Sandboxed Testing & Portability

latex_it includes tools for building papers inside isolated environments, creating portable publication archives, and compiling legacy documents.

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1. Portable Paper Archives (-z and -t)

Creating a Portable Archive (-z / --zip)

When preparing a paper for co-authors, journals, or archival storage, -z creates a clean, self-contained zip archive:

l -z paper.tex

The packager:

• Gathers all input files and style dependencies recorded during compilation (.fls), ignoring system TeX Live packages.
• Preserves the compiled .bbl so the recipient does not need to run BibTeX.
• Discovers companion figure source files (.fig, .ipe, .svg, .asy, .gp, .py, .R) that correspond to included figures.
• Excludes editor backups (*.bak, figs/bak/, figs/old/).

To include extra supplementary files or datasets:

l -z paper.tex -- notes.txt data/*.csv

Styles Organization (--inject-styles)

• Default (false): Harvested styles are placed in the archive root for compatibility across journal submission portals.
• Opt-in (--inject-styles): Harvested styles are placed into a styles/ subfolder, and \def\input@path{{styles/}{./}} is added to the staged .tex file.

Creating a Flattened Archive (-Z / --zip-flat)

Many journal submission systems (such as Springer Nature, IEEE Author Portal, or Elsevier Editorial Manager) require all LaTeX text to be in a single monolithic .tex file with no \input or \include subdirectories.

-Z (or --zip-flat) automatically inlines all inputs into a single <document>.tex file, retains the compiled .bbl, bundles active figures and styles, and omits redundant subordinate .tex files:

l -Z paper.tex

Like -z, you can combine -Z with -t to verify that the flattened archive builds cleanly in an isolated sandbox:

l -Z -t paper.tex

Packaging Modes Comparison

latex_it provides three distinct packaging modes for sharing, archival, and publication:

Feature	Standard Zip (-z)	Flat Zip (-Z)	arXiv Package (--arxiv)
TeX Structure	Multi-file tree preserved	Inlined single .tex file	Inlined single .tex file
Subordinate .tex	Copied into archive	Omitted	Omitted
Comments (%)	Preserved	Preserved	Stripped by default
Bibliography	Copies .bbl and local .bib	Copies .bbl and local .bib	Copies .bbl (shields biblatex)
Figures & Styles	Preserved	Preserved	Preserved
Figure Sources	Companion sources bundled (.fig, .ipe, etc.)	Companion sources bundled	Strictly excluded (PDF/PNG only)
Metadata File	None	None	Generates arxiv_*_meta.txt
Target Output	<doc>.zip	<doc>.zip	arxiv_<doc>.zip
Primary Use Case	Co-authors & general archival	Journal submission portals (IEEE, Springer, Elsevier)	Direct submission to arXiv.org

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2. Offline Sandbox Builds (tools/bws_run)

tools/bws_run builds papers inside a disposable Bubblewrap (bws) sandbox. It guarantees that the build relies only on files inside the project directory:

tools/bws_run /path/to/paper -- latex_it paper.tex

Sandbox Guarantees

• No Network Access: Network interfaces and proxy access are disabled.
• No User Credentials: ~/.config and ~/.ssh are not mounted; bws provides an empty home directory.
• Clean Workspace: Staged workspace excludes .git/ directories, junk/, and external symlinks.
• TeX Caches Preserved: Host fontconfig and TeX distribution caches are mounted read-only, matching normal compiler speeds.

To inspect the staged directory without launching the sandbox:

tools/bws_run /path/to/paper --prepare-only

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3. Legacy REVTeX 4.0 Compatibility

Papers written before 2010 often use \documentclass{revtex4} (superseded by revtex4-1 and revtex4-2). On modern TeX Live installations, compiling these documents fails with missing class errors.

latex_it includes a small, LPPL-licensed REVTeX 4.0 compatibility tree:

• Installed to ~/.local/share/latex_it/texmf via tools/install.
• Added to the compiler’s search path only when \documentclass{revtex4} is detected.
• Bundled automatically into -z and --arxiv archives when used, keeping the resulting zip self-contained.

To configure or disable REVTeX 4.0 compatibility in .l.jsonc:

{
  "revtex4": {
    "enabled": true,
    "texmf_dirs": ["~/.local/share/latex_it/texmf"]
  }
}