pdflatex problem with Rstudio

Question

I'm trying to compile a simple Rnw file in Rstudio using knitr "compile pdf" functionality. But it gives me an error.

This is what I have in hello.Rnw:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

Hello World

\end{document}

Error:

Running pdflatex.exe on hello.tex...failed

Error running C:/PROGRA~1/MIKTEX~1.9/miktex/bin/x64/pdflatex.exe (exit code 1)

However if I typeset hello.tex using TeXworks, it generates a pdf file without any error. I checked my Sys.getenv("PATH") variable, and it shows the correct MiKTeX location. So I'm not sure why RStudio pdflatex is not working.

"C:\\Users\\zk0q8r5\\Documents\\R\\R-3.5.0\\bin\\x64;
C:\\ProgramData\\Oracle\\Java\\javapath;
C:\\WINDOWS\\system32;
C:\\WINDOWS;
C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\Wbem;
C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\;
C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\;
C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\;
C:\\Program Files\\1E\\NomadBranch\\;
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Application Virtualization Client;
C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\;
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\WebEx\\Productivity Tools;
C:\\Program Files\\TortoiseSVN\\bin;
C:\\Program Files\\MiKTeX 2.9\\miktex\\bin\\x64;
C:\\MiKTeX\\miktex\\bin\\x64\\"

Answer 1

So I figured out the problem. There were two MikTeX installations on my machine. And the R PATH variable was pointing to the wrong one. I simply followed the instructions from the below link and it resolved the issue. Thank you! https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33650869/how-can-i-set-the-latex-path-for-sweave-in-r

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem. My solution was in this thread:

Latex Error: 'Sweave.sty' not found?

To find the solution I first had to get a better error message than

Running pdflatex.exe on hello.tex...failed

Error running C:/PROGRA~1/MIKTEX~1.9/miktex/bin/x64/pdflatex.exe (exit code 1)

I noticed that when I try to compile the .Rnw file it creates a .tex file. So I opened that .tex file and tried to compile it in my regular LaTeX work environment (VSCode for me), and I got this error message:

LaTeX Error: File `Sweave.sty' not found.

So really the problem was that LaTeX couldn't find this file and the solution to that (for me) is in the link above. I had to write this all out because solving this has taken so much of my time so I don't want it to be for nothing.

Answer 3

I had the same error message, i.e.:

Error running C:/PROGRA~1/MIKTEX~1.9/miktex/bin/x64/pdflatex.exe (exit code 1)

I checked the PATH, which was OK -- and I had only one tex installation, so Sunny Kanugo's answer wouldn't work.

Just to give it a try, I found an earlier *.tex file that had been created in RStudio with knitr, and compiled it with PdfLaTeX. During this, MikTeX installed a number of sty files, and finally, a PDF was successfully created. And the error disappeared: that is, I could compile PDF files from inside RStudio.

So it looks like when you run PdfLaTeX from inside RStudio, some of the packages won't be installed and an error will be given instead. Below is the "Hello world" tex file that I will use next time I have this problem (which may easily happen if I have to reinstall MiKTeX for some reason); copy everything from the textbox and save it as plain text file with *.tex extension; then open command prompt in the right place (i.e. the folder where you saved that tex file), type pdflatex, and then the name of the file, and see if a PDF appears.

\documentclass{article}\usepackage[]{graphicx}\usepackage[]{color}
% maxwidth is the original width if it is less than linewidth
% otherwise use linewidth (to make sure the graphics do not exceed the margin)
\makeatletter
\def\maxwidth{ %
  \ifdim\Gin@nat@width>\linewidth
    \linewidth
  \else
    \Gin@nat@width
  \fi
}
\makeatother

\definecolor{fgcolor}{rgb}{0.345, 0.345, 0.345}
\newcommand{\hlnum}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.686,0.059,0.569}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlstr}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.192,0.494,0.8}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlcom}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.678,0.584,0.686}{\textit{#1}}}%
\newcommand{\hlopt}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0,0,0}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlstd}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.345,0.345,0.345}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlkwa}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.161,0.373,0.58}{\textbf{#1}}}%
\newcommand{\hlkwb}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.69,0.353,0.396}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlkwc}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.333,0.667,0.333}{#1}}%
\newcommand{\hlkwd}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.737,0.353,0.396}{\textbf{#1}}}%
\let\hlipl\hlkwb

\usepackage{framed}
\makeatletter
\newenvironment{kframe}{%
 \def\at@end@of@kframe{}%
 \ifinner\ifhmode%
  \def\at@end@of@kframe{\end{minipage}}%
  \begin{minipage}{\columnwidth}%
 \fi\fi%
 \def\FrameCommand##1{\hskip\@totalleftmargin \hskip-\fboxsep
 \colorbox{shadecolor}{##1}\hskip-\fboxsep
     % There is no \\@totalrightmargin, so:
     \hskip-\linewidth \hskip-\@totalleftmargin \hskip\columnwidth}%
 \MakeFramed {\advance\hsize-\width
   \@totalleftmargin\z@ \linewidth\hsize
   \@setminipage}}%
 {\par\unskip\endMakeFramed%
 \at@end@of@kframe}
\makeatother

\definecolor{shadecolor}{rgb}{.97, .97, .97}
\definecolor{messagecolor}{rgb}{0, 0, 0}
\definecolor{warningcolor}{rgb}{1, 0, 1}
\definecolor{errorcolor}{rgb}{1, 0, 0}
\newenvironment{knitrout}{}{} % an empty environment to be redefined in TeX

\usepackage{alltt}
\IfFileExists{upquote.sty}{\usepackage{upquote}}{}
\begin{document}



Hello World

\end{document}