Weird float placement compilation error on some TeXLive installations

Question

Consider the following document:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage{float}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[H]
  \caption{A caption.}
\end{figure}
Some text after the figure.
\end{document}

Until recently, this compiled fine on my Devuan Beowulf (~= Debian Buster) system. Then after an apt-get dist upgrade a month and a half ago, it stopped compiling, complaining about the H placement:

 LaTeX Error: Unknown float option `H'.

However, on my laptop, with Ubuntu 18.04.3 (Bionic) - it continues to work.

Why could this be happening? And - how can I circumvent this?

Notes:

Effect of source tweaking

If I remove the \usepackage{subcaption} - it works.
If I move the \usepackage{subcaption} after the float - it still doesn't work.
If I replace [H] with [h] - it works.

TeXLive versions

New broken system: 2018.20190227-2
Working laptop system: 2017.20180305-1

Full log:

Latexmk: This is Latexmk, John Collins, 18 June 2019, version: 4.65.
Latexmk: applying rule 'pdflatex'...
Rule 'pdflatex': The following rules & subrules became out-of-date:
      'pdflatex'
------------
Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'
------------
------------
Running 'pdflatex --shell-escape  -recorder  "a.tex" -file-line-error -synctex=1'
------------
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Debian) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
 \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./a.tex
LaTeX2e <2018-12-01>
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2018/09/03 v1.4i Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/caption/subcaption.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/caption/caption.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/caption/caption3.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty))))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/float/float.sty) (./a.aux)

! LaTeX Error: Unknown float option `H'.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.5 \begin{figure}[H]

?

you probably need to update the float package on the system where it doesn't work. (It works in a fully updated texlive 2018 and in texlive 2019) — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 11:12
It also works in Texlive shipped with Debian buster. Might it be that you haven't upgraded all texlive related packages during the upgrade? — Sergei Golovan, Oct 04 '19 at 11:41
You are using a local (possibly changed) copy of float.sty. Try removing that. Well, you were, now you edited it out... — LaTeXer, Oct 04 '19 at 12:01
@SergeiGolovan: I apt-get dist-upgradeed... is there anyway I could verify the "version integrity" of what I have? — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 12:07
@einpoklum You could post the file /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/float/float.sty somewhere so we can check against our versions... — Phelype Oleinik, Oct 04 '19 at 12:08
On Debian I usually do apt list --installed | grep -v /stable to show packages which belong to other branches than stable — Sergei Golovan, Oct 04 '19 at 12:14
@einpoklum Your version is identical to mine (up-to-date TL 19). Really weird... — Phelype Oleinik, Oct 04 '19 at 12:16
@PhelypeOleinik: Not that weird... I suspect float has not been changed in quite a while. — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 12:17
the check on float types was added in 2015 (2015-01-11 David Carlisle latex-bugs@latex-project.org` if that helps you narrow down differences. — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 12:21
you have had this before... https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/380927/switching-from-subfig-to-subcaption-unknown-float-option-h — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 12:23
@DavidCarlisle: That had a different cause though :-P It looks like \begin{figure}[H] is like a mine canary for me. — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 12:24
@einpoklum The float package checks for an H immediatelly following the [. If it's not found, everything is passed to LaTeX's float mechanism which will behave as if there was no float package. It looks to me that float isn't seeing the H (for some reason), and then passing that H to LaTeX, which then complains. Really stupid, but try deleting the \begin{figure}[H] line and typing it again to make sure no weird character comes between [ and H... — Phelype Oleinik, Oct 04 '19 at 12:28
@einpoklum not really, I suspect. Once you trace what is happening here it will be the same as that, basically. — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 12:28
@einpoklum Could you post your version of subcaption (and caption and caption3) on pastebin too? — Phelype Oleinik, Oct 04 '19 at 12:36
if you put \tracingmacros1 as the first line of the test file above you should get a 3Mb log file which you could zip up and send to me (google my name for a gmail address) (oh or pastebin is OK) — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 12:39
@DavidCarlisle: Here you go (that's a compressed archive on box.com with the .log and the .tex file). Also emailed it to you. — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 13:16
@einpoklum Thanks. Could you please send caption and caption3 as well? subcaption is just a thin wrapper around those and doesn't help much here. (Also, I think David meant the .log file with H, not h.) — Phelype Oleinik, Oct 04 '19 at 13:21
first diff is texlive has 2019/09/01 v1.3a Sub-captions but you have a 2018 one — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 13:21
@PhelypeOleinik: The box.com archive now has all of float, caption, subcation and caption3, and the .log file with H and the failure rather than the success. — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 13:25
@DavidCarlisle: The box.com archive now has all of float, caption, subcation and caption3, and the .log file with H and the failure rather than the success. Same link. — einpoklum, Oct 04 '19 at 13:27
ah I see you fixed it, I was confused as you sent me an error-free log, but I finally noticed that was the h case not H :-) — David Carlisle, Oct 04 '19 at 13:37

einpoklum · Answer 1 · 2019-10-04T14:13:59.457

3

tl;dr : Your distro packaged a bad version of `caption.sty`.

This is due to your machine using a particularly inopportune version of the Debian SID texlive-latex-recommended package. A bug in caption.sty resulted in this failure; while it was promptly fixed, the texlive-latex-recommended package picked up the buggy caption.sty.

If you download an up-to-date versions of the the subcaption package, and place it your local texmf tree - the document should compile fine.

Also - check your /etc/apt/sources.list. There was a known glitch in some scenarios of upgrading to Devuan Beowulf which put APT lines for the Devuan Unstable repositories (ceres rather than beowulf) in the APT sources.

Thanks @DavidCarlisle for pointing me in that direction and @PhelypeOleinik for pinpointing the exact bug.

edited Oct 04 '19 at 14:13

answered Oct 04 '19 at 13:33

einpoklum

12,311

It was a bug in caption.sty. Your version had \def\@xfloat#1[#2]{\caption@ORI@xfloat{#1}[{#2}]\caption@settype{#1}}, while the new has \def\@xfloat#1[#2]{\caption@ORI@xfloat{#1}[#2]\caption@settype{#1}}. This made the \@ifnextchar test see the extra { instead of H when looking for it. – Phelype Oleinik Oct 04 '19 at 13:37
2

More on that: The bug was reported here, and it apparently lasted one single day on CTAN. Your debian packaging chose the wrong day to update its version :-) – Phelype Oleinik Oct 04 '19 at 13:39
Installing the “vanilla TUG” TeX Live is a one-time-a-year burden. It allows you to update packages without waiting for Debian do it; and you'll have the last stable version of TeX Live. – egreg Oct 04 '19 at 14:22
@egreg: Is that what I get if I simply download TeXLive directly? Or is there some "annual TUG distro"? – einpoklum Oct 04 '19 at 17:20
@einpoklum TeX Live is released once a year. Packaged versions provided by GNU/Linux distributions may (and usually do) lag behind. – egreg Oct 04 '19 at 17:29

Weird float placement compilation error on some TeXLive installations

1 Answers1

tl;dr : Your distro packaged a bad version of caption.sty.

tl;dr : Your distro packaged a bad version of `caption.sty`.