Question

I need to generate a pdf from a tex file, as a temporary file. However I’m facing an error. I believe it’s due to the fact that the function tools::texi2dvi is just a call for the system command with the same name. Since the Rtmp directory just allow R to create files, I can’t create the pdf file there.

There’s what I’m trying to the, and the error I get:

> tf <- tempfile()
> brew("template.brew", tf)
> tools::texi2dvi(tf)

Error in tools::texi2dvi(tf) : 
    Running 'texi2dvi' on '/tmp/Rtmp9n4JFU/filea5811e6a32a' failed.
Messages:
    /usr/bin/texi2dvi: etex exited with bad status, quitting.

I believe one workaround would be create a new temporary file using tempfile() and ask tools::texi2dvi to write the output on it. However I don’t know if the system is allowed to edit a file. And also, I couldn’t find a way to set tools::texi2dvi output file.

Does anyone know a workaround?

Thanks!

Answer 1

TeX is apparently confused by the lack of file extension.
The following should work.

tf <- tempfile(fileext=".tex")
cat(
  "\\documentclass{minimal}\\begin{document}test\\end{document}", 
  file=tf
)
tools::texi2dvi(tf)