latex-fast-compile

latex-fast-compile is a Linux helper for the following $\LaTeX$ workflow:

1. Precompile the "preamble" of a given .tex file (i.e. the part before \csname endofdump \endcsname or \begin{document}, whichever comes first)
2. Create a file descriptor watch using inotify, to bind an action whenever the given .tex file changes
3. The action: When the .tex file updates, compile the file, using the precompiled preamble to save time

installation

A working copy of pdflatex must be available on your PATH (typically associated with packages named texlive/texlive-latex).

git clone https://github.com/latex-fast-compile
cd latex-fast-compile
make
sudo make install

If required, specify some $PREFIX to install to, for example,

PREFIX=~/.local/bin make install

usage

latex-fast-compile main.tex

Use Control+D to skip over a $\LaTeX$ compilation error. Use Control+C to quit.

Any $\LaTeX$ in the preamble you'd prefer to regenerate? Separate the "static" precompiled area and the "dynamic" compile-every-time area using \csname endofdump \endcsname.

% "Static" preamble
\some_stuff_like_the_page_header
\csname endofdump \endcsname % Ends the "static" preamble
% "Dynamic" preamble
\stuff_that_changes_like_minitoc
\begin{document} % End of preamble, document starts
  ...

how it works

The inotify Linux API is a somewhat old filesystem monitor used to modify changes in a given directory. Here, we watch a directory; if the filename changed matches the filename in the argument, we fire off a compile command via pdflatex.

As for the $\LaTeX$ step, see this HowToTex (archived) article. We draw on this to follow this command workflow:

# In this example, the argument is "main.tex"
# 1. Precompile the preamble. This creates a preamble.fmt file
pdflatex -ini -jobname=preamble "&pdflatex" mylatexformat.ltx main.tex
# 2. Compile the main.tex file using the preamble
pdflatex -fmt preamble main.tex

You can read the code yourself in latex-fast-compile.c. It is well-commented and follows this pseudocode:

compile preamble
compile using preamble
loop forever:
  wait until edit
  compile using preamble

license

GPLv3