Btukfyl

Shell escape not enabled, is a frequent issue especially when combined with components that are not native to a tex distro path such as Gnuplot in MiKTeX.

For my sins, I run dozens of editor configurations across multiple distros and frequently switch compilation settings, thus need a fairly uniform way to simply check what is or is not active.

I am unclear as to how much each TeX / OS platform variant can internally feed back with reliable file locations when target files are missing. As an example, when calling addplot3[contour gnuplot on windows I can run the following MWE, but think it could be better done or expanded for broader use by variables, such as a package name. Can any one point me towards good diagnostic routines, possibly platform independent?

documentclass[border=10pt]{standalone}

RequirePackage{ifplatform}

usepackage{ifpdf}

%% First sanity test if pdfLaTeX is active

ifpdf

  errmessage{OK ! pdfLaTeX IS active PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE}

else

  errmessage{plain latex and dvipdf ? PLEASE SWITCH to pdfLaTeX}

fi

%% Second sanity test if shell escape is available

ifshellescape

    errmessage{OK   Shell-Escape IS active  PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE}

else

    errmessage{Shell-Escape is NOT working. PLEASE ADD --shell-escape to pdfLaTeX arguments}

fi

begin{document}

%% if shell escape is working we can get console feedback

deftmpfile{w18-active-theyearthemonththedaythetime.cmd}

immediatewrite18{echo echo Shell-Escape is active > "tmpfile"}

ifpdf

  immediatewrite18{echo echo You are using pdflatex >> "tmpfile"}

else

  immediatewrite18{echo echo plain latex and dvipdf ? switch to pdflatex >> "tmpfile"}

fi

% Check where gnuplot is Fist check if we can get version info feedback

immediatewrite18{echo gnuplot -e  'show version long' >> "tmpfile"}

immediatewrite18{echo echo If you do not see version above then add any of the following locations to your path >> "tmpfile"}

% these lines are under review as it should traverse editor roots, but for present we check relative to root and system path

immediatewrite18{echo where /r  gnuplot.exe >> "tmpfile"}

immediatewrite18{echo where gnuplot.exe >> "tmpfile"}



immediatewrite18{echo set path >> "tmpfile"}

% Store latest results WILL be overwritten on each run

immediatewrite18{"tmpfile" >results.txt}

% Add a pause in case user wants to manually edit / run cmd file

immediatewrite18{echo pause>> "tmpfile"}

immediatewrite18{"tmpfile"}

immediatewrite18{del "tmpfile"}

ALL DONE SEE CONSOLE OUTPUT OR Results.txt

end{document}