support xelatex in knit2pdf()

[yihui]

maybe knit2pdf(input, output, compiler) or take a closer look at texi2pdf to see if it supports xelatex by the texi2dvi argument.

[ramnathv]

It is as simple as setting Sys.setenv(PDFLATEX = "xelatex") after starting R. I tried using this in a code chunk,but that did not work. It should be easy to modify knit2pdf so that it runs this command before running texi2pdf.

[yihui]

Cool. I will test and update it. Thanks!

[ramnathv]

Here is a quick cut on a modified version of knit2pdf.

knit2pdf_v2 <- function (input, compiler = 'pdftex') {
  out = knit(input)
  owd = setwd(dirname(out))
  on.exit(setwd(owd))

  old_compiler = Sys.getenv('PDFLATEX')
  on.exit(Sys.setenv(PDFLATEX = old_compiler))
  if (compiler = 'xelatex'){
     Sys.setenv(PDFLATEX = 'xelatex')
  }
  texi2pdf(basename(out), clean = TRUE)
}

[ramnathv]

I tested the function and it works. We could make it more flexible by allowing for a latex_compiler option that allows the user to pass pdftex, xelatex, or luatex depending on what they want.

[ramnathv]

I just noticed that the latest build of RStudio allows you to choose your pdf driver between pdflatex and xelatex. You might want to add this as a note or a part of the FAQ.

[yihui]

Yes, sure. Thanks a lot!

[github-actions]

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