HOWTO: Evince + SyncTeX + vim/emacs/scite/lyx/kile/$EDITOR + forward/backward search

[tensecor]

This dose not work when the tex file name contains space or some of its parent directories' name contains space.

Hi!

For all of you who didn't get forward/backward search to work. Here is my solution. Thanks to José Aliste who wrote gedit-synctex-plugin:

Preamble

1. Download these files
2. deflate them to ~/bin (or something within $PATH)

Backward Search (Evince → Editor)

1. Adopt the first line of »~/bin/evince« (EDITORCMD) to your needs. (run »evince_backward_search« to get help for possible entries)
2. Compile your .tex File with synctex (»pdflatex -synctex=1 myfile.tex«)
3. Run »evince myfile.pdf« (The script should run evince_backward_search and evince)
4. click on some text in evince with »Ctrl+leftclick«
5. the editor should jump to the corresponding line

Forward Search (Editor → Evince)

1. you have to tell your editor, to run »evince_forward_search $PDFFILE $LINE $TEXFILE« when pressing some key.
2. go to some line in your editor and press the key
3. evince should mark the corresponding line

in my case (using vim-latexsuite), I wrote in ~/.vim/ftplugin/tex.vim:

function! Tex_ForwardSearchLaTeX()
  let cmd = 'evince_forward_search ' . fnamemodify(Tex_GetMainFileName(), ":p:r") .  '.pdf ' . line(".") . ' ' . expand("%:p")
  let output = system(cmd)
endfunction

Afterwards you can do forward search in vim with \ls

Ben

edit: thanks to hugmenot, I changed the code according to your comment

[florenzen]

Hello,

I have adapted ben's Python code to Emacs lisp for forward search using AUCTeX.

The following code in .emacs does the job if the D-bus support of Emacs is available. Pressing C-c C-v will jump to the output line corresponding to the current line in the source buffer. A new Evince window is started if the document is not yet opened.

;; Forward/inverse search with evince using D-bus.
(if (require 'dbus "dbus" t)
    (progn
      ;; Forward search.
      ;; Adapted from http://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/~ben/evince_synctex.tar.gz
      (defun auctex-evince-forward-sync (pdffile texfile line)
        (let ((dbus-name
           (dbus-call-method :session
                     "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; service
                     "/org/gnome/evince/Daemon" ; path
                     "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; interface
                     "FindDocument"
                     (concat "file://" pdffile)
                     t     ; Open a new window if the file is not opened.
                     )))
          (dbus-call-method :session
                dbus-name
                "/org/gnome/evince/Window/0"
                "org.gnome.evince.Window"
                "SyncView"
                texfile
                (list :struct :int32 line :int32 1))))

      (defun auctex-evince-view ()
        (let ((pdf (file-truename (concat default-directory
                          (TeX-master-file (TeX-output-extension)))))
          (tex (buffer-file-name))
          (line (line-number-at-pos)))
          (auctex-evince-forward-sync pdf tex line)))

      ;; New view entry: Evince via D-bus.
      (add-to-list 'TeX-view-program-list
               '("EvinceDbus" auctex-evince-view))

      ;; Prepend Evince via D-bus to program selection list
      ;; overriding other settings for PDF viewing.
      (add-to-list 'TeX-view-program-selection
               '(output-pdf "EvinceDbus"))

      ;; Inverse search.
      ;; Adapted from: http://www.mail-archive.com/auctex@gnu.org/msg04175.html 
      (defun auctex-evince-inverse-sync (file linecol)
        (let ((buf (get-buffer (file-name-nondirectory file)))
          (line (car linecol))
          (col (cadr linecol)))
          (if (null buf)
          (message "Sorry, %s is not opened..." file)
        (switch-to-buffer buf)
        (goto-line (car linecol))
        (unless (= col -1)
          (move-to-column col)))))

      (dbus-register-signal
       :session nil "/org/gnome/evince/Window/0"
       "org.gnome.evince.Window" "SyncSource"
       'auctex-evince-inverse-sync)))

Note: the inverse search code is by Tassilo Horn and I included it for completeness.

Regards,

Florian

[heito]

The backward search script works great for me, if I call instead of evince our evince script (let call it evince-sync). However if I start it like

evince-sync -p 10 file.pdf

backward search doesn't work (it just does nothing). Any idea how to fix this? I guess it should be a minor change in your code...

Using the -p option is the standard forward search method from emacs. I tried to use your method for forward search, but it didn't work.

[Repabil]

The following code in .emacs does the job if the D-bus support of Emacs is available. Pressing C-c C-v will jump to the output line corresponding to the current line in the source buffer. A new Evince window is started if the document is not yet opened.

I tried your code but Emacs freezes when I do C-c C-v (it goes unresponsive).

[florenzen]

The new Evince in Ubuntu 11.10 requires two slight changes in the Emacs Lisp code to work properly. Here is the patch:

--- emacs       (revision 10195)
+++ emacs       (local)
@@ -272,22 +272,27 @@
          ;; Forward search.
          ;; Adapted from http://dud.inf.tu-dresden.de/~ben/evince_synctex.tar.gz
          (defun auctex-evince-forward-sync (pdffile texfile line)
-           (let ((dbus-name
-                  (dbus-call-method :session
-                                    "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; service
-                                    "/org/gnome/evince/Daemon" ; path
-                                    "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; interface
-                                    "FindDocument"
-                                    (concat "file://" pdffile)
-                                    t  ; Open a new window if the file is not opened.
-                                    )))
+           (let* ((dbus-name
+                   (dbus-call-method :session
+                                     "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; service
+                                     "/org/gnome/evince/Daemon" ; path
+                                     "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"  ; interface
+                                     "FindDocument"
+                                     (concat "file://" pdffile)
+                                     t         ; Open a new window if the file is not opened.
+                                     ))
+                  (time (current-time))
+                  (high (car time))
+                  (low (cadr time))
+                  (timestamp (+ (* high (expt 2 16)) low)))
              (dbus-call-method :session
                                dbus-name
                                "/org/gnome/evince/Window/0"
                                "org.gnome.evince.Window"
                                "SyncView"
                                texfile
-                               (list :struct :int32 line :int32 1))))
+                               (list :struct :int32 line :int32 1)
+                               timestamp)))
 
          (defun auctex-evince-view ()
            (let ((pdf (file-truename (concat default-directory
@@ -307,7 +312,7 @@
 
          ;; Inverse search.
          ;; Adapted from: http://www.mail-archive.com/auctex@gnu.org/msg04175.html 
-         (defun auctex-evince-inverse-sync (file linecol)
+         (defun auctex-evince-inverse-sync (file linecol timestamp)
            (let ((buf (get-buffer (file-name-nondirectory file)))
                  (line (car linecol))
                  (col (cadr linecol)))

Regards,

Florian

[Repabil]

Thanks. That works on smaller files. But when I try it on larger files Emacs freezes after I do C-c C-v or Ctrl+click.

In *Messages*:

let*: D-Bus error: "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." [2 times]

[ddrake_]

The new Evince in Ubuntu 11.10 requires two slight changes in the Emacs Lisp code to work properly. Here is the patch:

I incorporated your patch into the above code; it's now at https://gist.github.com/2297447. I also fixed a problem with symlinks; SyncTeX follows them and uses that for the filenames in the synctex.gz file (see http://tex.stackexchange.com/questio...bout-filenames), but buffer-file-name in Emacs may not. So I added a "file-truename" to fix that. You'll need to use the TEXINPUTS trick from the tex.SE question, though.

[Bausparfuchs]

I just want to share my experience with getting the whole thing running using kile with evince. I also would be very pleased if anyone could help me to get forward search working.

My distro: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric"
My dbus version: 1.4.14-1ubuntu1
My kile version: 2.1.0
My evince version: 3.2.1

First I got the backward search running by using the file "evince_backward search", modified as shown below:

import dbus, subprocess, time, re

RUNNING, CLOSED = range(2)

EV_DAEMON_PATH = "/org/gnome/evince/Daemon" 
EV_DAEMON_NAME = "org.gnome.evince.Daemon" 
EV_DAEMON_IFACE = "org.gnome.evince.Daemon"

EVINCE_PATH = "/org/gnome/evince/Evince" 
EVINCE_IFACE = "org.gnome.evince.Application"

EV_WINDOW_IFACE = "org.gnome.evince.Window"



class EvinceWindowProxy:
    """A DBUS proxy for an Evince Window."""
    daemon = None
    bus = None

    def __init__(self, uri, editor, spawn = False, logger = None):
        self._log = logger
        self.uri = uri
        self.editor = editor
        self.status = CLOSED
        self.source_handler = None
        self.dbus_name = ''
        self._handler = None
        try:
            if EvinceWindowProxy.bus is None:
                EvinceWindowProxy.bus = dbus.SessionBus()

            if EvinceWindowProxy.daemon is None:
                EvinceWindowProxy.daemon = EvinceWindowProxy.bus.get_object(EV_DAEMON_NAME,
                                                EV_DAEMON_PATH,
                                                follow_name_owner_changes=True)
            EvinceWindowProxy.bus.add_signal_receiver(self._on_doc_loaded, signal_name="DocumentLoaded",
                                                      dbus_interface = EV_WINDOW_IFACE,
                                                      sender_keyword='sender')
            self._get_dbus_name(False)

        except dbus.DBusException:
            if self._log:
                self._log.debug("Could not connect to the Evince Daemon")

    def _on_doc_loaded(self, uri, **keyargs):
        if uri == self.uri and self._handler is None:
            self.handle_find_document_reply(keyargs['sender'])
        
    def _get_dbus_name(self, spawn):
        EvinceWindowProxy.daemon.FindDocument(self.uri,spawn,
                     reply_handler=self.handle_find_document_reply,
                     error_handler=self.handle_find_document_error,
                     dbus_interface = EV_DAEMON_IFACE)

    def handle_find_document_error(self, error):
        if self._log:
            self._log.debug("FindDocument DBus call has failed")

    def handle_find_document_reply(self, evince_name):
        if self._handler is not None:
            handler = self._handler
        else:
            handler = self.handle_get_window_list_reply
        if evince_name != '':
            self.dbus_name = evince_name
            self.status = RUNNING
            self.evince = EvinceWindowProxy.bus.get_object(self.dbus_name, EVINCE_PATH)
            self.evince.GetWindowList(dbus_interface = EVINCE_IFACE,
                          reply_handler = handler,
                          error_handler = self.handle_get_window_list_error)

    def handle_get_window_list_error (self, e):
        if self._log:
            self._log.debug("GetWindowList DBus call has failed")

    def handle_get_window_list_reply (self, window_list):
        if len(window_list) > 0:
            window_obj = EvinceWindowProxy.bus.get_object(self.dbus_name, window_list[0])
            self.window = dbus.Interface(window_obj,EV_WINDOW_IFACE)
            self.window.connect_to_signal("SyncSource", self.on_sync_source)
        else:
            #That should never happen.

            if self._log:
                self._log.debug("GetWindowList returned empty list")

    def on_sync_source(self,input_file,source_link,time):
	
	fake_input = re.sub("file://",'',input_file)
	cmd = re.sub("%f",fake_input,self.editor)
	cmd = re.sub("%l",str(source_link[0]), cmd)
	print cmd
	subprocess.call(cmd, shell=True)
        if self.source_handler is not None:
            self.source_handler(input_file, source_link)

## This file offers backward search in any editor.
##  evince_dbus pdf_file line_source input_file
if __name__ == '__main__':
    import dbus.mainloop.glib, gobject, glib, sys, os

    def print_usage():
        print """Usage:
  evince_backward_search pdf_file "editorcmd %f %l"'
    %f ... TeX-file to load
    %l ... line to jump to E.g.:
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "gvim --servername somepdf --remote-silent '+%l<Enter>' %f"
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "emacsclient -a emacs --no-wait +%l %f"
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "scite %f '-goto:%l'"
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "lyxclient -g %f %l"
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "kate --use --line %l"
  evince_backward_search somepdf.pdf "kile --line %l" """
        sys.exit(1)

    if len(sys.argv)!=3:
        print_usage()

    pdf_file = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[1])

    if not os.path.isfile(pdf_file):
        print_usage()

    dbus.mainloop.glib.DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)
    
    a = EvinceWindowProxy('file://' + pdf_file, sys.argv[2] ,True)
 
    loop = gobject.MainLoop()
    loop.run()

And calling it via "ViewPDF" in kile using the command: /usr/local/bin/evince '%target', where the Editor command in the script "evince" has to look like this:

EDITORCMD="kile --line %l %f"

That works very well.

Secondly I had to find a way to call the script "evince_forward_search" with the parameters described in the first post from kile.

I did that by writing that script below:

#!/bin/bash
#this is 'forwardsearch.sh'
#line

LINE=$(echo $1 | cut -d : -f 3 | cut -d / -f 1)

#echo $LINE

#pdf

PDFFILE=$(echo $1 | cut -d : -f 2 | cut -d \# -f 1)

#texfile

TEXFILE=$(echo $1 | cut -d : -f 3 | cut -d / -f 2-8 | sed -e 's/home/\/home/g')


echo "evince_forward_search" $PDFFILE $LINE $TEXFILE
evince_forward_search $PDFFILE $LINE $TEXFILE

When invoked from kile using the command

forwardsearch.sh '%absolute_target'

that script calls the programm "evince_forward_search" with the described parameters.

Due to upcoming dbus errors I had to change the script "evince_backward_search" slightly as described before in this thread:

-window.SyncView(tex_file, (line_number,1), dbus_interface="org.gnome.evince.Window")
+window.SyncView(tex_file, (line_number,1), 0, dbus_interface="org.gnome.evince.Window")

After that change, the script runs without any error but does not highlight anything in the pdf. The pdf just gets opened. Maybe someone can help me out.

Thx

[Ottokraftstoff]

Hi Guys.
I just wanted to tell the world out there how I got the synctex-script working with evince and geany, because your posts were very helpful for me and I hope my experiences can help other people.

My configuration is
evince 3.4.0
geany 0.21
Ubuntu 12.04 64Bit with Unity
Tex Live 2009

First, I downloaded the script and deflated the files to ~/bin.

Secondly, I modified the script files as suggested by jorges00 in Post #5 to get them working with the newer dbus interface (what ever that is).

Thirdly, I told geany to compile my document with the the synctex option by defining the following custom build command:

pdflatex %f && bibtex %e && pdflatex %f && pdflatex  -synctex=1  %f

Then, to get backward search (Evince → Editor) running, I modified the second line of evince.sh as follows:

EDITORCMD="geany -l %l %f &"

Please note that I added a "&" at the end. Without that I had the following problem: When I CTRL+clicked in the pdf, geany opened the correct file at the correct line. But when I clicked for the second time, nothing happened and geany was somehow frozen until I closed it. Then a new instance popped up and showed the line where I had clicked the second time.
I do not know if that extra "&" is an appropriate solution, but it works for me.

I have not managed to get forward search (Editor → Evince) running with geany. You could tell geany to execute commands or run scripts. But as far as i understand the internet, there is no possibility of handing over the current line number from geany to a script. The reason is that a wildcard for the linenumber has not been implemented in geany yet.

However, I find backward search much more important than forward search, so I am really happy now with my setup. In Fact, the synctex-evince script and the advice from this forum to get it working enhanced the magnificence of my workflow by approximately 200%. Thank your for that.
Though, if anybody knows how to make forward search possible with geany, please let me know.

[giopao314]

Hi all,

I'm trying to have backward search in Lyx using evince and the scripts of this forum.

My configuration is:
Ubuntu 12.04 64bit with Unity
evince 3.4.0
Lyx 2.02

Forward search (Lyx -> evince) works great from Lyx 2.0 on, so my only problem is backward search using evince.

I followed the steps suggested by Ottokraftstoff:

First, I downloaded the script and deflated the files to ~/bin.

Secondly, I modified the script files as suggested by jorges00 in Post #5 to get them working with the newer dbus interface (what ever that is).

Third, to get backward search (Evince → Lyx) running, I modified the second line of evince.sh as suggested in evince_backward_search, i.e.:

EDITORCMD="lyxclient -g %f %l &"

I tried with and without the & at the end, but nothing change.

Using Ctrl+click on evince nothing happen.

Please, can someone help me in some way?

Many thanks in advance!