Build the paper

Build the paper

Run latexmk -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode paper.tex and surface only what matters: errors, undefined references, missing figures, and any bibtex warnings.

Arguments in $ARGUMENTS:

• --pages=N or --pages=N-M — render those pages to PNG via pdftoppm at 150 dpi into /tmp/<basename>-N.png and report the paths. Useful for quick visual review after a TikZ change.
• --clean — latexmk -C first to nuke all aux files. Use when the build is in a weird state (e.g. after a class-file swap).

Steps

1. If --clean was passed: latexmk -C paper.tex.
2. Run latexmk -pdf -interaction=nonstopmode paper.tex.
3. Parse output: tail the latexmk-collected error summary.
4. If paper.pdf exists, report:
   • page count: pdfinfo paper.pdf | grep Pages
   • file size: ls -la paper.pdf
   • undefined-citation count: grep -c "Citation .* undefined" paper.log
   • bibtex warnings: grep -iE "warning|error" paper.blg | head
5. If --pages was passed: render and list the PNGs.
6. Report concisely.

What to surface vs ignore

Surface	Ignore
! ... pdflatex error lines	Overfull \\hbox warnings (cosmetic)
Citation .* undefined (from .log)	pdfTeX warning (dest) (harmless)
! Package pgfkeys Error (TikZ key clash)	Underfull \\vbox warnings
Bibtex errors from .blg	Font shape ... undefined (usually fine)
Missing \\includegraphics files	TeX-live default font substitution notes

Common error patterns + fixes

Error	Fix
File 'figures/X.pdf' not found	Create a placeholder PNG/PDF, or run make figs first
Citation 'X' undefined	Add the entry to references.bib via /paper:refs
! Package pgfkeys Error: The key '/tikz/out' requires a value	Rename your TikZ style — don't use out, in, at
--- they aren't the same literal types for entry X (bibtex)	@article is missing the journal= field; either add it or switch to @misc
Empty journal in X (bibtex warning)	Same as above
Latexmk says "errors" but paper.pdf exists with the right page count	Stale .fls / .fdb_latexmk; rerun with --clean

Pitfalls

• latexmk exit code is unreliable: it sometimes reports errors even when the PDF built fine (stale error caches). Always check the actual paper.pdf mtime / page count after a "failed" run.
• Bibtex needs two latex passes: latexmk handles this, but if you run pdflatex directly you need to interleave with bibtex.