Build struggles (docs/bug/question — I'm not sure)

[fredcallaway]

I'm really struggling with the build system. I'm not sure if the problem is me, docs, or an actual bug.

My ultimate goal is to have the build system work like overleaf: build the pdf if at all possible and report errors otherwise. Do not rerun the build or show an error notification if latexmk gives warnings that don't prevent compiling the pdf (e.g. a missing reference).

I think many users would want this behavior, and so it would be nice if the docs made it very clear how to accomplish it—is it possible while working within the recipe system?

I also tried using the custom build system, but it seems that the build command isn't even being executed. I set

    "latex-workshop.latex.external.build.command": "/Users/fred/.local/bin/mkpdf",
    "latex-workshop.latex.external.build.args": ["%DOC%"],

and have at this point replaced the contents of mkpdf to simply write a line to a log script. Nothing gets written. I do see a little spinning wheel labeled "External" in the VS code status bar that never stops spinning.

Apologies if I'm being dense here!

[jlelong]

The default configuration does pretty much what you want. Just tweak the following variables

• latex-workshop.message.warning.show: false https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/wiki/Compile#latex-workshopmessageinformationshow
• latex-workshop.message.information.show: false https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/wiki/Compile#latex-workshopmessagewarningshow
• latex-workshop.latex.autoBuild.cleanAndRetry.enabled: false https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/wiki/Compile#latex-workshoplatexautobuildcleanandretryenabled

[fredcallaway]

Sorry for the late response. This works almost as well as my custom build script, although it will error out in some situations where latexmk is still able to create the pdf. I think this is definitely in the "good enough" range though. I would suggest highlighting the "latex-workshop.latex.autoBuild.cleanAndRetry.enabled" option early in the documentation.

I think there might still be a valid issue though, if the custom build command was indeed not running.