Macvim and Skim sync does not work

Question

Don't really know where to begin. I have installed the latest macvim and skim. Put the mvim in path. Setup skim sync with the default macvim (and tried some custom stuff also). However it will not sync no matter what I do. Sync works between skim and textmate though.

Anyone able to guide me in some direction would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you need to use the option --synctex=1. Actually in the most popular editors on the mac, the value used by default is 1. For using SyncTeX with your document just call pdflatex with the --synctex=1 option or place \synctex=1 in your documents preamble.

For more instructions about synchronisation between MacVim and Skim, you can read this article MacVim_Skim

Remark 1 : like egreg writes \usepackage{pdfsync} is obsolete with the last pdftex engine.

Remark 2 : TextMate 1 is not free but the synchronisation is fine with Skim.

Remark 3 : TeXShop has the better synchronisation with two methods.

Remark 4 : A new free (at present) editor arrived only for the Mac: TeXnicle. It's a remarkable project manager but I don't know if synchronisation is possible. After a quick try, the synchronisation is fine from tex -> pdf but there is a problem with pdf-> tex.

Answer 2

I realize this is an old question; maybe you still have the issue though.

I had this same problem just now and finally solved it by editing the file compiler.vim in ~/.vim/ftplugin/latex-suite directly. Tossing in a few echos here and there, I noticed that it was taking the branch of the conditional to pick an editor that was for UNIX instead of picking Skim for Mac OS X. I ended up just deleting all the other possibilities for it to launch the viewer, though you could do this more elegantly / better-preserving compatibility by figuring out which parameter is causing it to take the wrong branch of the conditional and then re-coding / debugging accordingly.

For reference, here are my fixed ~/.vim/ftplugin/tex.vim and the relevant segment of ~/.vim/ftplugin/latex-suite/compiler.vim (this replaces the function Tex_ForwardSearchLaTeX(); my function Tex_ViewLaTeX() worked right off the bat but you may need to modify that function similarly).

    " this is mostly a matter of taste. but LaTeX looks good with just a bit
    " of indentation.
    set sw=2
    " TIP: if you write your \label's as \label{fig:something}, then if you
    " type in \ref{fig: and press <C-n> you will automatically cycle through
    " all the figure labels. Very useful!
    set iskeyword+=:


    let g:tex_flavor = 'latex'

    let g:Tex_MultipleCompileFormat = 'pdf,aux'
    let g:Tex_TreatMacViewerAsUNIX = 0
    let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat = 'pdf'
    let g:Tex_CompileRule_pdf = 'pdflatex -synctex=1 --interaction=nonstopmode $*'
    let g:Tex_ViewRule_pdf = 'Skim'

    " Command-R will write, compile, and forward search--thanks to
    " http://reference-man.blogspot.com/2011/09/fully-integrated-latex-in-macvim.html
    " preview, switch back to main window
    map <D-r> :w<cr><leader>ll<leader>ls
    imap <D-r> <ESC><D-r>



    let g:Tex_IgnoredWarnings ='
          \"Underfull\n".
          \"Overfull\n".
          \"specifier changed to\n".
          \"You have requested\n".
          \"Missing number, treated as zero.\n".
          \"There were undefined references\n".
          \"Citation %.%# undefined\n".
          \"Marginpar on page %.%# moved\n".
          \"\oval, \circle, or \line size unavailable\n"' 

The relevant additions are the ones of the form let g:tex etc.

Skim is set as below, which assumes as you mentioned that you copied mvim to that location or added it somewhere in $PATH etc.

Finally the changes to compiler.vim starting at line 324:

    function! Tex_ForwardSearchLaTeX()
        if &ft != 'tex'
            echo "calling Tex_ForwardSeachLaTeX from a non-tex file"
            return
        endif

        if Tex_GetVarValue('Tex_ViewRule_'.s:target) == ''
            return
        endif

        let viewer = Tex_GetVarValue('Tex_ViewRule_'.s:target)
        let s:origdir = fnameescape(getcwd())

        let mainfname = Tex_GetMainFileName(':t')
        let mainfnameRoot = fnamemodify(Tex_GetMainFileName(), ':t:r')
        let mainfnameFull = Tex_GetMainFileName(':p:r')
        " cd to the location of the file to avoid problems with directory name
        " containing spaces.
        call Tex_CD(Tex_GetMainFileName(':p:h'))

        if viewer =~ "^ *Skim"
            let execString = 'silent! !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline '.
                \ line('.').' "'.mainfnameFull.'.'.s:target.'" "'.expand("%:p").'"'

        elseif viewer =~ "^ *PDFView"

            let execString = 'silent! !/Applications/PDFView.app/Contents/MacOS/gotoline.sh '.
                \ line('.').' "'.mainfnameFull.'.'.s:target.'" "'.expand("%:p").'"'

        elseif viewer =~ "^ *TeXniscope"

            let execString = 'silent! !/Applications/TeXniscope.app/Contents/Resources/forward-search.sh '.
                \ line('.').' "'.expand("%:p").'" "'.mainfnameFull.'.'.s:target.'"'

        endif

        call Tex_Debug("Tex_ForwardSearchLaTeX: execString = ".execString, "comp")
        execute execString
        if !has('gui_running')
            redraw!
        endif

        exe 'cd '.s:origdir
    endfunction

Again, obviously, this was just a quick-and-dirty way to edit compiler.vim and I stopped caring once it worked, so you could make these either more compatible by not removing so many cases of the conditional or more elegant by just skipping the conditional altogether...I'm just wary of jinxing it now that it works ;)

Note: if you need step-by-step instructions for opening and editing these files, please leave a comment...believe me I've been frustrated by how much the related manuals / help files on the interwebs assume you already know how to do with software you're obviously new to, and I'd be glad to walk you through it in as much detail as you need to save you from the same frustration.

Note 2: I believe this is the full extent of changes to the default installation that I have made, but I could have left one out since I've been working on this so much. If this does not work for you, let me know and I'll look into what else I may have incidentally changed.

Answer 3

I had to set the following in my .vimrc to get <leader>lv to work correctly:

autocmd FileType tex call Tex_SetTeXCompilerTarget('View','pdf')                                                                                                                     

I hope it helps someone :)

Answer 4

keflavich/macvim-skim

Another possibility to Interlink macvim & skim for an integrated LaTeX DE provides following github repo: https://github.com/keflavich/macvim-skim

It consists of:

1. a bash script macvim-load-line
2. a vim function WhichTab
3. a vim ft-plugin which configures correct forward-search calls
4. and an installer file. This one copies the bash script into $PATH, moves vim files to the right location in ~/.vim and configures the settings of Skim.

If you already have an ftplugin for tex (such as vimtex or latex-box), you can remove the ftplugin of macvim-skim and use the forward search capabilities provided by vimtex or latex-box.

Answer 5

You may need to add

\usepackage{pdfsync}

to your preamble to generate the necessary data for the sync.

Answer 6

I wasn't able to figure out how to make this work with MacVim, and tried a number of the script samples that are floating around. I resorted to the following:

#!/bin/bash

file="$1"
line="$2"

[ "${file:0:1}" == "/" ] || file="${PWD}/$file"

xt=/opt/X11/bin/xterm
exec $xt -fn 10x20 -geometry 110x30 -fg green -bg black -e "vim +$line $file"

This doesn't have the menus that MacVim has, but at least it actually brings up vim.

Answer 7

vim-latex and Skim.app

https://github.com/vim-latex/vim-latex

vim-latex offers a convenient vimscript function called RemoteOpen to improve the backwards search. The given description explains what it does:

" Often times, an external program needs to open a file in gvim from the
" command line. However, it will not know if the file is already opened in a
" previous vim session. It is not sufficient to simply specify 
"
" gvim --remote-silent <filename> 
"
" because this simply opens up <filename> in the first remote gvim session it
" sees. This script provides a command RemoteOpen which is meant to be used
" from the command line as follows:
"
" gvim -c ":RemoteOpen +<lnum> <filename>"
"
" where <lnum> is the line-number you wish <filename> to open to.  What will
" happen is that a new gvim will start up and enquire from all previous
" sessions if <filename> is already open in any of them. If it is, then it
" will edit the file in that session and bring it to the foreground and itself
" quit. Otherwise, it will not quit and instead open up the file for editing
" at <lnum>.

Skim.app can be configured to use mvim which is a command line script to open macvim. mvim is distributed with macvim, however, has to be installed into $PATH manually, see :h mvim. The correct Skim.app configuration looks like this: