Pandoc: Unable to render markdown table to pdf via Latex

Publication date: 2023-11-23

Issue: Unexpected error when rendering markdown table (via Latex) to pdf after Pandoc upgrade

After upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm, Pandoc stopped being able to convert my markdown documents via Latex to pdf files. Unfortunately, the error message is not helpful at all.

Due to the unhelpful error message, some digging into the issue was required. It only happens when a custom template is used and the document contains tables.

Solution: Add packages to custom template

One needs to add two additional Latex packages to the custom template:

\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{calc}

With this, the conversion is working properly again.

Hint towards the solution

Same issue solved at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65598068/error-converting-pandoc-tables-from-md-to-pdf
Pandoc versions explained at https://groups.google.com/g/pandoc-discuss/c/1AKiYXTrqXg