/latex-docker

A set of lightweight Docker images for building LaTeX documents

Primary LanguageMakefileMIT LicenseMIT

LaTeX in Docker

GitHub license GitHub build status GitHub release DockerHub GitHub Container Registry

Docker Image Size (minimal) Docker Image Size (basic) Docker Image Size (small) Docker Image Size (medium) Docker Image Size (full)

This repository defines a set of images which may be used to run LaTeX in a container, for example in CI/CD. They come in several flavors, which correspond to TeX Live schemes (see the table below). The default scheme is full which contains all packages.

If some package is missing you can always use tlmgr to install it. The image is based on alpine, so system packages may be installed using apk.

Scheme Image Size
minimal kjarosh/latex:2024.3-minimal ~40 MB
basic kjarosh/latex:2024.3-basic ~90 MB
small kjarosh/latex:2024.3-small ~180 MB
medium kjarosh/latex:2024.3-medium ~500 MB
full kjarosh/latex:2024.3 ~2 GB

The images are made in such a way that they reuse layers. For example full will add a layer to medium with packages that are not present there. This makes it easier to manage and saves space.

Versions

There are several types of versions described below.

If you're unsure which version to use, use the latest stable version.

Stable Versions

Stable versions are in the format of <major>.<minor> (e.g. 2022.1). The major version relates to TeX Live version (which is the year), the minor version is the version of the image within the given year.

Stable versions offer image updates & fixes and include the set of packages for the given TeX Live version at the time of release.

TeX Live version Latest stable version
2024 2024.3
2023 2023.3
2022 2022.2
2021 2021.3
2020 2020.1
2019 2019.1
2018 2018.1
2017 2017.1
2016 2016.1
2015 2015.1
2014 2014.1
2013 2013.1
2012 2012.1
2011 2011.1
2010 2010.1
2009 2009.1

All stable versions are available on the releases page.

Development Versions

If you want to use the newest TeX Live or visit an old release from the past, you can use development versions.

Development versions are released automatically every day and come in several formats:

  1. devel — The lastest development build which uses the main TL mirror. Using this version is highly discouraged, especially in CI/CD, as in case a newer TeX Live release appears, tlmgr will not work.

  2. devel-<TL_VERSION>-<DATE> — A development version containing TeX Live in version <TL_VERSION>, based on a historic mirror from <DATE> (so that tlmgr will work). Usually these images are created once and not updated in the future.

  3. devel-<TL_VERSION> — The newest development build for the given TeX Live release. When <TL_VERSION> is the current TeX Live version, this image will usually be newer than the latest stable release of <TL_VERSION>. However, when <TL_VERSION> is not the current TeX Live version, the latest stable release usually will contain maintenance fixes and base image updates.

  4. devel-any-<DATE> — A development version containing TeX Live from <DATE>. This is the same as devel-<TL_VERSION>-<DATE>, but without <TL_VERSION> in case someone wants to use the TeX Live from <DATE> without knowing <TL_VERSION>.

GitHub Actions

Example using make:

name: Compile LaTeX
on: [ push ]
jobs:
  container:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container: kjarosh/latex:2024.2
    steps:
      - name: Install make
        run: apk add make
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Build
        run: make
      - name: Upload document
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
        with:
          name: main-document
          path: out/index.pdf

GitLab CI/CD

Example using make:

image: kjarosh/latex:2024.2

build:
  stage: build
  before_script:
    - apk add make
  script:
    - make build
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - out/index.pdf