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I often debug LaTeX files and Emacs+AUCTeX does not show many informations about errors.

I always have the following message in the minibuffer:

LaTeX errors in `*~/my/file output*'. Use C-c ` to display.

and if I press C-c `

TeX-error: Error occured after last TeX file closed

which is completely useless.

If I want to track errors, I have to change buffer (go to output buffer) and looking by myself where is the problematic part inside a big file where 99% of informations are not errors.

At the opposite, Texmaker shows precisely the error message as you can see:

enter image description here

Therefore sometimes I use Texmaker to debug LaTeX file instead of Emacs.

I'm looking any solution to improve the way Emacs notify errors. How can have a concise view of errors which is really useful to debug with Emacs?

ppr
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    (For now, it appears.) Ignore that message regarding how to access the errors. On a long enough compile via C-c C-c, you'll see echoed in the mini-buffer Type \C-c C-l' to display results of compilation.So, useC-c C-l, which will split the main buffer into two and open in the lower a file called something like~/ output`, which is essentially your console output. – jon Jun 20 '14 at 18:54
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    You can search for lines that begin with ! to see errors, too. I've had this problem before, but I don't recall how I fixed it. Does http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/124259/17423 help? – Sean Allred Jul 02 '14 at 22:42

1 Answers1

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Since version 11.88, AUCTeX comes with an error overview, accessible via TeX-error-overview.

There are two possible setups: overview in the same frame of the TeX buffer and in a separate dedicated frame. This is how it looks like:

Same frame setup AUCTeX error overview, same frame

Separate frame setup AUCTeX error overview, separate frame

You can visit an error by clicking on its message or pressing RET. n and p can also be used to go to the next or previous error. Other suggestions welcome :-)

The message

TeX-error: Error occured after last TeX file closed

refers to a difficulty for AUCTeX to correctly parse the output log. This issue should have been already fixed in version 11.90.

pavel
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giordano
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  • Ah, nice to know! – jon Jun 20 '14 at 18:56
  • Thanks for all these informations. I will wait the next release of AUCTeX. If I may say something about this (great) patch : perhaps you should allow the possibility to open the error list inside a buffer rather than a frame. It's easier to manage buffers than frames. – ppr Jun 21 '14 at 08:43
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    @ppr I'm working on it, also because non-graphical displays don't support multiple frames. Anyway I find much easier to use a second frame (as ediff does), switching between frames requires only ALT + TAB in most window managers. – giordano Jun 21 '14 at 12:34
  • @ppr I managed to make the error overview open in the same frame of the TeX buffer, see the updated answer ;-). – giordano Jun 27 '14 at 23:49
  • Nice! I'm waiting the update of Debian sid AUCTeX package. Thanks a lot for your hard work. – ppr Jun 29 '14 at 16:11
  • @giordano I'm curious -- how do you achieve the "Same frame format" -- I have been searching for exactly that! – sgmoye Jan 15 '20 at 18:47