Re: [AUCTeX] configuration question

[Ivan Andrus]

On Feb 10, 2011, at 4:00 AM, Tom Sgouros wrote:
> Hello all:
> 
> I need to understand the difference between how AucTeX invokes TeX and how I 
> do it at a shell.  When I use AucTeX, I get the following, reporting about a 
> local class file I use.
> 
>> Running `LaTeX' on `plan' with ``/usr/texbin/pdflatex  
>> -interaction=nonstopmode "\input" plan.tex''
>> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009)
>> entering extended mode
>> LaTeX2e <2009/09/24>
>> Babel <v3.8l> ...
>> 
>> (./plan.tex
>> 
>> ! LaTeX Error: File `ts-report.cls' not found.
> 
> On the same machine, running at the shell, all is fine:
> 
>> $ /usr/texbin/pdflatex plan.tex
>> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009)
>> entering extended mode
>> (./plan.tex
>> LaTeX2e <2009/09/24>
>> Babel <v3.8l> ...
>> 
>> (/Users/tomfool/texmf/tex/latex/ts-report.cls
>> Miscellaneous reports class -- Tom Sgouros - 2010
>> (/usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/memoir/memoir.cls
>> ...
> 
> The file in question is in a local texmf tree I use, and texhash has been run 
> on it recently.  This is GNU Emacs 23.2.1 compiled for a Mac.  To make it a 
> little more mysterious, AucTeX was working for me last week.  I am not sure 
> what happened in the interim.  I did move the emacs install directory, but 
> can't remember whether the move was before or after the problem began.
> 
> I can't find in the list archives or in the documentation enough detail about 
> how AucTeX invokes TeX to understand what my problem is.  Can anyone here 
> help me?

I've had problems like this and they were due to differences in
environment variables.  When you run it in a shell, is that a shell
inside Emacs?  Even so, if you are setting TeX related environment
variables like TEXINPUTS in your .bashrc, then they won't get picked
up by Emacs on OS X, _unless_ you started Emacs from a shell.  The way
to set environment variables in OS X is in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
though of course you can also set them in your .emacs.  

FWIW I keep environment.plist updated automatically using a method
similar to the one found here:
http://use.perl.org/~brian_d_foy/journal/8915

HTH,
Ivan