Using subfiles package with .sty files

Question

Following the Project Structure Wiki and Subfiles Wiki, I've built the following project structure:

./mydocument.tex
./mystyle.sty
./tex/mysubfile.tex
./img/

mydocument.tex looks like:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{mystyle}
\begin{document}
\subfile{./tex/mysubfile.tex} 
\end{document}

mystyle.sty looks like:

\ProvidesPackage{mystyle}
\usepackage{subfiles}
% other packages
% command declarations

mysubfile.tex looks like:

\documentclass[../mydocument.tex]{subfiles}
\begin{document}
% stuff goes here.
\end{document}

I'm using (1) the subfiles package because I'd like to compile mysubfile.tex by itself and (2) mystyle.sty because I'd like to modularize this project a bit and split package and command declarations into their own .sty file. The problem is that when I try and compile mysubfile.tex by itself it can't "see" mystyle.sty.

Q: Is there some way I can still satisfy (1), (2), and the project structure outlined above and get things working? Some sort of option or command in the subfiles package?

I've tried: (1) moving mystyle.sty to different directories, (2) moving the subfiles declaration \usepackage{subfiles} to different parts of the document, (3) checking the subfiles documentation. All no dice.

I suppose that the second best option would be to stick all project files in the same folder and get rid of my .\tex folder. At least then, I can get things to compile. But I'd rather not sacrifice the project structure.

Answer 1

There is no need to put your other .tex-files into subdirectories. I don't know the subfiles package, but I can recommend you the standalone package for this (I should mention here that I wrote it, so I'm biased). Put all required packages into the subfiles and compile them as normal just use standalone as class. The real class can be given by the class option and defaults to article. In the main document load the standalone package, maybe with the subpreambles option to include the preambles from the subfiles to the main file.

% Main file
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{standalone}
\usepackage{mystyle}
\begin{document}
\input{mysubfile.tex}
\end{document}


% mysubfile.tex
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{mystyle}
\begin{document}
% stuff
\end{document}

Answer 2

I have a clever workaround to do this with the subfiles package. Just slightly modify your project structure:

./main/mydocument.tex
./main/mystyle.sty
./tex/mysubfile.tex
./img/

Then, always call files starting with .., for example ../main/mystyle.sty. This same path is correct whether you're starting from ./main/mydocument.tex or ./tex/mysubfile.tex.

Answer 3

If you use mystyle.sty in multiple documents, you might consider putting it in a place that is searchable by TeX. Usually, this is the output of the command kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME (more precisely, the tex/latex/ subdirectory of that directory). Once you put the file there, you should run the command texhash. Then, kpsewhich myfile.sty should print the path to the file. After doing this \usepacakge{mystyle} will work in all your LaTeX documents, without needing a copy of mystyle.sty in the same directory as the .tex file.

Answer 4

You can use the internal macro \input@path as explained in https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/24827/34384.

You just need to add:

\makeatletter
\def\input@path{{../}}
\makeatother

at the top of mysubfile.tex.

However, a problem may occur if you have two files with the same name in . and ./tex.

Answer 5

I had the same problem just last week using the subfile package . If you have a file structure that includes different directories you'll often find addressing errors such as "file mychapter.tex not found" or "mystyle.sty not found". In order to avoid this problems always use the full path to each file, specially to the main.tex, since the style files are often in the same directory that the main.tex.

Here's the example you gave previously

/home/username/Documents/report/mydocument.tex
/home/username/Documents/report/mystyle.sty
/home/username/Documents/report/tex/mysubfile.tex
/home/username/Documents/report/img/

mydocument.tex looks like:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{mystyle}
\begin{document}
\subfile{/home/username/Documents/report/tex/mysubfile.tex} 
\end{document}

mystyle.sty looks like:

\ProvidesPackage{mystyle}
\usepackage{subfiles}
% other packages
% command declarations

mysubfile.tex looks like:

\documentclass[/home/username/Documents/report/mydocument.tex]{subfiles}
\begin{document}
% stuff goes here.
\end{document}

It all goes in the logic followed by LaTeX to look for files: When you compile "mysubfile.tex" the reference directory will be /home/username/Documents/report/tex. It will look for the preambule in the file mydocument.tex located in the directory /home/username/Documents/report/. mydocument.tex will look for mystyle.sty located in the reference directory: /home/username/Documents/report/tex

By the way, you can put the \usepackage{subfiles} into mydocument.tex. It might be easier to load this package in your main.tex

Answer 6

If you are using a suitable operating system you can create a symbolic link from ./tex/ to the style files in the parent directory.

For example, ln -s ~/path/to/document/mystyle.tex ~/path/to/document/tex/