How to set PATH to pdfLaTeX on Ubuntu 12.04

Question

When I attempt to build my package, `saber`, I get the following error message in the RStudio Compile PDF window. ``` Unabled to find specified LaTeX program 'pdfLaTeX' on the system path ``` The R-bloggers post describes the problem I'm experiencing. So I run: ``` > Sys.which("pdflatex") pdflatex "" > Sys.getenv("PATH") [1] "/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games" ``` That second path seems absolutely wrong. The problem is, I'm still in my first year working on a linux-based system and have no idea what to change so that `pdfLaTeX` is in the path. I admittedly don't spend a lot of time running commands in the terminal, and need some guidance on how to get this fixed so I can build the package without errors. How do I find, then change the PATH so that `pdfLaTeX` is in the path? ``` > version _ platform x86_64-pc-linux-gnu arch x86_64 os linux-gnu system x86_64, linux-gnu status major 3 minor 1.0 year 2014 month 04 day 10 svn r…

Accepted Answer

You need to install texlive. Use this at the command line:

```
sudo apt-get install texlive
# or if you want all the packages (big install)
sudo apt-get install texlive-full
```

It will be installed into a location that is already on your path too so you won't need to fiddle with the PATH to get it to work once it's installed.

How to set PATH to pdfLaTeX on Ubuntu 12.04

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