Is there a way to optionally import a package?

Asked Nov 07 '11 at 09:11

Active Nov 07 '11 at 10:36

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Possible Duplicate:
Conditional “if a package is available”

I'm pretty lazy, and have my own .sty files which import a bunch of commonly used features. But, sometime system installations fail to provide one, for example Ubuntu's LaTeX doesn't have the mathtext package. So, is there a way to have a \usepackage command that won't cause (Xe)LaTeX to fail if a package isn't found?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

asked Nov 07 '11 at 09:11

gatoatigrado

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I am not too sure if I understand the logic. If the file does not exist (you can use ifFileExists to check) you can stop the error for the package, but how about the commands that you are using from the package in the first place? – yannisl Nov 07 '11 at 09:33
@YiannisLazarides for a package like mathastext it makes sense, since the document will compile without it… – Seamus Nov 07 '11 at 09:37
@YiannisLazarides: I'm using something like this in my package manuals to load font packages only if installed. After all, a manual in the standard font is much better than no manual :-) – Martin Scharrer Nov 07 '11 at 09:38
@MartinScharrer In a package or class it makes sense, but in a preamble you should only load what you are going to use, otherwise it ends up like a collection of antiques:) – yannisl Nov 07 '11 at 10:16
@Seamus ... you should try using manuscript sometimes as an alternative:) – yannisl Nov 07 '11 at 10:16
This is actually a direct duplicate of Only \usepackage if the package can be found, which itself got closed as a duplicate of Conditional “if a package is available”. – Martin Scharrer Nov 07 '11 at 10:34

Is there a way to optionally import a package?

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