XaTeLite 🛰️

LaTeX over SSH and HTTP. Lets you remotely compile LaTeX and immediately see your compiled pdf all remotely.

Requirements

You need

• Flask
• pdflatex

Installation

Just install by

python3 -m pip install flask
python3 -m pip install xatelite

Usage

The most common use case is ssh-ing into your remote server, starting xatelite, and opening up a web browser to your xatelite latex server.

Here's an example: after ssh-ing into your server, run

$ xatelite -f ~/math/pset4/pset4.tex -q -p 5010

This starts an HTTP server on port 5010 and uses -q to silence Flask's output. Now if you visit your server on port 5010 through a web browser, you'll be presented with your pdf. Refreshing recompiles the LaTeX file.

If there's a bug in your .tex file (if pdflatex returns a non-zero error code), a log file will be presented instead. Use the log file to debug.

Options

The current options can be accessed by xatelite -h and are:

usage: xatelite.py [-h] [-f LATEX_FILE] [-p PORT] [-q] [-qq]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f LATEX_FILE, --latex_file LATEX_FILE
                        the latex file to be compiled and served. If this is
                        not passed in, the single *.tex file in the working
                        directory will be used.
  -p PORT, --port PORT  specify which port the webserver will run on
  -q, --quiet           suppress any Flask output
  -qq, --qquiet         suppress all output including running message

TODO

• Better debugging options
  • Maybe have a relaxed mode that allows errors if a pdf is generated?
• Have a config file with specific pdflatex commands.
• Recommend xatelite [file] -qq & disown for non-screen/tmux users.
  • Have a -k/--kill option to kill servers that can take PID/filename
  • Have a -s/--sessions option to see PID/filename/ports