Question

I’m using GNU/Linux distro (Arch, if that’s relevant), Emacs v23.2.1, ESS v5.9 and AucTeX v11.86.

I want to setup AucTeX to recognize .Rnw files, so I can run LaTeX on .Rnw files with C-c C-c and get .dvi file automatically. I reckon it’s quite manageable by editing .emacs file, but I still haven’t got a firm grasp on Elisp.

Yet another problem is quite annoying – somehow, LaTeX is not recognizing \usepackage{Sweave} in preambule, so I actually need to copy Sweave.sty file (in my case located in /usr/share/R/texmf/Sweave.sty) to directory where .Rnw file is located (and I’m becoming more frustrated by the fact that this is common bug on Windows platforms!)

My question boils down to two problems:

• how to make LaTeX recognize \usepackage{Sweave} (without copying Sweave.sty to “home” folder each time) [Edit: managed to do this; see comment after Dirk’s answer]
• how to setup AucTeX to compile .Rnw files to .dvi

Answer 1

That’s two different questions.

For the first one, my Debian R packages make sure that there is a soft link from the $RHOME/share/texmf/ directory into the TeX file system tree, e.g. as /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/R.

For the second question: dunno. I tend to run Sweave via a small shell script I crafted years ago even though I do all the editing in Emacs.

Edit, a few months later: Use ESS, rather than AucTeX. Then M-n s (i.e Alt-n followed by s) runs the Sweave step and M-n P runs the LaTeX compilation, with a call to Bibtex if needed.