Using TeXShop, how to automatically compile twice or more

Question

You all know the feeling when needing to compile twice before the desired output has been achieved.

I am using TeXShop and am a bit tired of clicking on the Typeset-button, waiting for everything to compile, and then clicking on the Typeset-button again, to wait for a second compilation ...

Any solution so as to make TeXShop compile two or more times automatically please?

Answer 1

Create a file similar to the following named MyPdfLatex.engine in the directory ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines/ and make it executable via chmod +x MyPdfLatex.engine:

#!/bin/sh
bfname="$1"
pdflatex  --file-line-error --shell-escape  -recorder --synctex=1 "\input{$bfname}"
pdflatex  --file-line-error --shell-escape  -recorder --synctex=1 "\input{$bfname}"

You should customize the pdflatex command line above for your particular case. Then, upon next restart of TeXShop, select MyPdfLatex instead of LaTeX. Then, when you Typeset and you sill see it compile twice.

If you want the pulldown engine to default to MyPdfLatex, go to Preferences/Typesetting panel and set the Default Command to MyPdfLatex.

Answer 2

The best tool for this particular case (which wasn't obvious from your initial question) would to use the TeXShop arara engine and use arara rules to compile the file.

See:

• How to use arara with TeXShop

In this case you can simply put the following lines at the top of your document:

% !TEX TS-program = arara
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatex { synctex: true }

The first line tells TeXShop to use the arara engine, and the next two lines tell arara to process the file twice. Since results of the first compilation will never be viewed pdflatex can be run with no options; on the second run, the synctex option is added so that you have synchronization between source and preview. Obviously you can adjust the tool to run lualatex or xelatex, etc. if that's the engine you are using.

For other use cases (particularly resolving citations and references), the latexmk approach is very helpful.

TeXShop comes with a pdflatexmk engine which will compile your document (and also run bibtex or biber and other tools) as many times as is required, but not more.

This is better than blindly requiring the document to be compiled twice. The easiest way to use it is to add:

% !TEX TS-program = pdflatexmk

to the first line of your document. There are other versions for different engines (xelatexmk, lualatexmk, etc.)

If the engine doesn't show up in the pulldown Typeset menu, then you need to move it from the Inactive folder to the Engines folder within ~/Library/TeXShop.

See:

• When and why should I use % !TEX TS-program and % !TEX encoding?

Of course the two approaches can be combined, so if you are using arara you could have the first compilation be plain pdflatex and the second compilation use latexmk and have the best of both worlds:

% !TEX TS-program = arara
% arara: pdflatex
% arara: pdflatexmk { synctex: true }