Hi, Jim—
I changed the engine so that it now reads
synctex==repeat “$1”
I re-did the tests (without the typos ☹️)
For the first
% synctex edit -o 50:300:300:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
the error message is
This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.2
SyncTeX ERROR: No SyncTeX available for prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
usage: synctex <subcommand> [options] [args]
Synchronize TeXnology command-line client, version 1.17
and for the second
% mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=50 --x=300 --y=300 --tolerance=9999
prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex
the error message is
mtx-synctex | invalid synctex log file 'prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex'
which is the same as before.
I will send the files that you request to you directly.
All best,
Alan
> On Apr 11, 2026, at 12:55, Jim <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi Alan,
>
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2026 at 12:28 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
>
>> Thank you for your help.
>
> You're welcome (such as it is!).
>
>> The TeXShop engine for luametatex is LMTX and it contains:
>> mtxrun --script context --synctex "$1" --autogenerate --file-line-error
>> --directives="system.showerror" --autopdf
>
> Are you able to change it to --synctex=repeat ?
>
> That produces a different format of synctex output which is more compatible
> with the non-ConTeXt synctex program and synctex library. Which TeXshop
> may be using.
>
>> I have limited experience with the command line, so I may have
>> misunderstood you in the following.
>
>> When I run:
>> % cd Aestimatio_ns_v05
>> and then
>> % synctex edit -o 50:300:300:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>> I get:
>
>> % synctex edit -o 50:30o:30o:prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>
> Is there a cut-and-paste error here? The last character of what should be
> "300" is an "o". Which is not good.
>
>> This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.2
>> SyncTeX ERROR: No SyncTeX available for prd_Aestimatio-05.pdf
>> usage: synctex <subcommand> [options] [args]
>> Synchronize TeXnology command-line client, version 1.17
>
> Is the file prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex (or prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex.gz) in
> that directory? If so, my (wild) guess is that synctex is complaining
> about the format of the synctex file, which might be helped with the
> --synctex=repeat
> version.
>
>> With
>> % mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=50 --x=300 --y=300
>> --tolerance=9999 prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex
>
>> I get
>> mtx-synctex | invalid synctex log file 'prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex'
>
> That is curious.
>
>> In both instances, the file "prd_Aestimatio-05.synctex" is in the same
>> directory and it has content.
>
>> What is puzzling is that synctex does work for all cases except for that
>> from PDF file to one of a number of souurce files.
>
> If your files (.tex, .pdf and .synctex_ are not huge, and they are not
> "secret", feel free to mail them to me (directly is fine) and I will be
> happy to take a look. (No guarantees of success, however.)
>
>
> Jim
>
>>> On Apr 9, 2026, at 12:34, Jim <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> On Thu, Apr 9, 2026 at 11:25 (-0400), Alan Bowen wrote:
>
>>>> Hi—
>
>>>> I now have synctex working successfully for :
>>>> PDF output—> single source file
>>>> single source file—> PDF output
>>>> any one of many included source files—> PDF output.
>
>>>> What I have yet to get is
>>>> PDF output—> one of many component files.
>>>> (This last promises to be very useful in editing my journal.)
>
>>>> I have no idea how to troubleshoot this and so any advice or guidance will
>>>> be gratefully received.
>
>>>> I am running the latest ConTeXt ( ver: 2026.03.25) and the latest TeXShop
>>>> (ver. 5.58 with the luametatex engine) on macOS 26.4
>
>>> Hi Alan,
>
>>> I use synctex a lot, and while I run into some issues which I'm currently
>>> trying to resolve, here's an example that I just tested that works for me
>>> to go to a component file
>
>>> $ synctex edit -o 48:85:76:introCTX_eng.pdf
>>> This is SyncTeX command line utility, version 1.5
>>> SyncTeX result begin
>>> Output:introCTX_eng.pdf
>>> Input:01_BodyMatter/b03_Commands.tex
>>> Line:40
>>> Column:-1
>>> Offset:0
>>> Context:
>>> SyncTeX result end
>
>>> It got the file correct, but the line number is wrong.
>
>>> I have never used TeXShop, so I don't know how it gets its synctex into
>>> (i.e., internal library?
>>> external synctex program?
>>> mtxrun --script synctex ... ?
>>> )
>
>>> I would suggest testing a command-line synctex program to see if your
>>> synctex file has the required info in it.
>
>>> The syntax for the above "synctex edit" is
>>> pdf-page:x-coord:y-coord:pdf-file.pdf
>>> and that assumes the synctex file is in the same directory. If not there
>>> is another option needed.
>
>>> mtxrun call from the command line is like
>>> mtxrun --script synctex --report --page=48 --x=850 --y=1020
>>> --tolerance=9999 introCTX_eng.synctex
>
>>> I can't promise to be a while lot of help going forward, but I'm interested
>>> in knowing how well things work for you, so please report back to the list.
>
>>> Jim
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