This seems like a long shot, but is there some way to run the embedded Lua in LuaTeX directly, as a Lua executable on Lua code, bypassing TeX? The regular Lua errors out on Lua code included in TeX, because it doesn't know about the Lua-specific libraries.

The man page suggests yes, but when I try it I just get incomprehensible error messages. If anyone knows of example usages, please post a link.

The syntax I used was luatex --luaonly, which may be wrong.

Never mind. Looks like it maybe was working correctly.

@FaheemMitha Use luatex --luaonly somefile.lua, texlua somefile.lua or just luatex somefile.lua (LuaTeX automatically enables the Lua only mode if the file extension if .lua)

@MarcelKrüger Oh. OK, thank you. And that should work without doing anything else?

@FaheemMitha Yes. Of course, the TeX specific libraries generally aren't available if you don't load TeX.

@MarcelKrüger The TeX specific libraries? Does that include stuff like texio?

And if so, does it ignore it, or issue an error?

@FaheemMitha Mostly tex, pdf, token, node.

@MarcelKrüger So texio would work?

@FaheemMitha Try it. I think it probably does, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were all kinds of weird issues with it. After all texio doesn't make a lot of sense without a TeX run.

@MarcelKrüger OK. Well, it can still write to standard output.

I.e. just the print part, not the writing to log part.

Ah, figured out why I was getting weird output. It was picking up the wrong version of the Lua file.

Trying to track down a really elusive bug. Can someone tell me in this error message, what "Undefined control sequence" is being referred to? I often get stuck at that part.

! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \string \@writefile {\ext@table
                                }{\protect \contentsline {table}{\protect \numb
l.11 ...tex}{attachments.db}{attachments}{Documents}

@UlrikeFischer, @PhelypeOleinik, @egreg, @Skillmon, @StevenB.Segletes, I have bothered you for some help along the way. Thank you very much! I do hope you like the result. :-)

@gusbrs I glanced at your message and read UFC round... I was like, oh my, combat! :D

@PauloCereda No, no! hahaha It is a duck-friendly environment. :-)

I was actually in doubt if the abbreviation is common. I guess I know now it isn't...

@gusbrs yay!

@gusbrs no, it defintely is! I use it a lot!

Do take a peek than! As said, comments are very welcome now, since I can fine-tune the UI without backward compatibility concerns.

@PauloCereda ^^

@gusbrs will do, thanks!

@PauloCereda :-)

@gusbrs which reminds me: I saw your issue about footnote and you are right, but I hadn't much time this week.

@UlrikeFischer No hush. But yes, that's the reason I opened it. zref is superb in allowing for this sort of task to be done without having to hack other people's code. And the footnote is one of the very few places I could not escape from.

@UlrikeFischer Btw, you know this is all your fault, right? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/603514/…

@gusbrs yes. A small secret: in the pdfmanagement-testphase bundle is a l3ref-tmp.sty I'm using for internal stuff and in tagpdf.

@UlrikeFischer Oh! I'll take a look!

@UlrikeFischer ooh secrets

@UlrikeFischer @UlrikeFischer It's a little hidden, and I'll have to look for it later. I suppose its more on the infrastructure side. If that's the case, I might benefit from it. As far as "referencing" is concerned I made things quite independent on where the data comes from. Of course, there's always \label and that's the crux, also for zref...

@gusbrs it is not finished so still private, but I needed it to be independent of zref, so there is a temporary version.

@UlrikeFischer I see! Please keep me posted then.

@barbarabeeton ooh twitter.com/RobStratton8/status/1446442185289879555

Is there an optimal way to install TeX Live 2020 using the local installation tools?

I did a search on the site, and I've not found anything very clear. And the official instructions don't mention this.

The official install instructions mention install-tl but there is also an approach mentioned using tlmanager. E.g.

@gusbrs wtf knows it :)

@FaheemMitha Huh? Do you mean install say TL'20 as a whole?

@JosephWright Yes. Whole or in part. I figured it out. The relevant bits of information were scattered around.

I decided to just go with a basic installation, and then install other parts as necessary.

Somebody mentioned that as an option. Presumably using tlmgr. Though I don't know how exactly that would work. I hope tlmgr does dependency tracking.

@Skillmon @Skillmon well, wtf is wtf :)

@gusbrs a console program that can be queried to get the meaning of common abbreviations: wtf is rfc yields RFC: request for comments

I have a situation which I have not encountered before. I have a file that compiles with TeX Live 2020, but fails with TeX Live 2021.

I've spent some time in the last couple of days trying to debug it, rather puzzled, because I remember it compiling, and I hadn't changed anything that could break it. But I guess I hadn't recompiled it since I upgraded to 2021. But I just confirmed that it still works with 2020.

But not with 2021. Both local installations. I can't check with Debian, because I'm running the most recent version there, and Debian doesn't support multiple TeX Live versions.

I guess I go back to trying to isolate the issue. But at least I'm not going crazy.

The file in question uses a fair amount of code I've written, mostly in Lua, so debugging it is not super simple.

@Skillmon hahaha I didn't know there was a "console program" for that, I'd usually just search it. But, just like your comment, mine was a statement, not a question. And also a joke just like yours. ;-)

@FaheemMitha what is the error

@DavidCarlisle It gives different errors depending on the class file. I get two versions. I'll post both.

! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \string \@writefile {\ext@table
                                }{\protect \contentsline {table}{\protect \numb
l.95 ...tex}{attachments.db}{attachments}{Documents}

! Missing \endgroup inserted.
<inserted text>
\endgroup
l.28 ...tex}{attachments.db}{attachments}{Documents}

@FaheemMitha that was a change in longtable update or stick \def\ext@table{table} somewhere where @ is a letter

The first is from scrlttr2. The second is standalone. I think article and scrartcl also produce the second error.

@DavidCarlisle Somewhere, as in the preamble?

@FaheemMitha that would do

@Skillmon But I did try to install it, sounded useful. No luck in my repos though, I'll just have to keep on browsing for this kind of stuff.

@DavidCarlisle Sorry, I'm confused. Did you say I should update longtable?

@FaheemMitha that would also work

@DavidCarlisle OK. I just updated earlier today, but I'll try again. One moment.

It's saying no updates available. Let me check my version of longtable.

@FaheemMitha actually in texlive you need to use latex-dev not latex to pick uo the version with that fix

It seems to be "Package: longtable 2021-05-07 v4.16 Multi-page Table package (DPC)"

This is based on the log, not using tlmgr directly.

@DavidCarlisle Should I use latex-dev, or is that a bad idea?

@FaheemMitha as I say use pdflatex-dev and you'll get 4.17 but defining ext@table is the main difference

@DavidCarlisle Is pdflatex-dev a package? And if so, is there a corresponding lualatex-dev?

@FaheemMitha all the engines have a -dev version it's a test release of the next latex release (which is due in November)

Also would \def\ext@table{table} break things for TL 2020?

@DavidCarlisle Oh.

@FaheemMitha no it's perfectly safe

@DavidCarlisle OK. Fine, I'll try that then. Better than trying to use a beta version of something.

@FaheemMitha I'm using the dev-versions all the time, they work perfectly fine.

@UlrikeFischer So just separate packages in TeX Live? I see them for latex and for xelatex, but not for lualatex.

@FaheemMitha there is lualatex-dev and xelatex-dev (and platex-dev as well as latex-dev and pdflatex-dev)

@DavidCarlisle I don't see those in the package list, but perhaps they aren't packages.

@FaheemMitha no they are formats. Simply use lualatex-dev file instead of lualatex file when you compile.

@FaheemMitha but you will have them installed presumably. Just type lualatex-dev and presumably something happens

@UlrikeFischer @DavidCarlisle Oh, I see. OK. will try.

@DavidCarlisle so slow

@UlrikeFischer i've been up since 5 this morning

Now I get "Package: longtable 2021-09-01 v4.17 Multi-page Table package (DPC)"

@DavidCarlisle and I have 10 hours travel behind me ;-)

But I'm still seeing that error. No change for the second version (standalone). Checking the first version.

Huh, the first error goes away. But I'm still seeing the second one. Let me recheck.

The first error is the "Undefined control sequence."

The second one is the "Missing \endgroup" one.

Yes, still seeing that one with lualatex-dev.

@FaheemMitha the meaning of \document is changed in 2021 latex but most classes have been updated by now so that error is not completely unexpected if you are using custon code, search the main site for that error and you'll see loads of examples.

Oh, the second one shows up in 2020 too, so maybe it's my error.

OK, I'm only seeing that Missing \endgroup inserted. error with standalone. With other classes, using lualatex-dev doesn't give an error.

Though adding the \def\ext@table{table} doesn't reliably make the error go away either.

Is there something special about standalone which could be causing such an error?

@FaheemMitha the ext@table error is unrelated to standalone and unrelated to document grouping so it's not surprising that has no effect. As you must know by now if you want help with an error provide an example document,

For the "! Undefined control sequence.", should I put \def\ext@table{table} before or after the \usepackage{longtable} line? In either case, it makes no difference for my test code. I'm using lualatex here, not lualatex-dev.

@FaheemMitha makes no difference

@DavidCarlisle OK.

Sorry, when I said "makes no difference", I should have been more explicit that the error remains, though it works with lualatex-dev in 2021.

@FaheemMitha with lualatex-dev you should not need to define that.

@DavidCarlisle It works either way, I think for lualatex-dev

@FaheemMitha well yes if you add a fix for an error that's already fixed it does nothing useful but doesn't break anything