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How come (pdf)latex from MacTeX 2015 fails to compile a file that (pdf)latex from Ubuntu’s TeX Live 2015 manages to compile? I thought TeX Live 2015 is included in MacTeX 2015 and it should behave the same on Mac or on Linux.

What I have done is the following:

git clone https://github.com/Stefanqn/Bewerbung
cd Bewerbung/Vorlage/
pdflatex cv.tex

The errors that only appear on Mac begin as follows:

[...]

! LaTeX Error: Option clash for package hyperref.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                             

l.8 \RequirePackage
                   {bookmark}
?
[...]
! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> ...ilyname {\nachname } \moderncvcolor
                                                  {blue}
l.64 }

?

! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                             

l.64 }

?
[...]

I know that this is not a minimal example. However, I am unable to pin down the issue because I do not understand the error messages.

I have posted a similar question at Latex-Bewerbungsvorlage › Wie kann ich das Beispiel kompilieren?, a Google group about that particular LaTeX template. However, this question goes well beyond the scope of that group since it is about an inconsistency between MacTeX and TeX Live.

Needless to say that both the MacTeX and the TeX Live distribution I have tested this on are all up-to-date (tlmgr update --self --all).

5
  • add \listfiles to the preamble and compare the list of file versions at the end of each log. Nov 14, 2015 at 9:59
  • since presumably you have different versions of moderncv class, check the full path to the moderncv files as reported in the log, one may be using a local copy masking the up to date version in the main install tree Nov 14, 2015 at 10:01
  • Thanks – there was indeed an old abandoned ~/Library/texmf directory I had completely forgotten about.
    – mach
    Nov 14, 2015 at 10:29
  • do you think it's worth answering (you are not the first to do that:-) or should we just close or delete as a local mis-configuration? Nov 14, 2015 at 10:31
  • I would think it is worth answering – if you want to –, or at least worth keeping. Some other future MacTeX user might think they have found an incompatibility with TeX Live when they have really only forgotten about their ~/Library/texmf directory.
    – mach
    Nov 14, 2015 at 10:34

1 Answer 1

3

Such error messages are almost never related to the tex version, they always refer to differences in package versions.

If you add \listfiles to the preamble then the packages and versions used are listed in the log so you can compare the two lists to look for differences.

Also (as proved to be the case here) beware local copies of packages in the input path, these are often older as they do not get automatically updated by the distribution package manager. The log file shows the full path to every class and package that is input.

1
  • Thanks – and as I said above, the local path for an installation on Mac OS X defaults to ~/Library/texmf – so that is where I found old files I had forgotten. I just moved the directory to ~/Library/texmf-disabled and the problem is solved.
    – mach
    Nov 14, 2015 at 15:43

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