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I have tried my best, but don't seem to get this one right. How do I enable shell escape in MikTeX?

Why XeLaTeX comes with a default for shell escape but not LaTeX?

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It might be useful to say what you've tried: for example, what suggests to you that there is a difference between latex and xelatex? – Joseph Wright♦ Dec 7 '11 at 19:13
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Usually just use -shell-escape (or whatever MikTeX has for it as a command line option) – Martin Scharrer♦ Dec 7 '11 at 19:15
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@MartinScharrer Either --shell-escape or --enable-write18. – Joseph Wright♦ Dec 7 '11 at 19:18
@JosephWright with pdfLaTeX direct compilation of pst is possible with `\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}. With pdfLaTeX I get the error "shell escape" (or "write18") is not enabled. – mathspasha Dec 7 '11 at 20:41
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Did you try to add the option in the preferences dialog, as described here. So you can add the option -shell-escape or -enable-write18 to a new command that you are defining. I remember reading somewhere that the -shell-escape option is not safe (maybe someone can elaborate on this), but I'm not sure and can't find that statement. So, maybe, putting it by default is not a good idea. – adn Dec 8 '11 at 2:48
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1 Answer

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A similar question came up recently in a German user forum. The user found the answer in the end with help of this link

You can enable write18 by writing

initexmf --edit-config-file=miktex\config\pdflatex.ini

in DOS. You can get to the DOS window by hitting the windows Start button, click on "run" and write "cmd" (without the quotes obviously, this might also be slightly different for win7, I think there you can write cmd right in the search line that comes up after hitting the start button).

It might as well also work to do Start->run and then paste the above line right into this little run window (see below)

the pdflatex.ini should open in an editor and you can enter

EnableWrite18=t

save and close the file. Now it should be permanently enabled with pdflatex.

Another way is to pass -enable-write18 to pdflatex. This can usually be done in the editor of your choice. For example in TeXnicCenter it looks something like:

Path of the compiler:

C:\...\pdflatex.exe (this is set already)

Arguments passed to the compiler

-interaction=nonstopmode -enable-write18 %tm

enter image description here

Update:

To do this on WinEdt, do the following:

  1. Go to Options and click on Execution Modes (See image below)enter image description here
  2. Enter --enable-write18 under the pdflatex Accessories under switches as shown in the diagram below.enter image description here
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