! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}

[caot]

Tried whatever I could, however I couldn't figure it out.

1. System: CentOS release 6.5 (Final)
2. pandoc: built from source pandoc-1.17.0.3.tar.gz following the instruction to install https://pandoc.org/installing.html

stack setup
stack install --test
stack install

3. export TEXINPUTS=/path-to/sty, etc

Tried example 13. From markdown to PDF: https://pandoc.org/demos.html#examples. Here is the log:

$ pandoc MANUAL.txt --latex-engine=pdflatex -o example13.pdf
! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.7 <

pandoc: Error producing PDF

Can anyone help?

[agusmba]

Why did you try to build such an old version?

Version 2.0 was released this week.

[jgm]

This could be a problem with the templates.
What does pandoc -D latex do? Does it spit out a latex template?
What about echo "hi" | pandoc -t latex -s? does this give you a full latex document with a header and \begin{document}?
You could try running with --verbose, which should give you the latex intermediary and more clues.

[caot]

@agusmba, tried pandoc 2.0, it failed the same.

$ pandoc -v
pandoc 2.0
$ pandoc MANUAL.txt --pdf-engine=pdflatex -o example13.pdf
Error producing PDF.
! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
...                                              
                                                 
l.7 <

[caot]

@jgm ,

It looks no problem with "pandoc -D latex", and "echo "hi" | pandoc -t latex -s", but I am not sure for latex is new to me.

What does pandoc -D latex do? Does it spit out a latex template?

$ pandoc -D latex
\PassOptionsToPackage{unicode=true}{hyperref} % options for packages loaded elsewhere
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
$if(colorlinks)$
\PassOptionsToPackage{dvipsnames,svgnames*,x11names*}{xcolor}
$endif$
%
\documentclass[$if(fontsize)$$fontsize$,$endif$$if(lang)$$babel-lang$,$endif$$if(papersize)$$papersize$paper,$endif$$if(beamer)$ignorenonframetext,$if(handout)$handout,$endif$$if(aspectratio)$aspectratio=$aspectratio$,$endif$$endif$$for(classoption)$$classoption$$sep$,$endfor$]{$documentclass$}
$if(beamer)$
\setbeamertemplate{caption}[numbered]
\setbeamertemplate{caption label separator}{: }
\setbeamercolor{caption name}{fg=normal text.fg}
\beamertemplatenavigationsymbols$if(navigation)$$navigation$$else$empty$endif$
$endif$
$if(beamerarticle)$
\usepackage{beamerarticle} % needs to be loaded first
$endif$
$if(fontfamily)$
\usepackage[$for(fontfamilyoptions)$$fontfamilyoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$fontfamily$}
$else$
\usepackage{lmodern}
$endif$
$if(linestretch)$
\usepackage{setspace}
\setstretch{$linestretch$}
$endif$
\usepackage{amssymb,amsmath}
\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
\usepackage{fixltx2e} % provides \textsubscript
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \usepackage[$if(fontenc)$$fontenc$$else$T1$endif$]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage{textcomp} % provides euro and other symbols
\else % if luatex or xelatex
$if(mathspec)$
  \ifxetex
    \usepackage{mathspec}
  \else
    \usepackage{unicode-math}
  \fi
$else$
  \usepackage{unicode-math}
$endif$
  \defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures=TeX,Scale=MatchLowercase}
$for(fontfamilies)$
  \newfontfamily{$fontfamilies.name$}[$fontfamilies.options$]{$fontfamilies.font$}
$endfor$
$if(mainfont)$
    \setmainfont[$for(mainfontoptions)$$mainfontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$mainfont$}
$endif$
$if(sansfont)$
    \setsansfont[$for(sansfontoptions)$$sansfontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$sansfont$}
$endif$
$if(monofont)$
    \setmonofont[Mapping=tex-ansi$if(monofontoptions)$,$for(monofontoptions)$$monofontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$$endif$]{$monofont$}
$endif$
$if(mathfont)$
$if(mathspec)$
  \ifxetex
    \setmathfont(Digits,Latin,Greek)[$for(mathfontoptions)$$mathfontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$mathfont$}
  \else
    \setmathfont[$for(mathfontoptions)$$mathfontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$mathfont$}
  \fi
$else$
  \setmathfont[$for(mathfontoptions)$$mathfontoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$mathfont$}
$endif$
$endif$
$if(CJKmainfont)$
  \ifxetex
    \usepackage{xeCJK}
    \setCJKmainfont[$for(CJKoptions)$$CJKoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$CJKmainfont$}
  \fi
$endif$
$if(luatexjapresetoptions)$
  \ifluatex
    \usepackage[$for(luatexjapresetoptions)$$luatexjapresetoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{luatexja-preset}
  \fi
$endif$
$if(CJKmainfont)$
  \ifluatex
    \usepackage[$for(luatexjafontspecoptions)$$luatexjafontspecoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{luatexja-fontspec}
    \setmainjfont[$for(CJKoptions)$$CJKoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$CJKmainfont$}
  \fi
$endif$
\fi
$if(beamer)$
$if(theme)$
\usetheme[$for(themeoptions)$$themeoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{$theme$}
$endif$
$if(colortheme)$
\usecolortheme{$colortheme$}
$endif$
$if(fonttheme)$
\usefonttheme{$fonttheme$}
$endif$
$if(mainfont)$
\usefonttheme{serif} % use mainfont rather than sansfont for slide text
$endif$
$if(innertheme)$
\useinnertheme{$innertheme$}
$endif$
$if(outertheme)$
\useoutertheme{$outertheme$}
$endif$
$endif$
% use upquote if available, for straight quotes in verbatim environments
\IfFileExists{upquote.sty}{\usepackage{upquote}}{}
% use microtype if available
\IfFileExists{microtype.sty}{%
\usepackage[$for(microtypeoptions)$$microtypeoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{microtype}
\UseMicrotypeSet[protrusion]{basicmath} % disable protrusion for tt fonts
}{}
$if(indent)$
$else$
\IfFileExists{parskip.sty}{%
\usepackage{parskip}
}{% else
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{6pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}
}
$endif$
$if(verbatim-in-note)$
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
$endif$
$if(colorlinks)$
\usepackage{xcolor}
$endif$
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
$if(title-meta)$
            pdftitle={$title-meta$},
$endif$
$if(author-meta)$
            pdfauthor={$author-meta$},
$endif$
$if(keywords)$
            pdfkeywords={$for(keywords)$$keywords$$sep$, $endfor$},
$endif$
$if(colorlinks)$
            colorlinks=true,
            linkcolor=$if(linkcolor)$$linkcolor$$else$Maroon$endif$,
            citecolor=$if(citecolor)$$citecolor$$else$Blue$endif$,
            urlcolor=$if(urlcolor)$$urlcolor$$else$Blue$endif$,
$else$
            pdfborder={0 0 0},
$endif$
            breaklinks=true}
\urlstyle{same}  % don't use monospace font for urls
$if(verbatim-in-note)$
\VerbatimFootnotes % allows verbatim text in footnotes
$endif$
$if(geometry)$
\usepackage[$for(geometry)$$geometry$$sep$,$endfor$]{geometry}
$endif$
$if(beamer)$
\newif\ifbibliography
$endif$
$if(natbib)$
\usepackage[$natbiboptions$]{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{$if(biblio-style)$$biblio-style$$else$plainnat$endif$}
$endif$
$if(biblatex)$
\usepackage[$if(biblio-style)$style=$biblio-style$,$endif$$for(biblatexoptions)$$biblatexoptions$$sep$,$endfor$]{biblatex}
$for(bibliography)$
\addbibresource{$bibliography$}
$endfor$
$endif$
$if(listings)$
\usepackage{listings}
\newcommand{\passthrough}[1]{#1}
$endif$
$if(lhs)$
\lstnewenvironment{code}{\lstset{language=Haskell,basicstyle=\small\ttfamily}}{}
$endif$
$if(highlighting-macros)$
$highlighting-macros$
$endif$
$if(tables)$
\usepackage{longtable,booktabs}
$if(beamer)$
\usepackage{caption}
% These lines are needed to make table captions work with longtable:
\makeatletter
\def\fnum@table{\tablename~\thetable}
\makeatother
$else$
% Fix footnotes in tables (requires footnote package)
\IfFileExists{footnote.sty}{\usepackage{footnote}\makesavenoteenv{longtable}}{}
$endif$
$endif$
$if(graphics)$
\usepackage{graphicx,grffile}
\makeatletter
\def\maxwidth{\ifdim\Gin@nat@width>\linewidth\linewidth\else\Gin@nat@width\fi}
\def\maxheight{\ifdim\Gin@nat@height>\textheight\textheight\else\Gin@nat@height\fi}
\makeatother
% Scale images if necessary, so that they will not overflow the page
% margins by default, and it is still possible to overwrite the defaults
% using explicit options in \includegraphics[width, height, ...]{}
\setkeys{Gin}{width=\maxwidth,height=\maxheight,keepaspectratio}
$endif$
$if(beamer)$
% Prevent slide breaks in the middle of a paragraph:
\widowpenalties 1 10000
\raggedbottom
$if(section-titles)$
\AtBeginPart{
  \let\insertpartnumber\relax
  \let\partname\relax
  \frame{\partpage}
}
\AtBeginSection{
  \ifbibliography
  \else
    \let\insertsectionnumber\relax
    \let\sectionname\relax
    \frame{\sectionpage}
  \fi
}
\AtBeginSubsection{
  \let\insertsubsectionnumber\relax
  \let\subsectionname\relax
  \frame{\subsectionpage}
}
$endif$
$endif$
$if(links-as-notes)$
% Make links footnotes instead of hotlinks:
\DeclareRobustCommand{\href}[2]{#2\footnote{\url{#1}}}
$endif$
$if(strikeout)$
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}
% avoid problems with \sout in headers with hyperref:
\pdfstringdefDisableCommands{\renewcommand{\sout}{}}
$endif$
\setlength{\emergencystretch}{3em}  % prevent overfull lines
\providecommand{\tightlist}{%
  \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}
$if(numbersections)$
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{$if(secnumdepth)$$secnumdepth$$else$5$endif$}
$else$
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
$endif$
$if(beamer)$
$else$
$if(subparagraph)$
$else$
% Redefines (sub)paragraphs to behave more like sections
\ifx\paragraph\undefined\else
\let\oldparagraph\paragraph
\renewcommand{\paragraph}[1]{\oldparagraph{#1}\mbox{}}
\fi
\ifx\subparagraph\undefined\else
\let\oldsubparagraph\subparagraph
\renewcommand{\subparagraph}[1]{\oldsubparagraph{#1}\mbox{}}
\fi
$endif$
$endif$

% set default figure placement to htbp
\makeatletter
\def\fps@figure{htbp}
\makeatother

$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$
$if(lang)$
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \usepackage[shorthands=off,$for(babel-otherlangs)$$babel-otherlangs$,$endfor$main=$babel-lang$]{babel}
$if(babel-newcommands)$
  $babel-newcommands$
$endif$
\else
  % load polyglossia as late as possible as it *could* call bidi if RTL lang (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic)
  \usepackage{polyglossia}
  \setmainlanguage[$polyglossia-lang.options$]{$polyglossia-lang.name$}
$for(polyglossia-otherlangs)$
  \setotherlanguage[$polyglossia-otherlangs.options$]{$polyglossia-otherlangs.name$}
$endfor$
\fi
$endif$
$if(dir)$
\ifxetex
  % load bidi as late as possible as it modifies e.g. graphicx
  $if(latex-dir-rtl)$
  \usepackage[RTLdocument]{bidi}
  $else$
  \usepackage{bidi}
  $endif$
\fi
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \TeXXeTstate=1
  \newcommand{\RL}[1]{\beginR #1\endR}
  \newcommand{\LR}[1]{\beginL #1\endL}
  \newenvironment{RTL}{\beginR}{\endR}
  \newenvironment{LTR}{\beginL}{\endL}
\fi
$endif$

$if(title)$
\title{$title$$if(thanks)$\thanks{$thanks$}$endif$}
$endif$
$if(subtitle)$
\providecommand{\subtitle}[1]{}
\subtitle{$subtitle$}
$endif$
$if(author)$
\author{$for(author)$$author$$sep$ \and $endfor$}
$endif$
$if(institute)$
\providecommand{\institute}[1]{}
\institute{$for(institute)$$institute$$sep$ \and $endfor$}
$endif$
\date{$date$}
$if(beamer)$
$if(titlegraphic)$
\titlegraphic{\includegraphics{$titlegraphic$}}
$endif$
$if(logo)$
\logo{\includegraphics{$logo$}}
$endif$
$endif$

\begin{document}
$if(title)$
$if(beamer)$
\frame{\titlepage}
$else$
\maketitle
$endif$
$if(abstract)$
\begin{abstract}
$abstract$
\end{abstract}
$endif$
$endif$

$for(include-before)$
$include-before$

$endfor$
$if(toc)$
$if(beamer)$
\begin{frame}
\tableofcontents[hideallsubsections]
\end{frame}
$else$
{
$if(colorlinks)$
\hypersetup{linkcolor=$if(toccolor)$$toccolor$$else$$endif$}
$endif$
\setcounter{tocdepth}{$toc-depth$}
\tableofcontents
}
$endif$
$endif$
$if(lot)$
\listoftables
$endif$
$if(lof)$
\listoffigures
$endif$
$body$

$if(natbib)$
$if(bibliography)$
$if(biblio-title)$
$if(book-class)$
\renewcommand\bibname{$biblio-title$}
$else$
\renewcommand\refname{$biblio-title$}
$endif$
$endif$
$if(beamer)$
\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{$biblio-title$}
\bibliographytrue
$endif$
\bibliography{$for(bibliography)$$bibliography$$sep$,$endfor$}
$if(beamer)$
\end{frame}
$endif$

$endif$
$endif$
$if(biblatex)$
$if(beamer)$
\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{$biblio-title$}
\bibliographytrue
\printbibliography[heading=none]
\end{frame}
$else$
\printbibliography$if(biblio-title)$[title=$biblio-title$]$endif$
$endif$

$endif$
$for(include-after)$
$include-after$

$endfor$

What about echo "hi" | pandoc -t latex -s? does this give you a full latex document with a header and \begin{document}?

$ echo "hi" | pandoc -t latex -s
\PassOptionsToPackage{unicode=true}{hyperref} % options for packages loaded elsewhere
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
%
\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amssymb,amsmath}
\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
\usepackage{fixltx2e} % provides \textsubscript
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage{textcomp} % provides euro and other symbols
\else % if luatex or xelatex
  \usepackage{unicode-math}
  \defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures=TeX,Scale=MatchLowercase}
\fi
% use upquote if available, for straight quotes in verbatim environments
\IfFileExists{upquote.sty}{\usepackage{upquote}}{}
% use microtype if available
\IfFileExists{microtype.sty}{%
\usepackage[]{microtype}
\UseMicrotypeSet[protrusion]{basicmath} % disable protrusion for tt fonts
}{}
\IfFileExists{parskip.sty}{%
\usepackage{parskip}
}{% else
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{6pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}
}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
            pdfborder={0 0 0},
            breaklinks=true}
\urlstyle{same}  % don't use monospace font for urls
\setlength{\emergencystretch}{3em}  % prevent overfull lines
\providecommand{\tightlist}{%
  \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
% Redefines (sub)paragraphs to behave more like sections
\ifx\paragraph\undefined\else
\let\oldparagraph\paragraph
\renewcommand{\paragraph}[1]{\oldparagraph{#1}\mbox{}}
\fi
\ifx\subparagraph\undefined\else
\let\oldsubparagraph\subparagraph
\renewcommand{\subparagraph}[1]{\oldsubparagraph{#1}\mbox{}}
\fi

% set default figure placement to htbp
\makeatletter
\def\fps@figure{htbp}
\makeatother


\date{}

\begin{document}

hi

\end{document}

[caot]

@jgm
Here is the log with --verbose. Latex is brand new for me. I have no idea although I tried lot of ways through google.

$ pandoc MANUAL.txt --pdf-engine=pdflatex --verbose -o example13.pdf

The log of the above line code is here.

[mb21]

See http://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html for a few explanations...

Can you post the exact output of pdflatex -v ?

Also, in pandoc MANUAL.txt --verbose -o example.pdf, what MANUAL.txt are you using, the current one for pandoc 2.0? Can you post the entire output? If it's too long, use https://gist.github.com or something similar.

[caot]

@mb21

$ pdflatex -v
pdfTeX 3.1415926-2.3-1.40.12 (TeX Live 2011)
kpathsea version 6.0.1
Copyright 2011 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Compiled with libpng 1.2.46; using libpng 1.2.49
Compiled with zlib 1.2.3; using zlib 1.2.3
Compiled with poppler version 0.12.4

Example 13. From markdown to PDF:
Example 13
MANUAL.txt

[jgm]

This part is revealing:

l.7 <
     !DOCTYPE html>
!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
Transcript written on /tmp/tex2pdf.12582/input.log.

This seems to indicate that you have some HTML in the intermediate latex file. This could perhaps be a template issue. Hard to say, though -- you didn't include the top part of the intermediate latex file when you quoted output from the run with --verbose. Can we see the top part in addition to the bottom part? Particularly line 7?

PS. Use this format to quote code:

```
code here, between lines with three back ticks
```

Also, do you happen to have a ~/.pandoc/templates directory? If so, it could be that a template there is shadowing the default one.

[jgm]

Oh, also, can you quote the first 10 lines or so of your file MANUAL.txt?

[caot]

@jgm

No such a dirctory of ``~/.pandoc/templates```

$ pandoc -v
pandoc 2.0
Compiled with pandoc-types 1.17.2, texmath 0.9.4.4, skylighting 0.4.2
Default user data directory: /home/zhangyo/.pandoc
Copyright (C) 2006-2017 John MacFarlane
Web:  http://pandoc.org
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is no warranty, not even for merchantability or fitness
for a particular purpose.

$ pandoc MANUAL.txt --pdf-engine=pdflatex --verbose -o example13.pdf

The log of the above line code is linked here.

pandoc.org/demo/MANUAL.txt starts with the follows:

% Pandoc User's Guide
% John MacFarlane
% October 31, 2017

Synopsis
========

`pandoc` [*options*] [*input-file*]...

Description
===========

Pandoc is a [Haskell] library for converting from one markup format to
another, and a command-line tool that uses this library. It can read
[Markdown], [CommonMark], [PHP Markdown Extra], [GitHub-Flavored
Markdown], [MultiMarkdown], and (subsets of) [Textile],
[reStructuredText], [HTML], [LaTeX], [MediaWiki markup], [TWiki markup],
[TikiWiki markup], [Creole 1.0], [Haddock markup], [OPML], [Emacs Org mode],
[DocBook], [Muse], [txt2tags], [Vimwiki], [EPUB], [ODT], and [Word docx];
and it can write plain text, [Markdown], [CommonMark], [PHP Markdown
Extra], [GitHub-Flavored Markdown], [MultiMarkdown],
[reStructuredText], [XHTML], [HTML5], [LaTeX] \(including
[`beamer`] slide shows\), [ConTeXt], [RTF], [OPML], [DocBook],
[OpenDocument], [ODT], [Word docx], [GNU Texinfo], [MediaWiki
markup], [DokuWiki markup], [ZimWiki markup], [Haddock markup],
[EPUB] \(v2 or v3\), [FictionBook2], [Textile], [groff man],
[groff ms], [Emacs Org mode], [AsciiDoc], [InDesign ICML], [TEI
Simple], [Muse] and [Slidy], [Slideous], [DZSlides], [reveal.js]
or [S5] HTML slide shows. It can also produce [PDF] output on
systems where LaTeX, ConTeXt, `pdfroff`, `wkhtmltopdf`,
`prince`, or `weasyprint` is installed.

Pandoc's enhanced version of Markdown includes syntax for [footnotes],
[tables], flexible [ordered lists], [definition lists], [fenced code
blocks], [superscripts and subscripts], [strikeout], [metadata blocks],
automatic tables of contents, embedded LaTeX [math], [citations], and
[Markdown inside HTML block elements][Extension:
`markdown_in_html_blocks`]. (These enhancements, described further under
[Pandoc's Markdown], can be disabled using the `markdown_strict` input
or output format.)

[jgm]

OK, the intermediate latex file looks fine.

What's puzzling, then, is why you're getting this error:

(/share/apps/latex-sty-cls-clo/ifxetex.sty

! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.7 <
     !DOCTYPE html>
!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
Transcript written on /tmp/tex2pdf.7465/input.log.

I suspect something is messed up in your latex distribution.
Where is that DOCTYPE coming from? Can you grep your texmf (and any other paths you've put in TEXINPUTS) for !DOCTYPE?

PS. The log suggests that maybe it comes from ifxetex.sty, so pay particular attention to that one.

[caot]

@jgm yours last comment saved me days.

Thanks all of you.

Fixed as the follows.

1 install texlive following the instrction at link TeX Live - Quick install
2. Post-install: setting PATH (refering to the above TeX Live - Quick install)

export PATH=/PATH-TO/texlive/2017/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH

[Saravanan407]

Hi,
Currently I working in a project to convert TeX file into html.
I successfully installed 'Pandoc' and get the output by using the below command

pandoc test.tex -f latex -t html -s -o test.html --mathjax=https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML -H mathjax-header-include.txt

with in the test.tex file

\begin{abstract}
some abstract text.
\end{abstract}

---

The above abstract is missing in the output html file.
Please help to resolve this type of issue.

[alerque]

@Saravanan407 Please use the pandoc-discuss group for this sort of question, this is not an issue report or feature request so it doesn't need tracking in the issue tracker. Even more, it has nothing to do with this particular old resolved issue.