pgfplots not working with TexLive on Windows

Question

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
    \addplot[color=red]{exp(x)};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
    %Here ends the 2D plot
    \hskip 5pt
    %Here begins the 3D plot
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
    \addplot3[
        surf,
    ]
    {exp(-x^2-y^2)*x};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}

Gives the following error:

Package tikz: Sorry, the system call 'pdflatex -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "main-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{main}\input{main}"' did NOT result in a usable output file 'main-figure0' (expected one of .pdf:.jpg:.jpeg:.png:). Please verify that you have enabled system calls. For pdflatex, this is 'pdflatex -shell-escape'. Sometimes it is also named 'write 18' or something like that. Or maybe the command simply failed? Error messages can be found in 'main-figure0.log'. If you continue now, I'll try to typeset the picture.

And when looking in the log:

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.24 (TeX Live 2022) (preloaded format=pdflatex 2022.4.7)  8 FEB 2023 12:32
entering extended mode
 restricted \write18 enabled.
 file:line:error style messages enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**PATH/main.tex
(PATH/main.tex
LaTeX2e <2021-11-15> patch level 1
L3 programming layer <2022-02-24> (c:/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/report.cls
Document Class: report 2021/10/04 v1.4n Standard LaTeX document class
(c:/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size11.clo
File: size11.clo 2021/10/04 v1.4n Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)

(when compiling with --escape-shell):

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.24 (TeX Live 2022) (preloaded format=pdflatex 2022.4.7)  8 FEB 2023 13:22
entering extended mode
 \write18 enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**main.tex
(./main.tex
LaTeX2e <2021-11-15> patch level 1
L3 programming layer <2022-02-24>
(c:/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/report.cls
Document Class: report 2021/10/04 v1.4n Standard LaTeX document class
(c:/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size11.clo
File: size11.clo 2021/10/04 v1.4n Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)

and later:

===== 'mode=convert with system call': Invoking 'pdflatex -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "main-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{main}\input{main}"' ========
runsystem(pdflatex -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "main-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{main}\input{main}")...disabled (restricted).

\openout3 = `main.auxlock'.


./0_abstract.tex:14: Package tikz Error: Sorry, the system call 'pdflatex -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "main-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{main}\input{main}"' did NOT result in a usable output file 'main-figure0' (expected one of .pdf:.jpg:.jpeg:.png:). Please verify that you have enabled system calls. For pdflatex, this is 'pdflatex -shell-escape'. Sometimes it is also named 'write 18' or something like that. Or maybe the command simply failed? Error messages can be found in 'main-figure0.log'. If you continue now, I'll try to typeset the picture.

See the tikz package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.14     \end{tikzpicture}

I have included the right packages etc.:

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\pgfplotsset{width=10cm,compat=1.9}

% We will externalize the figures
\usepgfplotslibrary{external}
\tikzexternalize

I have also tried running it with things such as: --shell-escape main.tex --enable-write18 main.tex or adding \tikzexternalize[shell escape=-shell-escape] But this does not seem to work, everything does work correctly when I e.g. open it in Overleaf.

minimal reproducible example:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,oneside]{report}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{width=10cm,compat=1.9}

% We will externalize the figures
\usepgfplotslibrary{external}
\tikzexternalize

% Do not automatically indent text
\setlength\parindent{0pt}


\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
    \addplot[color=red]{exp(x)};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
    %Here ends the 2D plot
    \hskip 5pt
    %Here begins the 3D plot
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
    \addplot3[
        surf,
    ]
    {exp(-x^2-y^2)*x};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Please make a compilable [mre], not just code fragments. Please also show your .log file so we can see if or if not shell escape is enabled. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 11:43
@samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz what part of the log file would you need for this that isn't in the description? If you mean the `main-figure0.log` that is mentioned in the error message, this log is not generated. — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:07
The first couple of lines of the log file from the main document would be a good starting point. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:08
Ok, the problem is that the file is not compiled with shell-escape. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:12
Normally I use the standard from the VSCode LaTeX workshop, which I think is `pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %DOCUMENT%.tex` but I have also tried things such as `pdflatex --shell-escape main.tex` with same results — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:19
Can you show the first few lines of the log file if you do `pdflatex --shell-escape main.tex`? — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:21
I have updated the post, it pretty much gives the same result — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:25
Ok, the `\write18 enabled.` is correct. Now please make a [mre] which we can copy paste to reproduce your problem without having to puzzle together all the fragments and guess the rest in between. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:26
For some reason it does always generate `main-figure0.md5` , `main-figure1.md5` and `main.auxlock` files when I build with `pdflatex --shell-escape main.tex` — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:26
I gave a minimal reproducible example, but I think the problem has to do with my environment, since it is working in e.g. overleaf as mentioned above. — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:33
Ok, now we have a common starting ground. Does it work if you directly compile from a terminal/command line/or whatever you call it in windows? — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:39
as in with `pdflatex main.tex`? for some reason my minimal reproducible example does, but my original does not — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 12:48
as in `pdflatex --shell-escape main.tex`. If your minimal reproducible example works, then you need to make a new one which reproduces the problem. Start with a copy of your original and then remove everything unnecessary, but still reproduces the problem. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 12:53
But without the just the tikzpicture part everything else is working fine, but ill try to reduce it to find the possible problem — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 13:05
btw I do still get the same errors but it does produce output, which is kind of weird right? — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 13:32
For some reason it now does give valid pdf output, but the errors remain the same, even with standard build commands it works but the errors remain, nothing is changed in the entirity of my code (reverted everything and tried again) — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 13:43
Guess: You get the correct output because the simple test file compiled correctly and produced the graphics and they are still around. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Feb 08 '23 at 13:48
That is not the case, I removed them and also changed the contents to test this. — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 15:52
The error still occurs, it does make a pdf but an incomplete one, which for example does not give my references and table of content (probably due to it being interrupted by this error) So I'm still back at square one — Gier, Feb 08 '23 at 16:38

pgfplots not working with TexLive on Windows

0 Answers0