Troubleshooting and Configuration
Below is a list of some problems, and solutions, that you may encounter when attempting to submit TeX/LaTeX files:
Bad Archive
Did you use "tar" and "gzip"?
- "gzip" is the only compression method supported by FastLane at this time.
- "pkzip" is not the same thing as gzip.
- Unix compress (Z-compress, the
.z extension) is not supported.
- See the Troubleshooting: File Extensions item for more information on File Extensions.
- See the Create Compressed Archive section of this document for more information on file compression.
Bad Postscript
If your figures use Postscript that cannot be distilled to a PDF file, the conversion will fail. Many applications that produce Postscript output do so imperfectly. Try converting the output to some other format (preferably a raster/bitmap format) and then converting it back to Postscript or Encapsulated PostScript. This can be done with an image manipulation program, such as the Gimp.
Bad TeX
If you uploaded a TeX file or archive, and conversion failed, try TeX'ing the document yourself and uploading the .dvi file.
- If you get errors while attempting to create the .dvi file, then chances are that our software will also fail.
- If no errors are encountered while creating the .dvi file, it may be that you are using a macro which we do not support. Upload the .dvi file.
- See the Submission of DVI Files section of this document for more information on creating and submitting .dvi files.
File Extensions
FastLane decides now to handle your files based on the file extension and does not recognize arbitrary extensions. You must use the file extensions listed below in the Acceptable Formats table table below. While the extensions listed in the Known Bad Extensions table are not arbitrary, the are not supported by FastLane.
You should not, for example, name a tar'ed, gzip'ed DVI archive mydocument.tar.gz, instead it should be named mydocument.dgz.
Acceptable Formats
| EXTENSION |
File Type |
| .dvi |
DVI file only
· No PostScript figures
|
| .dvz |
DVI file only
· No PostScript figures
· Compressed with gzip (not pkzip!)
|
| .dar |
DVI file and PostScript figures combined into a single TAR file
· Uncompressed
|
| .dgz |
DVI file and PostScript figures combined into a single TAR file
· Compressed with gzip (not pkzip!)
|
Known Bad Extensions
| EXTENSION |
File Type |
| .gz |
"gzip" file
· Please tar the file up before gziping it.
· "gzip" does not preserve the filename (and more importantly to our software, the extension). Therefore after we uncompress it, we have no easy way of identifying the file type.
|
| .z |
UNIX Compress File
· FastLane does not support this format.
· Use "gzip" instead. ("gzip" also gives better compression).
|
Multiple .dvi and/or .tex files in an archive
The conversion process is automated. If you send multiple TeX and/or DVI files in the same tar file, the first one found will be processed and returned. This may or may not be what you want.
tar'ing a directory not a set of files
You have to tar the files, not a directory containing the files.
|
