[OS X TeX] Gnuplot call from within pgfplot

[Herbert Schulz]

On Sep 13, 2013, at 9:46 AM, Joshua Smith <jhs0807 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
>> Recent versions of TeXShop have shell-escape turned off by default. You may have to enable the sepdflatexmk engine file (it's pdflatexmk with shell-escape enabled). To do this move the sepdflatexmk.engine file from ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines/Inactive/Latexmk two folders higher, to ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines. Under OS X 10.7 and later the ~/Library folder is hidden in Finder by default; to open it press the Option key while you click on the Go Menu in Finder and a new menu item to allow you to open the folder will show up.
> 
> 
> Herb,
> 
> Aha!  I was using pdflatexmk and not sepdflatexmk.  I did not know of sepdflatexmk, nor did I understand that pdflatexmk overrules the command
> 
> pdflatex --file-line-error --synctex=1 --shell-escape
> 
> in TeXShop's preferences on the Engine pane, which has shell-escape enabled.
> 
> Thanks,
> Josh


Howdy,

Shell Escape has been turned off by default in TeXShop since TeX Live 2012 (and now TeX Live 2013) came out. The default TeXShop preference you note has also removed the --shell-escape flag but the new default preference won't overwrite that preference that was set by a previous version of TeXShop. You can use the default button to set it to the new default.

This has come about since, starting with TeX Live 2012 (installed by MacTeX-2012, ...) there is a way to add gnuplot to a list of Restricted Shell Escape programs that pdflatex allows to run without using shell-escape. There should be a document called something like Eps-Tiff-Conversion.pdf in /Applications/TeX. See Appendix B for adding the program (the example uses Apple's sips but just substitute gnulot for sips).

Maybe that document should be renamed a bit but it mostly deals with Eps and Tiff conversion.

PS: If you have a problem adding gnuplot to that list let me know and we can work our way through the problem.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)