by Ian Bacher, Marciano Siniscalchi, and Richard Stein

Marciano's blog: http://tekonomist.wordpress.com

Additional contributors (thank you thank you thank you): first of all, Wallace Wu and Juerg Rast, who contributed code for multifile support in ref and cite completions, "new-style" ref/cite completion, and project file support. Also, skuroda (Preferences menu), Sam Finn (initial multifile support for the build command); Daniel Fleischhacker (Linux build fixes), Mads Mobaek (universal newline support), Stefan Ollinger (initial Linux support), RoyalTS (aka Tobias Schidt?) (help with bibtex regexes and citation code, various fixes), Juan Falgueras (latexmk option to handle non-ASCII paths), Jeremy Jay (basic biblatex support), Ray Fang (texttt snippet), Ulrich Gabor (tex engine selection and cleaning aux files), Wes Campaigne and 'jlegewie' (ref/cite completion 2.0!). Huge thanks to Daniel Shannon (aka phyllisstein) who first ported LaTeXTools to ST3. Also thanks for Charley Peng, who has been assisting users and generating great pull requests; I'll merge them as soon as possible. Also William Ledoux (various Windows fixes, env support), Sean Zhu (find Skim.app in non-standard locations), Maximilian Berger (new center/table snippet), Lucas Nanni (recursively delete temp files), Sergey Slipchenko ($ auto-pairing with Vintage), btstream (original fill-all command; LaTeX-cwl support), Richard Stein (auto-hide build panel, jump to included tex files, LaTeX-cwl support config, TEX spellcheck support, functions to analyze LaTeX documents, cache functionality, multiple cursor editing), Dan Schrage (nobibliography command), PoByBolek (more biblatex command), Rafael Lerm (support for multiple lines in \bibliography commands), Jeff Spencer (override keep_focus and forward_sync via key-binding), Jonas Malaco Filho (improvements to the Evince scripts), Michael Bar-Sinai (bibtex snippets).

If you have contributed and I haven't acknowledged you, email me!

Latest revision: v3.8.5 (2016-07-07).

Headline features:

• Welcome to Richard Stein who joined the team several weeks ago!
• Support for output directory and aux directory
• Support for editing BibTeX and BibLaTeX files
• Improved environment and command completions
• Viewer for Zathura
• New, Improved README format

This plugin provides several features that simplify working with LaTeX files:

• The ST build command takes care of compiling your LaTeX source to PDF using texify (Windows/MikTeX) or latexmk (OSX/MacTeX, Windows/TeXlive, Linux/TeXlive). Then, it parses the log file and lists errors and warning. Finally, it launches (or refreshes) the PDF viewer (SumatraPDF on Windows, Skim on OSX, and Evince on Linux by default) and jumps to the current cursor position.
• Forward and inverse search with the named PDF previewers is fully supported
• Easy insertion of references and citations (from BibTeX files)
• Plugs into the "Goto anything" facility to make jumping to any section or label in your LaTeX file(s)
• Smart command completion for a variety of text and math commands is provided
• Additional snippets and commands are also provided
• The build command is fully customizable, as is the PDF previewer.

Please read the Requirements and Setup section carefully to ensure you get up and running as quickly as possible. Help for troubleshooting common issues can be found in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this README. For other bugs, issues or to request new features, please get in touch with us via Github.

Please search for existing issues and pull requests before opening a new issue.

First, you need to be running Sublime Text 2 or 3 (ST2 and ST3 henceforth, or simply ST to refer to either ST2 or ST3). For ST3, this has been tested against the latest beta builds.

Second, get the LaTeXTools plugin. These days, the easiest way to do so is via Package Control. See here for details on how to set it up (it's very easy). Once you have Package Control up and running, invoke it (via the Command Palette from the Tools menu, or from Preferences), select the Install Package command, and look for LaTeXTools.

If you prefer a more hands-on approach, you can always clone the git repository, or else just grab this plugin's .zip file from GitHub and extract it to your Packages directory (you can open it easily from ST, by clicking on Preferences|Browse Packages). Then, (re)launch ST. Please note that if you do a manual installation, the Package must be named "LaTeXTools".

I encourage you to install Package Control anyway, because it's awesome, and it makes it easy to keep your installed packages up-to-date (see the previously linked page for details).

Third, follow the OS-specific instructions below.

Finally, look at the section on Platform-Specific Settings and ensure that all your settings are correct. If you are running LaTeXTools for the first time, you may want to run the LaTeXTools: Reset user settings to default command from the Command Palette to get an editable copy of the settings file.

On OSX, you need to be running the MacTeX distribution (which is pretty much the only one available on the Mac anyway). Just download and install it in the usual way. I have tested MacTeX versions 2010--2014, both 32 and 64 bits; these work fine. MacTeX 2015 also works. On the other hand, MacTeX 2008 does not seem to work out of the box (compilation fails), so please upgrade.

We recommend that you also install the Skim PDF viewer, as this provides forward and inverse search and is the default viewer that LaTeXTools uses on OS X. If you don't install Skim, please see the section on Viewers below for details on how to setup a viewer.

To configure inverse search, open the Preferences dialog of the Skim.app, select the Sync tab, then:

• uncheck the "Check for file changes" option
• choose the Sublime Text 2 or Sublime Text 3 preset (yes, Skim now supports both ST2 and ST3 by default!)

In case you are using an old version of Skim, you can always choose the Custom preset and enter (for ST3):

/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl

in the Command field, and "%file":%line in the Arguments field. (This is correct as of 7/18/2013; you may want to double-check that ST3 is indeed in /Applications/Sublime Text.app; just go to the Applications folder in the Finder. Adapt as needed for ST2).

Finally, edit the file LaTeXTools.sublime-settings in the User directory to make sure that the configuration reflects your preferred TeX distribution. Open the file and scroll down to the section titled "Platform settings." Look at the block for your OS, namely "osx". Within that block, verify that the "texpath" setting is correct. Note that "texpath" must include $PATH somewhere.

If you don't want to install the entire MacTeX distro, which is pretty big, BasicTeX will also work (of course, as long as the LaTeX packages you need are included). However, you need to explicitly add the latexmk utility, which is not included by default: from the Terminal, type sudo tlmgr install latexmk (you will need to provide your password, assuming you are Administrator on your machine).

Sadly, with each OS X release, Apple deviates more and more from established Unix conventions. The latest "innovation" is that, beginning with El Capitan, applications can no longer write to /usr. MacTeX 2015 remedies this by creating a link to TeX binaries in /Library/TeX. The default LaTeXTools settings file now adds /Library/TeX/texbin to the texpath. In practice, this means the following.

• If you are running MacTeX 2015 and have not customized the texpath option in your user settings file, you do not need to take further action.

• If you are running MacTex 2015 and have customized texpath, open your user settings file (remember, you can do so from the Preferences | Package Settings | LaTeXTools submenu) and add /Library/TeX/texbin as the first entry in texpath.

• If you are running earlier MacTeX versions, unfortunately you do not have the /Library/TeX/texbin link at all, so adding that path to texpath would not help. You have two options: create the link yourself, or edit the texpath option to point to the appropriate directory. Check Section 8 of this document for details.

Sorry for the complications. It's not my fault.

On Windows, both MikTeX and TeXLive are supported. Install either of these as usual.

We recommend that you install a version of Sumatra PDF viewer, as this is the only viewer currently supported on Windows. Its very light-weight and supports both forward and inverse search. Just download and install it in the normal way. You may have to add the SumatraPDF directory to your PATH environment variable or else set the sumatra command in the windows platform settings (see the section on platform settings below). If you choose not to install SumatraPDF, you might be able to use the command viewer to support another PDF viewer. See the Viewers section below for details.

You now need to set up inverse search in Sumatra PDF. However, the GUI for doing this is hidden in Sumatra until you open a PDF file that has actual synchronization information (that is, an associated .synctex.gz file): see here. If you have one such file, then open it, go to Settings|Options, and enter "C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 2\sublime_text.exe" "%f:%l" for ST2, and "C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe" "%f:%l" for ST3, as the inverse-search command line (in the text-entry field at the bottom of the options dialog). If you don't already have a file with sync information, you can easily create one: compile any LaTex file you already have (or create a new one) with pdflatex -synctex=1 <file.tex>, and then open the resulting PDF file in SumatraPDF.

As an alternative, you can open a command-line console (run cmd.exe), and issue the following command (this assumes that SumatraPDF.exe is in your path; replace 3 with 2 for ST2 of course):

sumatrapdf.exe -inverse-search "\"C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe\" \"%f:%l\""

I'm sorry this is not straightforward---it's not my fault :-)

Finally, edit the file LaTeXTools.sublime-settings in the User directory to make sure that the configuration reflects your preferred TeX distribution. Open the file and scroll down to the section titled "Platform settings." Look at the block for your OS, namely windows. Within that block, verify that the texpath setting is correct; for MiKTeX, you can leave this empty, i.e., "". If you do specify a path, note that it must include the system path variable, i.e., $PATH (this syntax seems to be OK). Also verify that the distro setting is correct: the possible values are "miktex" and "texlive".

TeXlive has one main advantage over MikTeX: it supports file names and paths with spaces.

Recent versions of MikTeX add themselves to your path automatically, but in case the build system does not work, that's the first thing to check. TeXLive can also add itself to your path.

Linux support is coming along nicely. However, as a general rule, you will need to do some customization before things work. This is due to differences across distributions (a.k.a. "fragmentation"). Do not expect things to work out of the box.

You need to install TeXlive; if you are on Ubuntu, note that apt-get install texlive will get you a working but incomplete setup. In particular, it will not bring in latexmk, which is essential to LaTeXTools. You need to install it via apt-get install latexmk. If on the other hand you choose to install the TeXlive distro from TUG, latexmk comes with it, so you don't need to do anything else.

You also need to edit the file LaTeXTools.sublime-settings in the User directory to make sure that the configuration reflects your preferred TeX distribution. Open that file and scroll down to the section titled "Platform settings." Look at the block for your OS, namely "linux". Within that block, verify that the "texpath" setting is correct. Notice that this must include $PATH somewhere, or things will not work.

You may also have to set the command option in "builder_settings", which tells the builder how to invoke latexmk. By default (i.e., if command is empty or not given) it is ["latexmk", "-cd", "-e", "-f", "-pdf", "-interaction=nonstopmode", "-synctex=1"].

If you customize the command to include a custom PDF command, users have reported the following possible issues and fixes (thanks!), so if you get a "Cannot compile!" error, try the following:

• some distros do not want a space before and after the = in $pdflatex = %E. But some do want the space there (sigh!)
• sometimes latexmk is not on the PATH, or the path is not correctly picked up by ST. In this case, instead of "latexmk", use "/usr/bin/latexmk" or wherever latexmk is in your system.
• some distros require quoting the $pdflatex assignment, as in "$pdflatex = \"'%E -interaction=nonstopmode -synctex=1 %S %O'\""

There are several variants to deal with; each distro is a little bit different, so there are basically no universal defaults. There's not much I can do about it. Good luck!

Also, to get inverse search working on ST3, make sure you set the sublime option in LaTeXTools.sublime-settings correctly; the Ubuntu package from the ST web page uses subl, but check from the command line first.

By default LaTeXTools assumes you are using Evince (Document Viewer) as your PDF viewer. Support is also available for Okular and other viewers that can be run via the command line. See the section on Viewers below for details on how to setup other viewers.

If you opt to use Evince, which is installed by default on Ubuntu and any distro that provides the Gnome desktop. Please note that you will also need to have the Python dbus bindings installed for your system version of Python. If you use a Gnome desktop, this is likely already installed, but if not, you will need to install it using your distro's package manager. In particular, it's been reported not to be installed by Arch Linux by default. Backward and forward search Work For Me (TM). Hopefully they will work for you, too, but let me know if this is not the case.

Project files are fully supported! You should consult the subsection on project-specific settings for further details.

Multi-file documents are supported as follows. If the first line in the current file consists of the text %!TEX root = <master file name>, then tex & friends are invoked on the specified master file, instead of the current one. Note: the only file that gets saved automatically is the current one. Also, the master file name must have a valid tex extension (i.e., one configured in the tex_file_exts settings), or it won't be recognized.

As an alternative, to using the %!TEX root = <master file name> syntax, if you use a Sublime project, you can set the TEXroot option (under settings):

{
	... <folder-related settings> ...

	"settings": {
		"TEXroot": "yourfilename.tex"
	}
}

Note that if you specify a relative path as the TEXroot in the project file, the path is determined relative to the location of the project file itself. It may be less ambiguous to specify an absolute path to the TEXroot if possible.

LaTeXTools parses the %!TEX spellcheck directive to set the language for the spell-checker integrated in Sublime Text. The Dictionaries package is recommended and supported. If you have additional dictionaries, you can add them using the tex_spellcheck_paths setting, which is a mapping from the locales to the dictionary paths. Each locale must be lowercase and use only a hyphen as a separator. The dictionary paths must be compatible with those used by Sublime Text's spell-checker. For example {"en-us": "Packages/Language - English/en_US.dic"} would be a valid value. For more on Sublime Text support for spell checking, see the relevant online documentation.

LaTeXTools has some degree of support for LaTeX documents that are in files with an extension other than .tex. In particular, this feature is designed to work well with alternative extensions, such as .ltx. Other extensions such as .Rnw and .tikz are supported, but, for now they will be treated as standard LaTeX documents (patches are always welcome!).

This behaviour is controlled through two settings, tex_file_exts and latextools_set_syntax. For more on these settings, see the documentation on General Settings.

Note that while the extension detection is used by features of LaTeXTools, including, other features---especially the completions---depend on the syntax of the file being set to LaTeX as well.

You can consult the documentation for any LaTeX package by invoking the View Package Documentation command via the Command Palette (for now). This relies on your system's texdoc command.

LaTeXTools has some enhanced support for editing either BibTeX or BibLaTeX .bib files. Snippet completions are provided for every entry type supported by either BibTeX or BibLaTeX, as are completions for field names. In addition, LaTeXTools provides smart completions for name fields (such as author, editor, etc.) and crossrefs. When auto-completions are triggered in a name field, a list of all entered names in the current file is presented. Similarly, when auto-completions are triggered in a crossref field, a list of all current entry keys will be provided.

This behaviour is controlled by a single setting, use_biblatex (default: false), which indicates whether LaTeXTools should use the BibTeX versions of the auto-completions (this is the default behavior) or the BibLaTeX versions of the auto-completions (if use_biblatex is set to true).

LaTeXTools uses a cache to store relevant information about your document and improve the performance of commands. The contents of this cache may become outdated. If a command seems to be returning old data, simply clear the cache using either the command delete temporary files or the dedicated command to clear the cache. For more details on the cache, see the Cache settings section below and the section on the Cache.

Most of the builder features are controlled through the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file. See, in particular, the section on builder settings.

The default builder (called the traditional builder) supports several additional features.

If the first line of the current file consists of the text %!TEX program = <program>, where program is pdflatex, lualatex or xelatex, the corresponding engine is selected. If no such directive is specified, pdflatex is the default. Multi-file documents are supported: the directive must be in the root (i.e. master) file. Also, for compatibility with TeXshop, you can use TS-program instead of program.

Note: for this to work, you must not customize the command option in LaTeXTools.sublime-settings. If you do, you will not get this functionality. Finally, if you use project files, the program builder setting can also be customized there, under settings.

You can pass command-line options to your engine in two ways (thanks Ian Bacher!). One is to use a %!TEX options = ... line at the top of your file. The other is to use the options builder setting in your settings file. This can be useful, for instance, if you need to allow shell escape. Finally, if you use project files, the options builder setting can also be customized there (again, under settings).

The --output-directory and --aux-directory flags can be set in several ways:

• Using a TEX directive, such as %!TEX output_directory = <path> near the top of the file.
• Using the TeX Options feature to set --output-directory and / or --aux-directory.
• Using the corresponding output_directory and aux_directory settings detailed in the settings section.

There are three special values that can be used, <<temp>> <<project>> and <<cache>>. Their meaning is the same as that found in the settings section and they are described there.

Note: the --aux-directory flag is only meaningful when used with MiKTeX, but see the copy_on_build setting for an option to get some similar behaviour with TeXLive.

Note: These flags can only be set when using latexmk (default on OS X and Linux), the basic builder or the script builder (see below for documentation on using the script builder). If you are using texify (default when using MiKTeX) or the simple builder, setting these flags through any method will be ignored.

The --jobname flag can be set in several ways:

• Using a TEX directive, such as %!TEX jobname = <jobname> near the top of the file.
• Using the TeX Options feature to set --jobname
• Using the corresponding jobname setting detailed in the settings section.

Note: Jobname can only be set when using latexmk (default on OS X and Linux), the basic builder or the script builder (see below for documentation on using the script builder). If you are using texify (default when using MiKTeX) or the simple builder, setting the jobname flag through any method will be ignored.

It is possible to customize the command run by setting the command option under Builder Settings. See the section on Builder Settings for details.

Note: If you customize the command, the TeX engine selection facility may no longer work because it relies on a specific compilation command. However, if you want to customize or replace latexmk/texify, you probably know how to select the right TeX engine, so this shouldn't be a concern. Also note that if you are using latexmk and you set the $pdflatex variable, the TeX options facility will not function, as latexmk does not support this.

If you change the compilation command, you are responsible for making it work on your setup. Only customize the compilation command if you know what you're doing.

If the default builder doesn't meet your needs for any reason, please see the section on Alternative Builders below.

By default, LaTeXTools supports the following viewers, depending on platform:

• On OS X, Skim
• On Windows, Sumatra
• On Linux, Evince

However, it is possible to use other programs to view PDF files. Currently, there are viewers available for Preview.app, Okular and Zathura. These viewers can be chosen by changing the "viewer" setting. See the Viewer Settings section for details. If you are using an alternate viewer, please see the relevant section under Alternate Viewers for any caveats or other instructions. In addition, there is a viewer, called the Command Viewer which can be used to launch a PDF document using the command line.

Keybindings have been chosen to make them easier to remember, and also to minimize clashes with existing (and standard) ST bindings. I am taking advantage of the fact that ST supports key combinations, i.e. sequences of two (or more) keys. The basic principle is simple:

• Most LaTeXTools facilities are triggered using Ctrl+l (Windows, Linux) or Cmd+l (OS X), followed by some other key or key combination

• Compilation uses the standard ST "build" keybinding, i.e. Ctrl-b on Windows and Linux and Cmd-b on OS X. So does the "goto anything" facility (though this may change).

For example: to jump to the point in the PDF file corresponding to the current cursor position, use Ctrl-l, j: that is, hit Ctrl-l, then release both the Ctrl and the l keys, and quickly type the j key (OS X users: replace Ctrl with Cmd). To wrap the selected text in an \emph{} command, use Ctrl-l, Ctrl-e: that is, hit Ctrl-l, release both keys, then hit Ctrl-e (again, OS X users hit Cmd-l and then Cmd-e).

Ctrl-l (Cmd-l on OS X) is the standard ST keybinding for "expand selection to line"; this is remapped to Ctrl-l,Ctrl-l (Cmd-l,Cmd-l on OS X). This is the only standard ST keybinding that is affected by the plugin---an advantage of new-style keybindings.

Most plugin facilities are invoked using sequences of 2 keys or key combinations, as in the examples just given. A few use sequences of 3 keys or key combinations.

Henceforth, I will write C- to mean Ctrl- for Linux or Windows, and Cmd- for OS X. You know your platform, so you know what you should use. In a few places, to avoid ambiguities, I will spell out which key I mean.

Keybinding: C-b (standard ST keybinding)

LaTeXTools offers a fully customizable build process. This section describes the default process, also called "traditional" because it is the same (with minor tweaks) as the one used in previous releases. However, see below for how to customize the build process.

The default ST Build command takes care of the following:

• It saves the current file
• It invokes the tex build command (texify for MikTeX; latexmk for TeXlive and MacTeX).
• It parses the tex log file and lists all errors, warnings and, if enabled, bad boxes in an output panel at the bottom of the ST window: click on any error/warning/bad boxes to jump to the corresponding line in the text, or use the ST-standard Next Error/Previous Error commands.
• It invokes the PDF viewer for your platform and performs a forward search: that is, it displays the PDF page where the text corresponding to the current cursor position is located.

Keybinding: C-l,t,f (yes, this means C-l, then t, then f)

By default, after compilation, the focus stays on the ST window. This is convenient if you like to work with the editor and PDF viewer window open side by side, and just glance at the PDF output to make sure that all is OK. If however the editor and viewer windows overlap (e.g. if you have a small screen), you may prefer the viewer window to get the focus (i.e. become the foremost window) after compiling. To this end, you can use the toggle_focus command to change this behavior. The first time you invoke this command, the focus will shift to the viewer window after compiling the current file; if you invoke the command again, the post-compilation focus reverts to the editor window. Every time you invoke toggle_focus, a message will appear in the status bar.

You can change the default focus behavior via the keep_focus option: see the "Settings" section below.

Keybinding: C-l,t,s

By default, after compilation, LaTeXTools performs a 'forward search' so that the PDF viewer shows the point in the PDF file corresponding to the current cursor position in ST (by the way, you can trigger a forward search at any other time, not just when you are compiling: see below). If for whatever reason you don't like this behavior, you can turn it off using the toggle_fwdsync command. As for toggle_focus, a message will appear in the status bar to reflect this.

You can also change the default sync behavior via the forward_sync option: see the "Settings" section below.

Keybinding: C-l,t,?

This causes the status message to list the default settings of the focus and sync options, and their current toggle values. It also display the status of the ref/cite auto trigger toggles (see below).

Keybinding: C-l,backspace

This deletes all temporary files from a previous build (the PDF file is kept). Subfolders are traversed recursively. This command also clears the LaTeXTools cache.

Two settings allow you to fine-tune the behavior of this command. temp_files_exts allows you to specify which file extensions should be considered temporary, and hence deleted. temp_files_ignored_folders allows you to specify folders that should not be traversed. A good example are .git folders, for people who use git for version control.

Note: If you use any of the special values with the output directory or auxiliary directory feature, the above is ignored, and the entire directory is simply deleted. If you are using the auxiliary directory feature without using an output directory, the auxiliary directory will be cleared and the normal process will be run.

Keybinding: C-l,C-d,C-c

This clears the LaTeXTools cache. It is useful if the LaTeXTools cache information gets too out of date, but you want to maintain the LaTeX build files, such as .aux.

Keybinding: C-l,j (for forward search; inverse search depends on the previewer)

When working in an ST view on a TeX document, C-l,j will display the PDF page where the text corresponding to the current cursor position is located; this is called a "forward search". The focus is controlled by the C-l,t,f toggle setting and the keep_focus option.

If you are viewing a PDF file, then hitting CMD+Shift+Click in Skim (OSX), double-clicking in Sumatra (Windows), or hitting Ctrl+click in Evince (Linux) will bring you to the location in the source tex file corresponding to the PDF text you clicked on. This is called "inverse search".

To open a PDF file without performing a forward search, use C-l,v.

For support of forward and inverse search in other viewers, see the viewer section below.

Keybinding: autotriggered by default (see below). Otherwise, C-l,x for 'cross-reference,' or C-l,C-f (via the Fill Helper facility: see below). These are fully equivalent ways of invoking ref/cite completions.

The basic idea is to help you insert labels in \ref{} commands and bibtex keys in \cite{} commands. The appropriate key combination shows a list of available labels or keys, and you can easily select the appropriate one. Full filtering facilities are provided.

Notes:

1. In order to find all applicable labels and bibtex keys, the plugin looks at the saved file. So, if you invoke this command and do not see the label or key you just entered, perhaps you haven't saved the file.

2. Only bibliographies in external .bib files are supported: no \bibitem.... Sorry. It's hard as it is.

3. Multi-file documents are fully supported.

Now for the details. (Many of these features were contributed by Wes Campaigne and jlewegie, whom I thank profusely.)

By default, as soon as you type, for example, \ref{ or \cite{, a quick panel is shown (this is the fancy drop-down list ST displays at the top of the screen), listing, respectively, all the labels in your files, or all the entries in the bibliographies you reference your file(s) using the \bibliography{} command. This is the default auto-trigger behavior, and it can be a big time saver. You can, however, turn it off, either temporarily using a toggle, or permanently by way of preference settings: see below. Once the quick panel is shown, you can narrow down the entries shown by typing a few characters. As with any ST quick panel, what you type will be fuzzy-matched against the label names or, for citations, the content of the first displayed line in each entry (by default, the author names, year of publication, short title and citation key: see below). This is wildly convenient, and one of the best ST features: try it!

If auto-triggering is off, when you type e.g. \ref{, ST helpfully provides the closing brace, leaving your cursor between the two braces. Now, you need to type C-l,x to get the quick panel showing all labels in the current file. You can also type e.g. \ref{aa [again, the closing brace is provided by ST], then C-l, x, and LaTeXTools will show a list of labels that fuzzy-match the string aa.

In either case, you then select the label you want, hit Return, and LaTeXTools inserts the full ref command, as in \ref{my-label}. The LaTeX command \eqref works the same way. Citations from bibtex files are also supported in a similar way. Use \cite{}, \citet{}, \citeyear{} etc.

One often needs to enter multiple citations, as e.g. in \cite{paper1,paper2}. This is easy to do: either cite the first paper, e.g. \cite{paper1} and then, with your cursor immediately before the right brace, type a comma (,). Again, the default auto-trigger behavior is that the quick panel with appear, and you can select the second paper. If auto-trigger is off, then you enter the comma, then use the shortcut C-l,x to bring up the quick panel (note: you must add the comma before invoking the shortcut, or you won't get the intended result). Of course, you can enter as many citations as you want.

The display of bibliographic entries is customizable. There is a setting, cite-panel-format, that controls exactly what to display in each of the two lines each entry gets in the citation quick panel. Options include author, title, short title, year, bibtex key, and journal. This is useful because people may prefer to use different strategies to refer to papers---author-year, short title-year, bibtex key (!), etc. Since only the first line in each quick panel entry is searchable, how you present the information matters. The default should be useful for most people; if you wish to change the format, check the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file for detailed information. (As usual, copy that file to the User directory and edit your copy, not the original).

Thanks to recent contributed code, multi-file documents are fully supported. LaTeXTools looks for references, as well as \bibliography{} commands, in the root file and in all recursively included files. Please see the information on Multi-file documents in the section on General Features for details on how to setup multi-file documents.

LaTeXTools now also looks \addbibresource{} commands, which provides basic compatibility with biblatex.

For now, completions are also injected into the standard ST autocompletion system. Thus, if you hit Ctrl-space immediately after typing, e.g., \ref{}, you get a drop-down menu at the current cursor position (not a quick-panel) showing all labels in your document. However, the width of this menu is OK for (most) labels, but not really for paper titles. In other words, it is workable for references, but not really for citations. Furthermore, there are other limitations dictated by the ST autocompletion system. So, this is deprecated, and I encourage you to use auto-trigger mode or the C-l,x or C-l,C-f keybindings instead.

Keybinding: C-l,t,a,r for references; C-l,t,a,c for citations

These toggles work just like the sync and focus toggles above. Indeed, C-l,t,? will now also display the status of the auto trigger toggles. Check the status bar for feedback (i.e. to see what the current state of the toggle is), but remember the message stays on for only a few seconds. C-l,t,? is your friend.

Keybinding: autotriggered by default (see below). Otherwise, C-l,C-f.

Thanks to the amazing work by users btstream and Ian Bacher, LaTeXTools now offers a list of available files and packages when using commands such as \usepackage, \include, \includegraphics, \includesvg and \input. Assuming autocompletion is toggled on (the default):

• when you type \usepackage{, a list of available package is displayed in the ST drop-down menu. Pick the one you need, and it will be inserted in your file, with a closing brace.

• when you type any of the file-related input commands, a list of files in the current directory is displayed (suitably filtered, so graphics files are displayed for \includegraphics).

To toggle autocompletion on or off, use the fill_auto_trigger setting, or the c-l,t,a,f toggle.

In order for package autocomplete to work, you need to create a cache first. You can do it using the Command Palette: select LaTeXtools: Build cache for LaTeX packages.

The C-l,C-f keyboard shortcut also works for \ref and \cite completion. Basically, wherever you can use C-l,x, you can also use C-l,C-f.

Keybinding: C-r (standard ST keybinding)

The LaTeXtools plugin integrates with the awesome ST "Goto Anything" facility. Hit C-rto get a list of all section headings, and all labels. You can filter by typing a few initial letters. Note that section headings are preceded by the letter "S", and labels by "L"; so, if you only want section headings, type "S" when the drop-down list appears.

Selecting any entry in the list will take you to the corresponding place in the text.

Keybinding: C-l, C-o (only works if the cursor is in the same line as the include command)

To open a LaTeX file, which is included with \input, \include or \subfile just position the cursor inside the include command and press C-l, C-o. This will open the included file in Sublime Text.

If necessary missing folders and the file will be created. In this case the magic root entry will be written into the file. Hence this command can be used to comfortably create files and open files.

To open an image, which is included with \includegraphics just position the cursor inside the command and press C-l, C-o. This will open the image. The program to open the image can be configured in the LaTeXTools settings in the open_image_command attribute.

The following settings are provided:

• image_types: a list of the image file types used in the \includegraphics command. This list is also used in the Fill Helper and to determine missing extensions to open images. When opening an image the image_types-list will be matched from left to right.
• open_image_command: the command/program to open an image used in the \includegraphics command. This commands can be configured OS-specific. For each OS you can create a list, which will be searched top-down for the matching extension. Each entry in the list has a command and extension field. The command is a string and will be executed with the file path appended, if the extension matches the extension of the file. You can optionally use $file inside the string to insert the file path at an arbitrary position. The extension can either be a string or a list of string. If it is missing, the command will be executed for every file type.

Keybindings: C-l,c for commands and C-l,e for environments

To insert a LaTeX command such as \color{} or similar, type the command without backslash (i.e. color), then hit C-l,c. This will replace e.g. color with \color{} and place the cursor between the braces. Type the argument of the command, then hit Tab to exit the braces.

Similarly, typing C-l,e gives you an environment: e.g. test becomes

\begin{test}

\end{test}

and the cursor is placed inside the environment thus created. Again, Tab exits the environment.

Note that all these commands are undoable: thus, if e.g. you accidentally hit C-l,c but you really meant C-l,e, a quick C-z, followed by C-l,e, will fix things.

Keybindings: C-l,C-c, C-l, C-n, etc.

The tab-triggered functionality just described is mostly useful if you are creating a command or environment from scratch. However, you sometimes have existing text, and just want to apply some formatting to it via a LaTeX command or environment, such as \emph or \begin{theorem}...\end{theorem}.

LaTeXTools' wrapping facility helps you in just these circumstances. All commands below are activated via a key binding, and require some text to be selected first. Also, as a mnemonic aid, *all wrapping commands involve typing C-l,C-something (which you can achieve by just holding the C- key down after typing l).

• C-l,C-c wraps the selected text in a LaTeX command structure. If the currently selected text is blah, you get \cmd{blah}, and the letters cmd are highlighted. Replace them with whatever you want, then hit Tab: the cursor will move to the end of the command.
• C-l,C-e gives you \emph{blah}, and the cursor moves to the end of the command.
• C-l,C-b gives you \textbf{blah}
• C-l,C-u gives you \underline{blah}
• C-l,C-t gives you \texttt{blah}
• C-l,C-n wraps the selected text in a LaTeX environment structure. You get \begin{env},blah, \end{env} on three separate lines, with env selected. Change env to whatever environment you want, then hit Tab to move to the end of the environment.

These commands also work if there is no selection. In this case, they try to do the right thing; for example, C-l,C-e gives \emph{} with the cursor between the curly braces.

You can also change the current environment using the C-l,C-Shift-n shortcut. Note well how this works. First, the cursor must be inside the environment you are interested in. Second, the command selects the environment name in the \begin{env} command and also in the \end{env} command (using ST's multiple-selection support). This way you can rename the environment as needed. Remember to exit multiple-selection mode when you are done by pressing the ESC key.

By default, ST provides a number of snippets for LaTeX editing; the LaTeXTools plugin adds a few more. You can see what they are, and experiment, by selecting Tools|Snippets|LaTeX and Tools|Snippets|LaTeXTools from the menu.

In addition, the LaTeXTools plugin provides useful completions for both regular and math text; check out files LaTeX.sublime-completions and LaTeX math.sublime-completions in the LaTeXTools directory for details. Some of these are semi-intelligent: i.e. bf expands to \textbf{} if you are typing text, and to \mathbf{} if you are in math mode. Others allow you to cycle among different completions: e.g. f in math mode expands to \phi first, but if you hit Tab again you get \varphi; if you hit Tab a third time, you get back \phi.

LaTeXTools supports the LaTeX-cwl autocompletion package. If the package is installed, support is automatically enabled. By default, as soon as one types, e.g., \te, a popup is shown displaying possible completions, including e.g. \textit and the like.

The following settings are provided:

• cwl_list: a list of paths to the cwl files
• command_completion: when to show that cwl completion popup. The possible values are:
  • prefixed (default): show completions only if the current word is prefixed with a \
  • always: always show cwl completions
  • never: never display the popup
• env_auto_trigger: if true, autocomplete environment names upon typing \begin{ or \end{ (default: false)

LaTeXTools supports user-defined settings. The settings file is called LaTeXTools.sublime-settings. A default version resides in the LaTeXTools plugin directory and must not be edited. This contains default settings that will work in many cases, for standard configurations of TeX distros and PDF viewers. You can however create another settings file in your User directory; again, the file must be named LaTeXTools.sublime-settings.

You can create and edit such a file manually. It is a standard Sublime Text JSON file; the settings currently honored by LaTeXTools are listed below. However, the simplest way to create a settings file is to open the Preferences | Package Settings | LaTeXTools submenu and select the Settings - User option. If you do not currently have a LaTeXTools.sublime-settings settings file in your User directory (e.g., if you are installing LaTeXTools for the first time), you will be given the option to create one. The newly created settings file will be an exact copy of the default one, and will open in a tab for you to customize.

If you do already have an existing LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file in your User directory, the Settings - User option will open that file in a tab for you to further customize. Similarly, the Settings - Default option will open the default settings file in a tab, in read-only mode. This may be useful for you to copy from, or if you want to see what other options may be available without consulting this README file.

If at any time you wish to erase your customizations and start afresh, you can simply delete the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file in your User directory. (Again, warning: do not touch the settings file in the LaTeXTools plugin directory!) Alternatively, from the Preferences | Package Settings | LaTeXTools submenu, or from the Command Palette, you can choose Reset user settings to default. This will delete any existing settings file in User and create a copy of the default one. This will remove all your customizations.

(Historical note: This is no longer relevant in 2016, but just for the record, if you have a pre-2014, old-style settings file, this option will import it).

Warning: in general, tweaking options can cause breakage. For instance, if on Linux you change the default python setting (empty by default) to a non-existent binary, forward and inverse search will stop working. With great power comes great responsibility! If you think you have found a bug, delete your settings file in the User directory, or use the Reset user settings to default command before reporting it! Thanks :-)

The following options are currently available (defaults in parentheses):

• cite_auto_trigger (true): if true, typing e.g. \cite{ brings up the citation completion quick panel, without the need to type C-l,x. If false, you must explicitly type C-l,x.
• ref_auto_trigger (true): ditto, but for \ref{ and similar reference commands
• fill_auto_trigger (true): ditto, but for package and file inclusion commands (see Fill Helper feature above)
• cwl_completion (prefixed): when to activate the cwl completion poput (see LaTeX-cwl feature above)
• cwl_list (empty): list of paths to cwl files
• keep_focus (true): if true, after compiling a tex file, ST retains the focus; if false, the PDF viewer gets the focus. Also note that you can temporarily toggle this behavior with C-l,t,f. Note: If you are on either Windows or Linux you may need to adjust the sublime_executable setting for this to work properly. See the Platform settings below. This can also be overridden via a key-binding by passing a keep_focus argument to jump_to_pdf.
• forward_sync (true): if true, after compiling a tex file, the PDF viewer is asked to sync to the position corresponding to the current cursor location in ST. You can also temporarily toggle this behavior with C-l,t,s. This can also be overridden via a key-binding by passing a forward_sync argument to jump_to_pdf.
• aux_directory (""): specifies the auxiliary directory to store any auxiliary files generated during a LaTeX build. Note that the auxiliary directory option is only useful if you are using MiKTeX. Path can be specified using either an absolute path or a relative path. If aux_directory is set from the project file, a relative path will be interpreted as relative to the project file. If it is set in the settings file, it will be interpreted relative to the main tex file. In addition, the following special values are honored:
  • <<temp>>: uses a temporary directory in the system temp directory instead of a specified path; this directory will be unique to each main file, but does not persist across restarts.
  • <<cache>>: uses the ST cache directory (or a suitable directory on ST2) to store the output files; unlike the <<temp>> option, this directory can persist across restarts.
  • <<project>>: uses a sub-directory in the same folder as the main tex file with what should be a unique name; note, this is probably not all that useful and you're better off using one of the other two options or a named relative path
• output_directory (""): specifies the output directory to store any file generated during a LaTeX build. Path can be specified using either an absolute path or a relative path. If output_directory is set from the project file, a relative path will be interpreted as relative to the project file. If it is set in the settings file, it will be interpreted relative to the main tex file. In addition, output_directory honors the same special values as auxiliary_directory.
• jobname (""): specifies the jobname to use for the build, corresponding to the pdflatex --jobname argument.
• copy_output_on_build (true): if true and you are using an output_directory, either set via the setting or the %!TEX directive, this instructs LaTeXTools to copy to resulting pdf to the same folder as the main tex file. If you are not using output_directory or it is set to false, it does nothing. If it is a list of extensions, it will copy each file with the same name as your main tex file and the given extension to the same folder as your main tex file. This is useful for copying, e.g., .synctex.gz or .log files.
• temp_files_exts: list of file extensions to be considered temporary, and hence deleted using the C-l, backspace command.
• temp_files_ignored_folders: subdirectories to skip when deleting temp files.

• tex_file_exts (['.tex']): a list of extensions that should be considered TeX documents. Any extensions in this list will be treated exactly the same as .tex files. See the section on Support for non-.tex files.
• latextools_set_syntax (true): if true LaTeXTools will automatically set the syntax to LaTeX when opening or saving any file with an extension in the tex_file_exts list.
• use_biblatex: (false): if true LaTeXTools will use BibLaTeX defaults for editing .bib files. If false, LaTeXTools will use BibTeX defaults. See the section on Support for Editing Bibliographies for details.
• tex_spellcheck_paths ({}): A mapping from the locales to the paths of the dictionaries. See the section Spell-checking.

This section refers to setting that can be found in a platform-specific block for each platform, i.e., "osx", "windows", or "linux".

• texpath (varies): the path to TeX & friends

• distro (miktex): either miktex or texlive, depending on your TeX distribution
• sumatra (""): leave blank or omit if the SumatraPDF executable is in your PATH and is called SumatraPDF.exe, as in a default installation; otherwise, specify the full path and file name of the SumatraPDF executable.
• sublime_executable (""): this is used if keep_focus is set to true and the path to your sublime_text executable cannot be discovered automatically. It should point to the full path to your executable sublime_text.exe.
• keep_focus_delay (0.5): this is used if keep_focus is set to true. It controls how long (in seconds) the delay is between the completion of the jump_to_pdf command and the attempt to refocus on Sublime Text. This may need to be adjusted depending on your machine or configuration.

• python ("", i.e. empty string): name of the Python executable. This is useful if you've installed Python in a non-standard location or want to ensure that LaTeXTools uses a particular Python version. Note that the Python interpreter you select must have the DBus bindings installed.
• sublime (sublime-text): name of the ST executable. Ubuntu supports both sublime-text and subl; other distros may vary.
• sync_wait (1.0): when you ask LaTeXTools to do a forward search, and the PDF file is not yet open (for example, right after compiling a tex file for the first time), LaTeXTools first launches evince, then waits a bit for it to come up, and then it performs the forward search. This parameter controls how long LaTeXTools should wait. If you notice that your machine opens the PDF, then sits there doing nothing, and finally performs the search, you can decrease this value to 1.0 or 0.5; if instead the PDF file comes up but the forward search does not seem to happen, increase it to 2.0.
• sublime_executable: this is used if keep_focus is set to true and the path to your sublime_text executable cannot be discovered automatically. It should point to the full path to your executable sublime_text.
• keep_focus_delay: this is used if keep_focus is set to true. It controls how long (in seconds) the delay is between the completion of the jump_to_pdf command and the attempt to refocus on Sublime Text. This may need to be adjusted depending on your machine or configuration.

NOTE: for the time being, you will need to refer to the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file for detailed explanations. Also, since the new build system is meant to be fully customizable, if you use a third-party builder (which hopefully will become available!), you need to refer to its documentation.

• builder: the builder you want to use. Leave blank ("") or set to "default" or "traditional" for the traditional (latexmk/texify) behavior. Set to "basic" for the basic builder that supports output and auxiliary directories on MiKTeX.
• builder_path: builders can reside anywhere Sublime Text can access. Specify a path relative to the Sublime text Packages directory. In particular, User is a good choice. If you use a third-party builder, specify the builder-provided directory.
• display_bad_boxes (false): if true LaTeXTools will display any bad boxes encountered after a build. Note that this is disabled by default.
• builder-settings: these are builder-specific settings. For the default/traditional builder, the following settings are useful:
  • program (unset): one of pdflatex (the default), xelatex or lualatex. This selects the TeX engine.
  • command (unset): the precise latexmk or texify command to be invoked. This must be a list of strings. The defaults (hardcoded, not shown in the settings file) are:
    • (TeXLive): ["latexmk", "-cd", "-e", "-f", "-%E", "-interaction=nonstopmode", "-synctex=1"]
    • (MiKTeX): ["texify", "-b", "-p", "--engine=%E", "--tex-option=\"--synctex=1\""]
  • options (unset): allows you to specify a TeX option, such as --shell-escape. This must be a tuple: that is, use options: ["--shell-escape"]
  • env (unset): a dictionary of key-values corresponding to environment variables that should be set for the environment the build is run in. Note that env, if it is set, must be set at the platform-specific level, e.g., under the osx, windows, or linux keys. This is useful for setting, e.g., TEXINPUTS.
  • In addition, there can be platform-specific settings. An important one for Windows is distro, which must be set to either miktex or texlive.

• viewer (""): the viewer you want to use. Leave blank ("") or set to "default"for the platform-specific viewer. Can also be set to "preview" if you want to use Preview on OS X, "okular" if you want to use Okular on Linux, "zathura" is you want to use Zathura on Linux, or "command" to run arbitrary commands. For details on the "command" option, see the section on the Command Viewer.
• viewer_settings: these are viewer-specific settings. Please see the section on Viewers or the documentation on Alternate Viewers for details of what should be set here.

• bibliography ("traditional_bibliography"): specifies the bibliography plugin to use to handle extracting entries from a bibliography.
• cite-panel-format and cite_autocomplete_format: see the section on ref/cite completion, and the comments in LaTeXTools.sublime-settings

• hide_local_cache (true): Whether the local cache should be hidden in the sublime cache path (true) or in the same directory as the root file (false). See the section LaTeXTools Cache.
• local_cache_life_span (30 m): The lifespan of the local cache, specified in the format " d x h X m X s" where X is a natural number s stands for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, and d for days. Missing fields will be treated as 0 and white-spaces are optional. Hence you can write "1 h 30 m" to refresh the cached data every one and a half hours. If you use "infinite" the cache will not be invalidated automatically. A lower lifespan will produce results, which are more up to date. However it requires more recalculations and might decrease the performance. See the section LaTeXTools Cache.

The above settings can be overridden on a project-specific basis if you are using Sublime Text's project system. To override these settings, simply create a "settings" section in your project file. The structure and format is the same as for the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file. Here is an example:

{
	... <folder-related options here> ...

	"settings" : {
		"TEXroot": "main.tex",
		"tex_file_exts": [".tex", ".tikz"],
		"builder_settings": {
			"program": "xelatex",
			"options": "--shell-escape"
		}
	}
}

This sets main.tex as the master tex file (assuming a multi-file project), and allows .tikz files to be recognized as tex files, but only for the current project. Furthermore (using the default, i.e., traditional builder), it forces the use of xelatex instead of the default pdflatex, and also adds the --shell-escape option---again, for the current project only.

Note: tweaking settings on a project-specific level can lead to even more subtle issues. If you notice a bug, in addition to resetting your LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file, you should remove at LaTeXTools settings from your project file.

The basic builder is a simple, straight-forward build system. that simply runs the configured build engine (pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex) and bibtex or biber if necessary. It can also be configured to support bibtex8 through the bibtex builder setting. In addition, it supports the TeX Options feature, the output and auxiliary directory features and the Jobname feature. It has been included because the default builder on MiKTeX, texify cannot be easily coerced to support biber or any of the other features supported by the basic builder. Note, however, that unlike texify, the basic builder does not support makeindex and friends (patches are welcome!).

You can use the basic builder by changing the builder setting to "basic". It will read the same settings as the traditional builder.

LaTeXTools now supports the long-awaited script builder. It has two primary goals: first, to support customization of simple build workflows and second, to enable LaTeXTools to integrate with external build systems in some fashion.

Note that the script builder should be considered an advanced feature. Unlike the "traditional" builder it is not designed to "just work," and is not recommend for those new to using TeX and friends. You are responsible for making sure your setup works. Please read this section carefully before using the script builder.

For the most part, the script builder works as described in the Compiling LaTeX files section except that instead of invoking either texify or latexmk, it invokes a user-defined series of commands. Note that although the Script Builder supports Multi-file documents, it does not support either the engine selection or passing other options via the %!TEX macros.

The script builder is controlled through two settings in the platform-specific part of the builder_settings section of LaTeXTools.sublime-settings, or of the current project file (if any):

• script_commands — the command or list of commands to run. This setting must have a value or you will get an error message.
• env — a dictionary defining any environment variables to be set for the environment the command is run in.

The script_commands setting should be either a string or a list. If it is a string, it represents a single command to be executed. If it is a list, it should be either a list of strings representing single commands or a list of lists, though the two may be mixed. For example:

{
	"builder_settings": {
		"osx": {
			"script_commands":
				"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode"
		}
	}
}

Will simply run pdflatex against the master document, as will:

{
	"builder_settings": {
		"osx": {
			"script_commands":
				["pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode"]
		}
	}
}

Or:

{
	"builder_settings": {
		"osx": {
			"script_commands": 
				[["pdflatex", "-synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode"]]
		}
	}
}

More interestingly, the main list can be used to supply a series of commands. For example, to use the simple pdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex series, you can use the following settings:

{
	"builder_settings": {
		"osx": {
			"script_commands": [
				"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode",
				"bibtex",
				"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode",
				"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode"
			]
		}
	}
}

Note, however, that the script builder is quite unintelligent in handling such cases. It will not note any failures nor only execute the rest of the sequence if required. It will simply continue to execute commands until it hits the end of the chain of commands. This means, in the above example, it will run bibtex regardless of whether there are any citations.

It is especially important to ensure that, in case of errors, TeX and friends do not stop for user input. For example, if you use pdflatex on either TeXLive or MikTeX, pass the -interaction=nonstopmode option.

Each command can use the following variables which will be expanded before it is executed:

For example:

{
	"builder_settings": {
		"osx": {
			"script_commands": [[
				"pdflatex", 
				"-synctex=1"
				"-interaction=nonstopmode",
				"$file_base_name"
			]]
		}
	}
}

Note that if none of these variables occur in the command string, the $file_base_name will be appended to the end of the command. This may mean that a wrapper script is needed if, for example, using make.

Commands are executed in the same path as $file_path, i.e. the folder containing the main document. Note, however, on Windows, since commands are launched using cmd.exe, you need to be careful if your root document is opened via a UNC path (this doesn't apply if you are simply using a mapped drive). cmd.exe doesn't support having the current working directory set to a UNC path and will change the path to %SYSTEMROOT%. In such a case, just ensure all the paths you specify are absolute paths and use pushd in place of cd, as this will create a (temporary) drive mapping.

If you are using LaTeXTools output and auxiliary directory behavior there are some caveats to be aware of. First, it is, of course, your responsibility to ensure that the approrpiate variables are passed to the appropriate commands in your script. Second, pdflatex and friends do not create output directories as needed. Therefore, at the very least, your script must start with either "mkdir $output_directory" (Windows) or "mkdir -p $output_directory" and a corresponding command if using a separate $aux_directory. Note that if you \include (or otherwise attempt anything that will \@openout a file in a subfolder), you will need to ensure the subfolder exists. Otherwise, your run of pdflatex will fail.

Finally, unlike Biber, bibtex (and bibtex8) does not support an output directory parameter, which can make it difficult to use if you are using the LaTeXTools output directory behavior. The following work-arounds can be used to get BibTeX to do the right thing.

On Windows, run BibTeX like so:

cd $aux_directory & set BIBINPUTS=\"$file_path:%BIBINPUTS%\" & bibtex $file_base_name

And on OS X or Linux, use this:

"cd $output_directory; BIBINPUTS=\"$file_path;$BIBINPUTS\" bibtex $file_base_name"

In either case, these run bibtex inside the output / auxiliary directory while making the directory containing your main file available to the BIBINPUTS environment variable. Note if you use a custom style file in the same directory, you will need to apply a similar work-around for the BSTINPUTS environment variable.

If you are using LaTeXTools jobname behaviour, you should be aware that you are responsible for ensure jobname is set in the appropriate context. In particular, a standard build cycle might look something like this:

"builder_settings": {
	"osx": {
		"script_commands": [
			"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -jobname=$jobname $file_base_name",
			"bibtex $jobname",
			"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -jobname=$jobname $file_base_name",
			"pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode -jobname=$jobname $file_base_name"
		]
	}
}

LaTeXTools makes some assumptions that should be adhered to or else things won't work as expected:

• the final product is a PDF which will be written to the output directory or the same directory as the main file and named $file_base_name.pdf
• the LaTeX log will be written to the output directory or the same directory as the main file and named $file_base_name.log
• if you change the PATH in the environment (by using the env setting), you need to ensure that the PATH is still sane, e.g., that it contains the path for the TeX executables and other command line resources that may be necessary.

In addition, to ensure that forward and backward sync work, you need to ensure that the -synctex=1 flag is set for your latex command. Again, don't forget the -interaction=nonstopmode flag (or whatever is needed for your tex programs not to expect user input in case of error).

Finally, please remember that script commands on Windows are run using cmd.exe which means that if your script uses any UNC paths will have to use pushd and popd to properly map and unmap a network drive.

Since the release on March 13, 2014 (v3.1.0), LaTeXTools has had support for custom build systems, in addition to the default build system, called the "traditional" builder. Details on how to customize the traditional builder are documented above. If neither the traditional builder nor the script builder meet your needs you can also create a completely custom builder which should be able to support just about anything you can imagine. Let me know if you are interested in writing a custom builder!

Custom builders are small Python scripts that interact with the LaTeXTools build system. In order to write a basic builder it is a good idea to have some basic familiarity with the Python language. Python aims to be easy to understand, but to get started, you could refer either to the Python tutorial or any of the resources Python suggests for non-programmers or those familiar with other programming languages.

LaTeXTools comes packaged with a small sample builder to demonstrate the basics of the builder system, called SimpleBuilder which can be used as a reference for what builders can do.

If you are interested in developing your own builder, please see our page on the wiki with documentation and code samples!

The Preview.app viewer is very straight-forward. It simply launches Preview.app with the relevant PDF file. Please note that Preview.app does not support forward or reverse sync, so you will not have that functionality available. Nevertheless, if you want to avoid installing another PDF viewer, this may be an acceptable option.

The Okular viewer is quite similar to the Evince viewer and should work out of the box. However, for forward sync (i.e. from Sublime to Okular) to work properly, the PDF document must be opened in Okular's unique session. If it is not, each forward sync command will open a new copy of the PDF. This also means that you can only have a single PDF document opened by LaTeXTools at a time. If, when the Okular viewer is run, you get a message which reads There's already a unique Okular instance running. This instance won't be the unique one., you will need to adjust your sync_wait settings, increasing the value until the error stops. See the Linux platform settings.

Zathura will mostly work out of the box. However, under some circumstances, Zathura may not properly gain focus if you have set keep_focus to false or set the toggle to Focus PDF. To ensure that the focus ends up on Zathura, you will have to install either wmctrl or xodotool, which should be available through your package manager. You can, of course, install both.

Some support for other viewers is provided via the command viewer, which allows the execution of arbitrary commands to view a pdf or perform a forward search.

Using the command viewer requires that you configure the command(s) to be run in the platform-specific part of the viewer_settings block in your LaTeXTools preferences. There are three commands available:

• forward_sync_command: the command to executing a forward search (ctrl + l, j or cmd + l, j).
• view_command: the command to simply view the PDF document.

Of these, on view_command needs to be specified, though you will not have forward search capabilities unless you specify a forward_sync_command as well.

The following variables will be substitued with appropriate values inside your commands:

In addition, the following variables are available for the forward_sync_command only:

If none of these variables occur in the command string, the $pdf_file will be appended to the end of the command.

Commands are executed in the $pdf_file_path, i.e., the folder containing the $pdf_file.

For example, you can use the command viewer to support Okular with the following settings:

{
	"viewer": "command",

	"viewer_settings": {
		"linux": {
			"forward_sync_command": "okular --unique $pdf_file#src:$line$src_file",
			"view_command": "okular --unique"
		}
	}
}

LaTeXTools uses a cache to store relevant information about your document and improve the performance of commands. The cache is made up of a series of files. Where these files are stored depends on your settings. By default, we try to keep them invisible, so they are stored in the Sublime cache path. However, by changing the hide_local_cache setting, you can have them stored in a hidden folder in the same directory as your tex root.

The local cache also has a lifespan, after which it will be invalidated. The lifespan starts when the first entry is inserted in the cache and the whole cache will be deleted after the lifespan. This can be set in the local_cache_life_span setting. The format is "X d X h X m X s", where X is a natural number s stands for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, and d for days. Missing fields will be treated as 0 and white-spaces are optional. Hence you can write "1 h 30 m" to refresh the cached data every one and a half hours. If you use "infinite" the cache will not be invalidated automatically. A lower lifespan will produce results, which are more up to date. However it requires more recalculations and might decrease the performance.

Many LaTeXTools problems are path-related. The LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file attempts to set up default path locations for MiKTeX, TeXLive and MacTeX, but these are not guaranteed to cover all possibilities. Please let me know if you have any difficulties.

On Mac OS X, just having your $PATH set up correctly in a shell (i.e., in Terminal) does not guarantee that things will work when you invoke commands from ST. If something seems to work when you invoke pdflatex or latexmk from the Terminal, but building from within ST fails, you most likely have a path configuration issue. One way to test this is to launch ST from the Terminal, typing

/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl

(and then Return; this is for ST23of course) at the prompt. If things do work when you run ST this way, but they fail if you launch ST from the Dock or the Finder, then there is a path problem. From the Terminal, type

echo $PATH

and take note of what you get. Then, run ST from the Dock or Finder, open the console (with Ctrl+ ` ) and type

import os; os.environ['PATH']

and again take note of what you see in the output panel (right above the line where you typed the above command). Finally, look at the texpath keyword in the osx section of the LaTeXTools.sublime-settings file For things to work, every directory that you see listed from the Terminal must be either in the list displayed when you type the import os... command in the ST console, or else it must be explicitly specified in the texpath setting found in LaTeXTools.sublime-settings. If this is not the case, add the relevant paths to the texpath setting and please let me know, so I can decide whether to add the path specification to the default build file. Thanks!

On Linux, do note that your login shell may be different from the shell that launched Sublime Text. This can mean that LaTeXTools does not inherit your $PATH correctly, particularly if you modify your $PATH in .bash_profile or .bashrc or other, shell-specific files (X Windows is run via /bin/sh rather than /bin/bash). If you have a similar problem, follow the same procedure as above, although you should launch the sublime_text executable from a shell.

Another significant source of issues are Unicode characters in path and file names. On TeXLive-based platforms, LaTeXTools tries to handle these by telling latexmk to cd to each source file's directory before running pdflatex. This seems to help some. However, things seem to vary by platform and locale, so I cannot make any guarantees that your Unicode path names will work. Keep in mind that TeX itself has issues with Unicode characters in file names (as a quick Google search will confirm).

Spaces in paths and file names are supported. As far as I know, the only limitation has to do with multifile documents: the root document's file name cannot contain spaces, or the %!TEX = <name> directive will fail. I may fix this at some point, but for now it is a limitation.

On Windows, sometimes a build seems to succeed, but the PDF file is not updated. This is most often the case if there is a stale pdflatex process running; a symptom is the appearence of a file with extension .synctex.gz(busy). If so, launch the Task Manager and end the pdflatex.exe process; if you see a perl.exe process, end that, too. This kind of behavior is probably a bug: LaTeXTools should be able to see that something went wrong in the earlier compilation. So, please let me know, and provide me with as much detail as you can (ideally, with a test case). Thanks!

As noted in the Highlights, the new parser is more robust and flexible than the old one---it "understands" the log file format much, much better. This is the result of manually and painstakingly debugging a fair number of users' log files. The many possible exceptions, idiosyncrasies, warts, etc. displayed by TeX packages is mind-boggling, and the parsing code reflects this :-(

Anyway, hopefully, errors should now occur only in strange edge cases. Please let me know on github if you see an error message. I need a log file to diagnose the problem; please upload it to gist, dropbox, or similar, and paste a link in your message on github. Issue #104 is open for that purpose.

There are two exceptions to this request. First, the xypic package is very, very badly behaved. I have spent more time debugging log files contaminated by xypic than I have spent fixing all other issues. Seriously. Therefore, first, parsing issues are now reported as "warnings" if the xypic package is used (so compilation and previewing continues); second, I cannot promise I will fix the issue even if you report it. Thanks for your understanding.

The second exception has to do with file and path names. In order to accommodate the many possible naming conventions across platforms and packages, as well as the different ways in which file names can occur in logs, I had to make some assumptions. The key one is that extensions cannot contain spaces. The reason is that the regex matching file names uses a period (".") followed by non-space characters, followed by a space as denoting the end of the file name. Trust me, it's the most robust regex I could come up with. So, you can have spaces in your base names, and you can even have multiple extensions; however, you cannot have spaces in your extensions. So, "This is a file.ver-1.tex" is OK; "file.my ext" (where "my ext" is supposed to be the extension) is not OK.

Finally, I have done my best to accommodate non-ASCII characters in logs. I cannot promise that everything works, but I'd like to know if you see issues with this.