CODEWITHSUNDEEP
r-markdownpandoc
Chris
Chris

Reputation: 88

rmarkdown::render() does not pass -shell-escape options from pandoc to pdflatex

I want to render an Rmarkdown file that requires the -shell-escape option in pdflatex or --pdf-engine-opt=-shell-escape option in pandoc. I specified pandoc_args: "--pdf-engine-opt=-shell-escape" in my YAML header, but rmarkdown::render() seems to call programs in this order:

  1. knitr::knit() to *.md
  2. encoding conversion to *.utf8.md
  3. pandoc to *.tex (pandoc mwe.utf8.md --to latex --output mwe.tex ...)
  4. pdflatex to *.pdf (pdflatex mwe.tex)

render() loses my -shell-escape option between steps 3 and 4, and I get an error since pdflatex cannot pass a command to the shell. Is there a way to either: 1) have pandoc output a *.pdf file instead of *.tex, or 2) pass -shell-escape onto pdflatex?

MWE: mwe.Rmd

---
title: "mwe"
header-includes: |
  \usepackage{epstopdf}
  \epstopdfDeclareGraphicsRule{.tif}{png}{.png}{sips -s format png #1 --out \OutputFile}
  \PrependGraphicsExtensions{.tif, .tiff}
output: 
  pdf_document:
    pandoc_args: "--pdf-engine-opt=-shell-escape"
---

![](image.tif)

Running $ rmarkdown::render("mwe.Rmd", output_file="mwe.pdf") in R console gives the error since pdflatex was not called with -shell-escape:

! Package pdftex.def Error: File `image-tif-converted-to.png' not found.

Error: Failed to compile mwe.tex. See mwe.log for more info.

Running $ knitr::knit("mwe.Rmd") in R console followed by $ pandoc mwe.md -o mwe.pdf in the terminal returns the correct PDF. Alternatively, running $ pandoc mwe.md -s -o mwe.tex; pdflatex -shell-escape mwe.tex on the intermediate tex file in the terminal also returns the correct PDF.

TIF image obtained from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Chi_Recombination_Model_for_Wikipedia.tif

Upvotes: 1

Views: 429

Answers (1)

Nicholas de Paola
Nicholas de Paola

Reputation: 51

I was experiencing the same issue when trying to import the latex package minted - this R code near the beginning of my .rmd file fixed it for me:

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
    options(tinytex.engine_args = '-shell-escape')
```

I'm compiling the document with RStudio and sweave, on MacOS 10.14.6 if that's relevant. Hope this helps!

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions