PyLaTeXpand

A convenient wrapper for latexpand and bibtex that flattens your complicated LaTeX project into a single .tex file.

Overview of how it works

Usage example

The following animation replicates the image shown above. This step is also exactly the one shown in Example > RevTeX4-2 tex project (without .bbl embedding) below.

test_revtex4-2_no_embed_bbl.mp4

Prerequisites

You should have both latexpand and bibtex installed and added to your system path. If not, you should install TeX Live 2023 (or later) which includes all necessary LaTeX tools.

Windows

Obtain an .iso image file from https://ftp.fau.de/ctan/systems/texlive/Images/, mount it, and run the installer .bat file. Installation should take about an hour depending on the specs of your computer.

Mac

TeX Live has a version specifically for macOS users, called MacTeX. You can obtain the installer from https://tug.org/mactex/mactex-download.html and follow the steps to install it. The tools should automatically be added to your system path.

Linux

You're using Linux, ∴ you should know what you're doing ;)

Installation

After you have both latexpand and bibtex installed, you can proceed to installing pylatexpand. The steps listed here should apply to Windows, macOS, and Linux.

From the Python Package index

pip install pylatexpand

From the main branch on Github

pip install https://github.com/bernwo/pylatexpand/archive/main.zip

Uninstallation

To uninstall, simply run

pip uninstall -y pylatexpand

Usage

If installation is successful, you can run the following in your terminal

pylatexpand --help

and you should see the following output

usage: pylatexpand [-h] -i INPUT_MAIN_TEX_FILE [-C TEMPORARY_WORKING_DIRECTORY] [-E EXPANDED_TEX_FILENAME] [--embed-bbl | --no-embed-bbl]

Python wrapper for latexpand and bibtex

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i INPUT_MAIN_TEX_FILE, --input-main-tex-file INPUT_MAIN_TEX_FILE
                        name of the input tex file. File extension is optional
  -C TEMPORARY_WORKING_DIRECTORY, --temporary-working-directory TEMPORARY_WORKING_DIRECTORY
                        temporarily change to your desired working directory
  -E EXPANDED_TEX_FILENAME, --expanded-tex-filename EXPANDED_TEX_FILENAME
                        expanded tex filename
  --embed-bbl, --no-embed-bbl
                        whether to embed `.bbl` file within the expanded `.tex` file or not (default=False). Note that the generation of `.bbl` is always automated.
                        This option is ignored if no `\bibliography{...}` is found within the input main `.tex` file.

Written by Wo

Examples

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/bernwo/pylatexpand.git

cd into the root directory of the cloned repository, and then you can run the following examples. If successful, you should see mainExpanded.tex file being created.

RevTeX4-2 tex project (with .bbl embedding)

pylatexpand -C tests/tex_project_revtex4-2 -i main.tex --embed--bbl

RevTeX4-2 tex project (without .bbl embedding)

pylatexpand -C tests/tex_project_revtex4-2 -i main.tex --no-embed--bbl

Assignment tex project

pylatexpand -C tests/tex_project_assignment -i main.tex

Running tests

After cloning the repository as detailed above, you can run the tests via the command

pytest tests

If the installation is successful, you should see all test cases passing. Note that you need to install pytest first to run this command. You can install it via pip install pytest.