How to call latexmk in emacs, and jump to next-error

Question

I would like to use latexmk to compile my LaTeX documents in Emacs. Especially I need the Emacs functionality next-error, which is typically called with C-x `, and jumps to the next LaTeX error in the document.

I would like to call latexmk either using C-x compile or the AUCTeX C-c C-c.

First, I set latexmk to use

$pdflatex = 'pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode';

Option 1: C-x compile

I press C-x compile and type latexmk -pdf foo, which runs pdflatex. But next-error will not jump to the errors, even if the *compilation* buffer contains errors:

! Paragraph ended before \author was complete.
<to be read again> 
                   \par 
l.48 
[...]
Compilation exited abnormally with code 12 

How can I automatically jump to this error in line 48?

Note that this question of parsing the latex output has nothing to do with latexmk directly. The same problem occurs when I just do C-x compile pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode foo.

Option 2: AUCTeX

How can I set AUCTeX to call latexmk -pdf instead of pdflatex on my .tex file? Of course, I want next-error to work here too.

UPDATE: I started a bounty because if this worked it would be a great tool for many people. I consider the question answered if a solution is given that lets me easily compile my LaTeX document using latexmk in Emacs and jump to the errors using next-error (of course, the errors might be in included .tex files, not necessarily in the master file or the current buffer).

UPDATE: Thanks to Ivan (and Chris) for making AUCTeX+Latexmk work. In the meantime, I found that using Rubber to compile LaTeX is also an excellent choice. It will display error messages in the format used by gcc and other compilers, so it naturally works with Emacs C-x compile, e.g. C-x compile rubber --pdf foo, and the error messages are parsed correctly.

Polio

See also this remotely related question https://mcmap.net/q/274173/-don-39-t-make-me-manually-abort-a-latex-compile-when-there-39-s-an-error. – Polio

There is also TeX-run-compile so that you can use the AucTeX interface to kick of the compile process. Try C-h v TeX-command-list RET to see the full list of different methods available. – Disengagement

See also github.com/tom-tan/auctex-latexmk, available through Emacs package managers (not sure on which repo). – Negress

Answer 1

Sorry I don't have the ability to comment, or I would just add this as a comment. Chris Conway's answer works, except that it should use TeX-run-TeX instead of TeX-run-command so that AucTeX knows to process the error messages.

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
  (push 
    '("Latexmk" "latexmk -pdf %s" TeX-run-TeX nil t
      :help "Run Latexmk on file")
    TeX-command-list)))

It might also be wise to add something like

'("%(-PDF)"
  (lambda ()
    (if (and (not TeX-Omega-mode)
             (or TeX-PDF-mode TeX-DVI-via-PDFTeX))
        "-pdf" "")))

to TeX-expand-list and use "latexmk %(-PDF) %s" so that it will work in both pdf and dvi mode. Personally, I find it easier to use customize especially when you are experimenting.

Disengagement

If your comments get 250 bounties, your answers must be superb! =) – Corroborate

Oh, they are superb. :) – Disengagement

Answer 2

It's relatively easy to get AucTeX to run latexmk with C-c C-c. The following will add a Latexmk choice to the list of TeX commands:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
  (push 
    '("Latexmk" "latexmk -pdf %s" TeX-run-command nil t 
      :help "Run Latexmk on file")
    TeX-command-list)))

The trick is getting next-error to work. If you dig around in the AucTeX sources, you can probably find the regex it uses on TeX output buffers; it's not automatically applied to the buffer created by TeX-run-command. (You might also be able to convince compile mode to use this regex.)

Another approach is to redefine the variable LaTeX-command. This is a bit iffy because I think a lot of AucTeX functions assume they can tack command-line options onto this string and execute the result.

Isometropia

Wow thanks for this nice bit of code I was having a maddening problem that i couldn't fix and somehow this snippet made everything work. +1 – Windsor

Answer 3

Adding %(mode) gives latexmk some more options like noninteractive if it is set so in auctex.

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
  (push 
    '("Latexmk" "latexmk -pdf %(mode) %s" TeX-run-TeX nil t
      :help "Run Latexmk on file")
    TeX-command-list)))

Magical