[LON-CAPA-users] Printing with version 2.11.1

[Stuart Raeburn]

Hi Rex,

For this resource:

/res/msu/kortemey/physicsprecourse/geometry/arclength.problem

the print utility in LON-CAPA generates a non-blank PDF when using any  
of the servers in the msu domain, or any of the *educog.com servers  
(all running LON-CAPA 2.11.1).

I switched my web session to a number of other servers in the network  
currently running 2.11.1 and found that a non-blank PDF was also  
generated on servers in other domains where the Linux distro was  
CentOS 5 or 7, or Ubuntu 12 or 14.  However, a blank PDF was the  
result on some (but not all) servers running CentOS 6.

> ... Now, I just get a link to the pdf file  and nothing else.  Is  
> there a way to find the log and TeX files with  2.11.1?

There has not been a change in the display of links to the .log and  
.tex files in 2.11.1 as compared with earlier LON-CAPA versions.

Those links are displayed to "advanced users" (e.g., Course  
Coordinators, Authors/Co-authors etc.) when an "Emergency stop" is  
found in the log file.

If printout generation is successful and the various stages of the  
process are completed (i.e., calls to latex, dvips, ps2pdf13 complete  
etc.) then the corresponding files with extensions  .log, .tex, .ps  
and .pdf will remain in the prtspool directory, until the nightly  
clean-up by cleanup_file_caches.pl.

You can access the .log, .tex etc. files by replacing the .pdf  
extension, with the extension for the desired file in your browser's  
address box. If you right click (or ctrl-click for Mac) on the link:  
"Your PDF file" in the text:

<Name> - Your PDF file is ready for download, in the final printout  
generation screen then you can copy the link location, which will be  
of the form:
http://loncapa.tcc.fl.edu/prtspool/<user>_<domain>_<identifier>.pdf

Comparing sizes for the various files generated when printing  
/res/msu/kortemey/physicsprecourse/geometry/arclength.problem  
(imported into a course) in the same course for the same user on msua4  
(i.e., s4.lite.msu.edu) versus tccfll1 (i.e., loncapa.tcc.fl.edu) I  
find:

2412 msua4.dvi
26010 msua4.log
30978 msua4.pdf
999358 msua4.ps
3740 msua4.tex
1001384 msua4temporar.ps

2408 tccfll1.dvi
26010 tccfll1.log
9360 tccfll1.pdf
1003401 tccfll1.ps
3740 tccfll1.tex
1005427 tccfll1temporar.ps

A diff of tccfll1.tex and msua4.tex reports no differences.

However the .dvi files are different, and in addition the .ps file  
generated on loncapa.tcc.fl.edu cannot be displayed with a postscript  
viewer.

The issue would seem to be in the generation of the .dvi file within  
cgi-bin/printout.pl from the command:

"latex filename.tex 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null"

where filename is the name of the .tex file.

Note: loncapa.tcc.fl.edu and s4.lite.msu.edu have the same Linux  
distro, and architecture.


Stuart Raeburn
LON-CAPA Academic Consortium


Quoting Rex Abert <ABERTR at tcc.fl.edu>:

> I'm having difficulty printing some resources after our system was   
> upgraded to 2.11.1.  Previously, if there was a TeX error, Lon-Capa   
> would provide links to the log file and the original TeX file to   
> assist in troubleshooting.  Now, I just get a link to the pdf file   
> and nothing else.  Is there a way to find the log and TeX files with  
>  2.11.1?
>
> For what it's worth, the resource that is causing the error is
>
> /res/msu/kortemey/physicsprecourse/geometry/arclength.problem
>
> (Sorry, Gerd!)
>
> Rex Abert
> Associate Professor of Mathematics
> Tallahassee Community College
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