folder.

License

MIT License