Re: synctex issue
Jim <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.tex.context |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <adsJ/[email protected]> |
On Sat, Apr 11, 2026 at 22:37 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
> Hi, Jim—
> I will test the change to mtx-synctex.lua once I have updated synctex itself.
> But here is the problem:
> I update my installation of ConTeXt (standalone) from the command line with:
> cd /Applications/LuaMetaTeX/ && sh ./install.sh --script install-modules --install --all --fonts=all’.
> This gets me the latest ConTeXt ver 2026.04.10 and LuaMetaTeX ver 2.11.09.
> When I process a file and check the .synctex output, I see that I am running
> SyncTeX Version:1
> and that mtx-synctex.lua is at version 1.002
> I gather that you have version 1.5 and a standalone installation. How did you get that?
Alan,
There are (as far as I can see) two versions for synctex:
(1) the file format version (which is the '1' you mentioned), and
(2) the synctex program (and associated library files), which is what I saw
when I ran the command
/usr/bin/synctex edit -o 5:300:300:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
and it output (among other things)
This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.5
To reiterate, I don't know how your TeX editor works
-> it might be linked to the standard synctex library files;
-> it might explicitly call the (external) synctex command; or
-> it might have its own synctex parsing code inside.
If the first or second choices, updating your "synctex" package, which does
not come with ConTeXt standalone, might be necessary.
If you TeX editor uses the third choice, updating the external synctex
program probably won't help. Perhaps the editor's documentation says how
it does the synctex lookups?
Jim
>> On Apr 11, 2026, at 17:17, Jim <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Alan,
>> I now (think I) know why that error message you reported is happening, and
>> I can suggest a small change.
>> Hans: if you are reading this, perhaps you can enlighten me about this.
>> About 10 lines from the bottom of mtx-synctex.lua, we have the line of code
>> gotolocation(filename,argument("page"),argument("x"),argument("y"),"console",argument("direct"),argument("tolerance"))
>> which is the line of code that gets executed when --report is the argument.
>> But in the gotolocation() function, the "console" argument is assigned to
>> the editor parameter. A couple of lines down it says
>> if editor then
>> but that if statement does the "true" part regardless of whether or not
>> "console" is an editor. And in that case another function called
>> "editfile" is called on a file it found, rather than just reporting the
>> information.
>> If you are up for a small edit of your copy of mtx-synctex.lua, then I
>> suggest changing the above gotolocation line to this:
>> gotolocation(filename,argument("page"),argument("x"),argument("y"),nil,argument("direct"),argument("tolerance"))
>> and after that, the error message you reported should go away.
>> I don't use Macs, so I can't tell you where mtx-synctex.lua is on your
>> system. If you don't know where it lives, you will have to use your OS's
>> search functions. In my case, I have the ConTeXt standalone distribution
>> installed in /usr/local/context, and the file is found at
>> /usr/local/context/tex/texmf-context/scripts/context/lua/mtx-synctex.lua
>> Having said all that, if TeXshop uses the synctex program and/or the
>> synctex library, those are likely the things that need to be updated before
>> things get better.
>> Jim
>> On Sat, Apr 11, 2026 at 13:55 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
>>> Hi, Jim—
>>> I changed the engine so that it now reads
>>> synctex==repeat “$1”
>>> I re-did the tests (without the typos ☹️)
>>> For the first
>>> % synctex edit -o 50:300:300:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>>> the error message is
>>> This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.2
>>> SyncTeX ERROR: No SyncTeX available for prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>>> usage: synctex <subcommand> [options] [args]
>>> Synchronize TeXnology command-line client, version 1.17
>>> and for the second
>>> % mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=50 --x=300 --y=300 --tolerance=9999 prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex
>>> the error message is
>>> mtx-synctex | invalid synctex log file 'prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex'
>>> which is the same as before.
>>> I will send the files that you request to you directly.
>>> All best,
>>> Alan
>>>> On Apr 11, 2026, at 12:55, Jim <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Hi Alan,
>>>> On Sat, Apr 11, 2026 at 12:28 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
>>>>> Thank you for your help.
>>>> You're welcome (such as it is!).
>>>>> The TeXShop engine for luametatex is LMTX and it contains:
>>>>> mtxrun --script context --synctex "$1" --autogenerate --file-line-error --directives="system.showerror" --autopdf
>>>> Are you able to change it to --synctex=repeat ?
>>>> That produces a different format of synctex output which is more compatible
>>>> with the non-ConTeXt synctex program and synctex library. Which TeXshop
>>>> may be using.
>>>>> I have limited experience with the command line, so I may have
>>>>> misunderstood you in the following.
>>>>> When I run:
>>>>> % cd Aestimatio_ns_v05
>>>>> and then
>>>>> % synctex edit -o 50:300:300:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>>>>> I get:
>>>>> % synctex edit -o 50:30o:30o:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>>>> Is there a cut-and-paste error here? The last character of what should be
>>>> "300" is an "o". Which is not good.
>>>>> This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.2
>>>>> SyncTeX ERROR: No SyncTeX available for prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>>>>> usage: synctex <subcommand> [options] [args]
>>>>> Synchronize TeXnology command-line client, version 1.17
>>>> Is the file prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex (or prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex.gz) in
>>>> that directory? If so, my (wild) guess is that synctex is complaining
>>>> about the format of the synctex file, which might be helped with the
>>>> --synctex=repeat
>>>> version.
>>>>> With
>>>>> % mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=50 --x=300 --y=300 --tolerance=9999 prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex
>>>>> I get
>>>>> mtx-synctex | invalid synctex log file 'prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex'
>>>> That is curious.
>>>>> In both instances, the file "prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex" is in the same directory and it has content.
>>>>> What is puzzling is that synctex does work for all cases except for that
>>>>> from PDF file to one of a number of souurce files.
>>>> If your files (.tex, .pdf and .synctex_ are not huge, and they are not
>>>> "secret", feel free to mail them to me (directly is fine) and I will be
>>>> happy to take a look. (No guarantees of success, however.)
>>>> Jim
>>>>>> On Apr 9, 2026, at 12:34, Jim <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 9, 2026 at 11:25 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi—
>>>>>>> I now have synctex working successfully for :
>>>>>>> PDF output—> single source file
>>>>>>> single source file—> PDF output
>>>>>>> any one of many included source files—> PDF output.
>>>>>>> What I have yet to get is
>>>>>>> PDF output—> one of many component files.
>>>>>>> (This last promises to be very useful in editing my journal.)
>>>>>>> I have no idea how to troubleshoot this and so any advice or guidance will be gratefully received.
>>>>>>> I am running the latest ConTeXt ( ver: 2026.03.25) and the latest TeXShop (ver. 5.58 with the luametatex engine) on macOS 26.4
>>>>>> Hi Alan,
>>>>>> I use synctex a lot, and while I run into some issues which I'm currently
>>>>>> trying to resolve, here's an example that I just tested that works for me
>>>>>> to go to a component file
>>>>>> $ synctex edit -o 48:85:76:introCTX_eng.pdf
>>>>>> This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.5
>>>>>> SyncTeX result begin
>>>>>> Output:introCTX_eng.pdf
>>>>>> Input:01_BodyMatter/b03_Commands.tex
>>>>>> Line:40
>>>>>> Column:-1
>>>>>> Offset:0
>>>>>> Context:
>>>>>> SyncTeX result end
>>>>>> It got the file correct, but the line number is wrong.
>>>>>> I have never used TeXShop, so I don't know how it gets its synctex into
>>>>>> (i.e., internal library?
>>>>>> external synctex program?
>>>>>> mtxrun --script synctex ... ?
>>>>>> )
>>>>>> I would suggest testing a command-line synctex program to see if your
>>>>>> synctex file has the required info in it.
>>>>>> The syntax for the above "synctex edit" is
>>>>>> pdf-page:x-coord:y-coord:pdf-file.pdf
>>>>>> and that assumes the synctex file is in the same directory. If not there
>>>>>> is another option needed.
>>>>>> mtxrun call from the command line is like
>>>>>> mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=48 --x=850 --y=1020 --tolerance=9999 introCTX_eng.synctex
>>>>>> I can't promise to be a while lot of help going forward, but I'm interested
>>>>>> in knowing how well things work for you, so please report back to the list.
>>>>>> Jim
>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
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>>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
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>>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
>> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
>> maillist : [email protected] / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
>> webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
>> archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
>> wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
>> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> maillist : [email protected] / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
> webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
> archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
> wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
maillist : [email protected] / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl
webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror)
archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context
wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net
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