Sphinx: Errors converting to pdf via Latex

Publication date: 2020-06-28

Issue: Creating a pdf with Sphinx is not possible due to errors regarding missing tools, etc.

Sphinx is a Python tool that converts documentation written in reStructuredText into various output formats like html. For a Sphinx project created with sphinx-quickstart, one can also generate pdf files using the following command in the project directory:

make latexpdf

However, this command filed in my case on Debian Stretch, and with each resolved issue, another on turned up....

Solution: Install all prerequisites needed

Error that "latexmk" is missing can easily be resolved:

apt install latexmk

The next issue was:

! LaTeX Error: File `cmap.sty' not found.

An Internet search yielded the advice to install it using:

tlmgr install cmap

The error

tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2018 < 2020)

can be worked around using

tlmgr option repository ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2018/tlnet-final

It finally worked after also installing the following:

apt install xzdec
apt install texlive-fonts-recommended
tlmgr install fncychap
tlmgr install titlesec
tlmgr install tabulary
tlmgr install varwidth
tlmgr install framed
tlmgr install wrapfig
tlmgr install upquote
tlmgr install capt-of
tlmgr install needspace