[OS X TeX] Format of the LaTeX log files?

[Maarten Sneep]

On Feb 26, 2007, at 07:14, Charilaos Skiadas wrote:

> I am in the process of rewriting the information that TextMate  
> presents when doing a LaTeX compile, and I was wondering if there  
> was some documentation anywhere on the format of the log files, and  
> extracting information from that file. Anyone have any info/links  
> on this?

As far as I know there is no official format for the log files. There  
are a few practical rules, but there are no guarantees.

1) log generated by file 'file' is contained in parentheses:  
(file.tex ....)
2) not all parentheses indicate a file.
3) You can turn on "file:line:error style messages", which may help  
in parsing:

./parent.tex:24: Undefined control sequence.
l.24 \blub

The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

Since packages can and will write anything they please to the log,  
you should expect everything.

LuaTeX is attempting to improve upon this, trying to turn the log  
into something resembling xml. Just a few more years.

Maarten

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