detected an existing LaTeX distribution

[ras44]

In reference to rstudio/rmarkdown#39 (comment)

I attempted to run tinytex::install_tinytex(), but receive:

Error: Detected an existing LaTeX distribution (e.g., pdftex is at /usr/bin/pdftex). You have to uninstall it, or use install_tinytex(force = TRUE) if you are sure TinyTeX can override it (e.g., you are a PATH expert or installed TinyTeX previously).

There seems to be a conflict between the LaTeX version that is installed by default (via yum builddep R texlive, recommended by RStudio here: https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/218004217-Building-R-from-source), and what is being recommended in the above-referenced issue. Unless the official recommendation is to install texlive and then force the tinytex installation.

Please let me know if I have misunderstood something. Thank you for your help.

[ras44]

Here is output from the sudo yum-builddep R:

...
Getting requirements for R-3.5.2-2.el7.src
...
 --> 2:texlive-collection-latexrecommended-svn25795.0-43.20130427_r30134.el7.noarch
 --> texinfo-tex-5.1-5.el7.x86_64
...

I believe another possible solution to rstudio/rmarkdown#39 (comment) would be to update the dependency requirements in R-3.5.2-2.el7.src so that texlive-titling, and/or texlive-latexextra is installed, depending on linux flavor.

[yihui]

It is a shame that building R from source requires the textlive package on your platform. This requirement can be either a convenience or an annoyance. TinyTeX can work in this case (for building R from source). It is just that your system package manager doesn't recognize it. More on this in FAQ 7: https://yihui.name/tinytex/faq/

Anyway, I don't know why you have to build R from source, but the texlive package (from yum) is not required for building R Markdown to PDF. In your case, you are good to go with tinytex::install_tinytex(force = TRUE).

[yihui]

I have turned this error into a warning, since it is not really harmful to have two LaTeX distributions installed on the same machine. The only caveat is when you call LaTeX directly, you may need to know which distribution you are using. For R and tinytex package users, there is nothing to worry about since I have taken care of everything behind the scenes (TinyTeX will always be used if installed).

[ras44]

One additional thought: if tinytex is required for RStudio's knit-to-pdf functionality, maybe it should be installed on the system when installing RStudio. Or when running knit-to-pdf and tinytex is not detected, RStudio should test and recommend the installation.

[yihui]

It is technically easy to bundle TinyTeX with RStudio. The only problem is that the licenses of LaTeX and its packages are complicated (FAQ 2: https://yihui.name/tinytex/faq/).

TinyTeX is not required but recommended for knitting R Markdown to PDF.

[fkohrt]

TinyTeX will always be used if installed

For others who stumble upon this like me: This is due to tinytex:::tweak_path, which is called within tinytex::latexmk, which in turn is indirectly called by rmarkdown::render. So to really evaluate your *TeX binaries, do something like this.