--- title: "How I used Docker for LaTeX On macOS Yosemite/Sierra" seoTitle: 'How I Use Docker for LaTeX on macOS' author: "Xinjiang Shao" date: 2015-08-14T04:13:01.813Z lastmod: 2026-11-01T12:30:00-06:00 description: 'MacTeX is a huge download. How I compile .tex files from any editor with one Docker command, updated for the 2026 rebuild with latexmk and XeLaTeX.' subtitle: "Updated November 1, 2026: rebuilt on Ubuntu 26.04 with TeX Live 2025, latexmk and XeLaTeX support, published as ghcr.io/soleo/latex." tags: - DevOps - Docker - LaTeX - Productivity image: "images/1.png" images: - "images/1.png" aliases: - "/how-i-used-docker-for-latex-on-mac-os-yosemite-cd29c0713cad" --- ![image](images/1.png) ## Update on November 1, 2026 Eleven years later I still compile LaTeX this way. Today I rebuilt [soleo/docker-latex](https://github.com/soleo/docker-latex) because I moved my résumé to LaTeX, and it needs XeLaTeX, which the old image's build script never ran. Here is what changed. | | 2015–2016 | 2026 | | --- | --- | --- | | Base image | `blang/latex`, then `ubuntu:xenial` (later `ubuntu:latest`) | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, pinned | | TeX | whatever the base shipped | `texlive-full`, TeX Live 2025 | | Build | a script that ran `pdflatex` twice | `latexmk`, which reruns until references settle | | Engines | pdfLaTeX | pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX | | Image | `soleo/latex` on Docker Hub | `ghcr.io/soleo/latex` on GitHub Container Registry | | Docker on macOS | VirtualBox + docker-machine | [Rancher Desktop](https://rancherdesktop.io/) | - **Pinned base.** The image had drifted to `ubuntu:latest`, so the TeX Live version changed under me without notice. It now pins Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, so a build today and a build next year use the same TeX Live. - **latexmk instead of my build script.** The old entrypoint ran `exec pdflatex` twice, and `exec` replaces the shell, so the second pass and the cleanup never ran. latexmk reruns the engine and BibTeX or biber as many times as references need, then removes the aux files. - **XeLaTeX and fonts.** `-e LATEX_ENGINE=xelatex` (or `lualatex`) switches the engine. TeX Live's OpenType and TrueType fonts are registered with fontconfig, so a CV template can load Open Sans or Merriweather by name. The repository has an example CV. - **Any tool, directly.** A command name as the first argument runs as is, for example `biber paper` or `fc-list :family`. - **One warning.** latexmk runs any `latexmkrc` in the folder you mount, and that file is Perl code. Only compile projects you trust. The commands today. Pull once, then compile with pdfLaTeX, the default: ```shell docker pull ghcr.io/soleo/latex docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/mnt/src ghcr.io/soleo/latex paper.tex ``` For a CV or anything with custom fonts, use XeLaTeX: ```shell docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/mnt/src -e LATEX_ENGINE=xelatex ghcr.io/soleo/latex cv.tex ``` And the shortcut, updated for the new image: ```shell docker-latex() { docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/mnt/src ghcr.io/soleo/latex "$@"; } ``` The image is big, about 8.2 GB, because `texlive-full` is everything. That is still the trade I want: one pull, and no template ever fails on a missing package. What it builds now is my résumé. The source is a single-column XeLaTeX file in this site's repository, and a GitHub Actions workflow builds it with this image and publishes the PDF behind the [résumé page](/resume). The PDF's timestamp is the source's last commit time, so the same source always produces the same file, and a workflow run only proposes a change when the résumé actually changed. ## The original post (2015) LaTeX on Dokcer **Update on December 11, 2016:** I'm no longer using the image based on `blang/latex`, instead it is now based on `ubuntu:xenial`. A shortcut bash function I used to for compiling .tex now which is way more easier than before. `docker-latex() { docker run -v $PWD:/mnt/src --rm soleo/latex:latest $@; return $?; }`Recently I just got a my MacBook Pro because my old one died accidentally. That was a story involved with ice coffee and soda. But that's not important. So after I used my dotfiles repository([https://github.com/soleo/dotfiles](https://github.com/soleo/dotfiles)) to set up everything I need and want to start compiling some old .tex files to PDF, PdfLaTeX was missing. I was really frustrated at that time because I don't like the mac version of LaTeX at all. You have to download a big package from [https://www.tug.org/mactex/](https://www.tug.org/mactex/) which is huge, and I really like to work in my favorite text editor namely sublime text instead of the ugly GUI provided in the Mac Suite. This time I'm going to try something new. Docker is a great tool for getting dev environment ready for me, and I've been using it for building GoLang command line tools since a few month ago. After some DuckDuckGo searching( Who uses Google nowadays), I found one person actually did some profound work for me. However, I don't like the way he uses the command. To make the world a better place, I wrote two scripts and added those to the Dockerfile. And here is how I did it. 1. First of all, you need to install virtualbox, docker and docker-machine I personally love homebrew, and use it to get almost all the tools I need. If you need to know more about how i did it, please check [https://github.com/soleo/dotfiles](https://github.com/soleo/dotfiles) > brew install docker docker-machine> brew cask install virtualbox 1. Use the Dockerfile to build the image or pull from docker hub> FROM blang/latex> MAINTAINER Xinjiang Shao <shaoxinjiang at gmail dot com> > ADD build /usr/bin/build > RUN chmod +x /usr/bin/build > ADD clean /usr/bin/clean > RUN chmod +x /usr/bin/clean > VOLUME /latex > WORKDIR /latex [soleo/latex](https://github.com/soleo/latex) You can find the Dockerfile in my soleo/latex repo, and run "docker build -t soleo/latex ." to get a local build or run "docker pull soleo/latex" to fetch from Docker Hub 1. Run build to generate PDFs After everything is done on docker side, run "docker run — rm -v `pwd`:/latex soleo/latex build example.tex" to compile your tex files. The build script is simply to run pdflatex twice to get your final pdf generated. 1. Clean up if you need (Optional but I like it) Finally, if you don't like the mess you created, run "docker run — rm -v `pwd`:/latex soleo/latex clean" in order to get rid of all log files. #### Things I Love about this approach Docker is a very interesting project, I know this project since it was version 0.3, and now it grows so powerful. I saw great potentials to use it for dev environment setup, but this tool could be used for DevOps as well. Unfortunately, I still have to install VirtualBox and create a virtual machine in order to use docker, but at least I only need one virtual machine. In this approach, I could use whatever editor I like and compile it with one single command. The advantage of using docker for me in this case is that if I don't want to use the tools anymore, I could simply remove the images from my Macbook. It's just that simple.