Roboto.sty is installed, but not found when run in CI-pipeline

[StefanSchroeder]

I am using the image: pandoc/latex:latest-ubuntu.
Since I want to use the Roboto-font, I am adding the command "apt install -y texlive-fonts-extra" in my .gitlab-ci.yml.
(The roboto-font is part of this compilation as indicated here: https://packages.debian.org/sid/texlive-fonts-extra)
The sty-file is properly installed:
ls /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/roboto/roboto.sty
succeeds.
Yet, when I use this preamble in my markdown file with pandoc:

output: pdf_document
fontfamily: roboto

this error occurs:

Error producing PDF.
! LaTeX Error: File `roboto.sty' not found.
Type X to quit or to proceed,
or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)
[...]
l.10 \usepackage

Can somebody point out, what it missing here or why the installed sty-file is not found?

Thanks

[K4zuki]

I suggest to use tlmgr as install directory differs between apt and tlmgr

TL;DR

tlmgr install roboto fontaxes clears error around roboto

Details

I am also not a latex expert but tried to reproduce your condition

Run docker image. change entrypoint to sh this time
$ docker run -it --rm --entrypoint "sh" pandoc/latex:latest-ubuntu

update apt database and install package
$ sudo apt update; sudo apt install -y texlive-fonts-extra
This does mktexlsr in middle of installation so font should be visible from latex but mktexlsr searches different places.

Note: here pandoc command causes the error about roboto.sty as you mentioned
$ pandoc -tpdf -Mfontfamily=roboto markdown.md -o pdf.pdf

$ ls /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/roboto/roboto.sty
/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/roboto/roboto.sty

$ mktexlsr
mktexlsr: Updating /opt/texlive/texdir/texmf-config/ls-R... 
mktexlsr: Updating /opt/texlive/texdir/texmf-dist/ls-R... 
mktexlsr: Updating /opt/texlive/texdir/texmf-var/ls-R... 
mktexlsr: Updating /opt/texlive/texmf-local/ls-R... 
mktexlsr: Done.

I see this mismatch is the cause of your problem. Now I tried to install roboto via tlmgr
# tlmgr install roboto

then I could find the sty under one of the search directory

$ cat /opt/texlive/texdir/texmf-dist/ls-R |grep roboto
roboto
./fonts/enc/dvips/roboto:
roboto
./fonts/map/dvips/roboto:
roboto.map
roboto
./fonts/opentype/google/roboto:
roboto
./fonts/tfm/google/roboto:
roboto
./fonts/type1/google/roboto:
roboto
./fonts/vf/google/roboto:
roboto
./tex/latex/roboto:
roboto-mono.sty
roboto-serif.sty
roboto.sty

now run pandoc again
$ pandoc -tpdf -Mfontfamily=roboto markdown.md -o pdf.pdf
this caused another error about fontaxes.sty, which suggests no more problem with roboto.sty

tlmgr install fontaxes and rerun the same pandoc command. no error. 👍

finally, input file:
$ cat markdown.md

# header

text

## another header

another text

[jgm]

you probably want

mainfont: Roboto
pdf-engine: xelatex

because fontfamily is for pdflatex and tex sty files, not ttf fonts.

[K4zuki]

(I found it was better to use bash instead of sh for docker run)

[StefanSchroeder]

Well, roboto is available as ttf as well as latex-sty package. That being said, it should be possible to access the roboto-font family from pdflatex as well as xelatex.

@K4zuki When I follow exactly your procedure, I am getting this error:

Error producing PDF.
! pdfTeX error (font expansion): auto expansion is only possible with scalable
fonts.
...shipout:D \box_use:N \l_shipout_box
_shipout_drop_firstpage...
l.170 \end{longtable}

I am somewhat confused about the use of tlmgr here. Isn't the tlmgr installation in conflict with the installation of the ubuntu/debian packages installed with apt? I have the suspicion that by installing texlive-fonts-extra I am pulling in the ubuntu-texlive distribution which in turn breaks the tlmgr installation.

When switching to xelatex as suggested by John -- strangely enough -- the document is generated properly without error, but the roboto-font is not applied!

Now this is my header (in a separate file pandoc-pre-yml):

geometry: "left=25mm,right=25mm,top=10mm,bottom=25mm"
mainfont: Roboto
pdf-engine: xelatex
toc: true

This is my call to pandoc:

- tlmgr update --self && tlmgr install roboto fontaxes
- pandoc --metadata-file=pandoc-pre.yml README.md -o output/README.pdf

This code produces a PDF with LMRoman font.

Can you perhaps point to a sample project somewhere, where the roboto font is applied?

[StefanSchroeder]

I now have been able to tweak the project to use the Roboto font as desired. I am capturing the solution here for reference and will then close the issue:

This is the file: pandoc-pre.yml

geometry: "left=25mm,right=25mm,top=10mm,bottom=25mm"
mainfont: Roboto
pdf-engine: xelatex
toc: true

This is the relevant section of .gitlab-ci.yml

build:
  script:
    - apt update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt install -y fonts-roboto fonts-dejavu
    - tlmgr update --self && tlmgr install roboto fontaxes dejavu
    - mkdir output
    - pandoc README.md --pdf-engine=xelatex --metadata-file=pandoc-pre.yml -o output/README.pdf
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - "output"

This solution is not minimal. The Dejavu-font could be removed here.
Also, it's still to be examined which of the calls - apt or tlmgr - is actually required.
Also, only 1 definition of pdf-engine should suffice.

[StefanSchroeder]

Thank you to Yamamoto-san and John for helping.

[tarleb]

The call to tlmgr could be skipped: the mainfont setting only takes effect when pandoc is called with xelatex as PDF engine, and XeLaTeX searches the system's fonts, which are controlled through apt.

[tarleb]

Pandoc makes a distinction between metadata and conversion parameters. The former are part of the document's YAML block or passed via --metadata-file, but only the latter can control which PDF engine is used. See the pandoc manual on "defaults files". That's why setting pdf-engine in the metadata has no effect in the code above.

[StefanSchroeder]

huh, that's surprising as it was suggested by jgm above. 🤸‍♀️

[StefanSchroeder]

thank you for the improvement suggestions, @tarleb . that's great advice and saves me a lot of time optimizing.

[tarleb]

For completeness, this also works:

tlmgr install roboto
pandoc -o out.pdf in.md --pdf-engine=xelatex -V fontfamily=roboto

Using lualatex as the pdf-engine works as well. It seems that pdflatex just doesn't work with that package.

[StefanSchroeder]

didn't you say earlier that xelatex/lualatex use the system-fonts and should therefore not have any need for tlmgr?

[tarleb]

I agree, that's terribly confusing, isn't it? I was confused myself for a second (and partly wrong / imprecise in my comment above).

The difference in the above commands is fontfamily vs. mainfont: using fontfamily causes pandoc to load the font via a \usepackage, whereas mainfont causes a call to LaTeX's \setmainfont. I'm no LaTeX fonts expert, but I believe that only LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX understand \setmainfont, while all LaTeX engines can use the \usepackage{roboto}.

[StefanSchroeder]

Danke.