The pagedjs-cli and typst pdf engines don't work

[ooker777]

pagedjs-cli

The command pagedjs-cli --help works. I then run this one:

pandoc  --csl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/citation-style-language/styles/refs/heads/master/vancouver-brackets.csl --bibliography '.\Local-first software.json' --citeproc .\tesst.md -o tesst.pdf --pdf-engine=pagedjs-cli

And it says:

pagedjs-cli not found. Please select a different --pdf-engine or install pagedjs-cli

typst

Typst 0.13.0 (8dce676d) is installed. I then run this command:

pandoc --pdf-engine=typst --csl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/citation-style-language/styles/refs/heads/master/vancouver-brackets.csl --bibliography '.\Local-first software.json' --citeproc .\tesst.md -o tesst.pdf 

The error:

error: failed to load file (The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. (os error 123))
    ┌─ \\?\D:\Quả Cầu\Vaults\A Vùng đất Quả Cầu\v3\toP76BE.typ:132:25
    │
132 │ #set bibliography(style: "https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com/citation-style-language/styles/refs/heads/master/vancouver-brackets.csl")
    │                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Error producing PDF.

How to fix this?

[jgm]

1st issue: probably this has to do with paths. Pandoc will look at the PATH environment variable ; make sure the pagedjs-cli executable is in one of the paths listed there.

2nd issue: the issue here is that typst does not allow a URL here; see the documentation. You can use one of the built-in styles or provide a path to a local CSL file.

[jgm]

As for pagedjs-cli, I just don't know enough about how PATH works on Windows to guess the cause. Maybe someone else will have some advice. Apparently it works for you with --pdf-engine=typst, so there is some relevant difference between typst and pagedjs-cli? Could it be that pandoc is only finding things in the system path, not the user path?

[ooker777]

Thanks, it works, but I don't get why -t typst-citations should work. -t is to choose the output formatting, and there is no typst-citations in the docs. Also, the flag should be named as typst-disable-citations I guess.

Both pagedjs-cli and typst are the user path, so I don't think which path is the problem.

Overall I think it's sufficient to convert this discussion to issue.

[jgm]

The extensions are added directly to the format name with + (to enable) or - (to disable). See the manual.

[jgm]

There must be some relevant difference between typst and pagedjs-cli on your system, such that pandoc is finding one and not the other. These use exactly the same code path in pandoc.
Running with --verbose as @badumont suggests might reveal something more.

[jgm]

Created #10662.

[wlupton]

-t typst-citations is -t typst with the citations extension disabled (see https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#extensions).

[badumont]

If you run your Pandoc command with the --verbose flag, you will see the value of PATH as read by Pandoc (among other environment variables). Does it contain the repertory of pagedjs-cli?

[ooker777]

I try with both pagedjs-cli and typst, and the logs both say the relevant env is in my user profile C:\Users\ganuo. However there is no executable of both in that path.

Below is the detailed output.

pandoc '.\test.md' -o tesst.pdf --pdf-engine=pagedjs-cli --verbose:

[INFO] No value for 'lang' was specified in the metadata.
  It is recommended that lang be specified for this format.
[WARNING] This document format requires a nonempty <title> element.
  Defaulting to 'test' as the title.
  To specify a title, use 'title' in metadata or --metadata title="...".
[INFO] [makePDF] Command line:
  pagedjs-cli ".\\toPE8E7.html" "-o" ".\\toPE8F7.pdf"
[INFO] [makePDF] Relevant environment variables:
  ("USERPROFILE","C:\\Users\\ganuo")
[INFO] [makePDF] Source: ...
pagedjs-cli not found. Please select a different --pdf-engine or install pagedjs-cli

pandoc '.\test.md' -o tesst.pdf --pdf-engine=typst --verbose:

[INFO] [makePDF] Command line:
  typst "compile" ".\\toPE05D.typ" ".\\toPE08C.pdf"
[INFO] [makePDF] Relevant environment variables:
  ("USERPROFILE","C:\\Users\\ganuo")
[INFO] [makePDF] Source: ...
[INFO] [makePDF] pdf-engine output

[jgm]

Interesting that "PATH" doesn't show up in relevant environment variables. PATH is in the list of relevant ones, so if it doesn't show up here, it means that the environment variable PATH is not set in the process where pandoc would be running your pdf engine. I must confess, though, I don't know much about how paths work on Windows.