Doxygen 1.11.0 for macOS reports 'sh: latex: command not found'

[aeronautomat]

Bug Description
When starting the macOS GUI App 'Doxygen.app', downloaded fom https://www.doxygen.nl/files/Doxygen-1.11.0.dmg it reports

sh: latex: command not found

when klicking 'Run doxygen' at the 'Run' tab in the app.

However, on my system 'latex' does exist in directory /Library/TeX/texbin.

The command doxygen (the command line version) executed in a bash shell does finds 'latex'.

Doxygen.app does not seem to utilise a proper PATH environment variable.

Interestingly, doxygen provides configuration variables for setting the location of (only) some executables, like e.g. DOT_PATH. Such a provision does not exist for 'latex', however.

Please either provide a configuration variable like e.g. TEX_PATH or set up the app accordingly.

Version
doxygen 1.11.0
macOS Sonoma 14.5
GNU bash, Version 5.2.26(1)-release

[albert-github]

Disclaimer: I'm not a MacOS user

It looks like to me that when running doxygen from the doxywizard (this is what happens as for as I can see) a shell is started
but that this shell does not use the PATH as it would when using doxygen from the "command line".

• did it work for older versions of doxygen? Which ones did you test / use?

This looks to me like a problem in the startup files of the used shell.

• what happens when you start a separate shell and subsequently start doxygen like:
  • sh
  • goto the right directory
  • doxygen

[aeronautomat]

I answered your question(s) in my post above: Invoked from a shell doxygen does not exhibit the reported behavior.

No offence, but please don’t rely on unconfirmed assumptions:

This looks to me like a problem in the startup files of the used shell.

Do macOS Apps (in /Applications directory) use a shell? If yes, what are the used startup files?

This seem to lead to the wrong track …

[albert-github]

I answered your question(s) in my post above: Invoked from a shell doxygen does not exhibit the reported behavior.

No offence, but please don’t rely on unconfirmed assumptions:

A system has in general multiple shells and it was / is not clear which shell is used in the different cases . Each shell can lead to different problems (and I've seen a few ...) and I see that from the doxywizard the sh shell is started and from the command line the bash shell and they don't have to be the same shells.

[aeronautomat]

I can’t answer this, I’m afraid.

To reproduce

• download the app (link provided above)
• install the app
• run the app

[albert-github]

One thing you might be able to answer, what are the answers from the followin commands on the command line:

• echo $SHELL
• which sh

[aeronautomat]

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

$ which sh
/bin/sh

[albert-github]

OK, and what gives:

• ls -ls /bin/bash
• ls -ls /bin/sh
• md5sum /bin/bash /bin/sh

[doxygen]

@aeronautomat I suggest to edit you ~/.bashrc file and add

export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin/:$PATH"

After that open a new terminal and type which latex. If that lists the correct path, doxywizard should also be able to find it.

Note that the default shell on MacOS is zsh, not bash, so it could be that this is used and you need to add the above line to ~/.zshrc instead (create the file if it doesn't exist).

[aeronautomat]

$ ls -ls /bin/bash
1368 -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1310352  7 Mai 09:01 /bin/bash

$ ls -ls /bin/sh
24 -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  101232  7 Mai 09:01 /bin/sh

$ md5sum /bin/bash /bin/sh
ce49481a54cd33907c3e34002c4f5275  /bin/bash
cfdcfe06a48ba4a7736163827f2eaceb  /bin/sh

[albert-github]

@aeronautomat so we see that the shells are different and I think the comment @doxygen made in #10987 (comment) might solve your issue.

[aeronautomat]

@aeronautomat I suggest to edit you ~/.bashrc file and add

export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin/:$PATH"

After that open a new terminal and type which latex. If that lists the correct path, doxywizard should also be able to find it.

Note that the default shell on MacOS is zsh, not bash, so it could be that this is used and you need to add the above line to ~/.zshrc instead (create the file if it doesn't exist).

@doxygen I guess there is a misunderstanding: calling doxygen or doxywizard from bash or zsh works fine.

The whole issue is with the GUI App for macOS downloaded via https://www.doxygen.nl/files/Doxygen-1.11.0.dmg

This App is then (after installing it) started navtively by clicking on its icon in the Lauchpad. This App (the file /Applications/Doxygen.app) (which is not run through entering a command name into a shell) has the reported issues, not the commands doxygen or doxywizard typed in at and started from a shell.

The PATH as suggested by you above was already set, marked for export and is displayed in bash, zsh and sh. But: The GUI is not aware of it.

I set zsh as the standard shell but this does not change the reported behaviour of the Doxygen.app either.

As I figured out so far is that setting the PATH in .bashrc or /etc/paths resp. /etc/paths.d etc. has no influence on GUI apps invoked natively.

However, when issuing the command

open -a Doxygen.app

from a shell (be it bash, zsh, sh, …) the application has access to the exported PATH.

You can reproduce this in the following way:

• Start the app with
  1. a click on the icon from the Lauchpad
  2. issuing the command open -a Doxygen.app from a shell
• find its PID
• issue command ps -p <PID> -wwE

This shows the environment of the process.

Using option 'i.' gets following output:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Using option 'ii.' incorporates the desired path:

PATH=<hidden_paths>:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/sbin

To Summarize

• The application Doxygen.app does not recognise a custom PATH environent variable when started natively from the Launchpad
• It does inherit the custom PATH when called non-standard from a shell called by open -a Doxygen.app

Suggestion

Provide a configuration variable or setting to enable the user setting the path for the latex executable, like e.g. 'TeXShop' does. This mechanism is already present in doxygen for dot (DOT_PATH). Consider something like TEXBIN_PATH.

[albert-github]

On *nix system normally there are a few ways to solve the issue

• move the sh aside and create a symbolic link from zsh to sh
• adjust the startup file used by sh, by head this could be the .profile file

[doxygen]

@aeronautomat I see what you mean now. The environment for launching GUI applications is set by launchctl. In MacOS versions <14 this could be manipulated via environment.plist. It seems like as of MacOS 14 (Sonoma) things have been made worse by ignoring the PATH variable set this way. I found this on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/12ryky5/add_systemwide_environmentvariables_in_macos/

For now, the only way out I see is to indeed add an EXTRA_PATHS kind of option to doxygen that appends paths to the standard search path before doxygen launches external commands. Next to latex doxygen can also runs gs, dvips, perl, epstopdf, pdf2svg. inkscape, htags and more, so a single TEXBIN_PATH may be too limiting.