I have a .log file after knitting my work

Hi, I just tried to knit my R. Markdown work to PDF or word and it created me a .log file that I don’t know where it came from. It says “ This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Debian) (preloaded format=pdflatex 2021.9.30) 13 OCT 2021 07:15
entering extended mode
restricted \write18 enabled.
%&-line parsing enabled”

At the end of the file says “ ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!”

But my work is not knitted neither in word or PDF, it is like it is saved in that .log document. I would like to know if I could go back to the original R Markdown or transform that into a PDF I can actually read with my eyes, because the .log file is a mess.

Hi,

this log file is created when you convert to PDF. This is the log file from running LaTeX which is removed at the end if no error occurred. In your case, there was an issue it seems.

Rmd file can't be converted to PDF because it seems there is an issue in the source file. Can you share more about the log file content - useful information should be at the end before the

This is something related to your Rmd content so it will be hard to help unless you share more information

Hi, thank you for your answer. I don’t know what kind of issue could be because I was doing homework for one of my college courses. This is what it says before the end:

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/umsa.fd
File: umsa.fd 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols A
) (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/microtype/mt-msa.cfg
File: mt-msa.cfg 2006/02/04 v1.1 microtype config. file: AMS symbols (a) (RS)
)
LaTeX Font Info: Trying to load font information for U+msb on input line 72.

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/umsb.fd
File: umsb.fd 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols B
) (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/microtype/mt-msb.cfg
File: mt-msb.cfg 2005/06/01 v1.0 microtype config. file: AMS symbols (b) (RS)
)

! Package inputenc Error: Unicode character β (U+03B2)
(inputenc) not set up for use with LaTeX.

See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.
Type H for immediate help.
...

l.110 log(psoda)=β
0+β1prpblck+β2log(income)+β3prppov+u and report the
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
12764 strings out of 481239
186289 string characters out of 5920377
471168 words of memory out of 5000000
27823 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+600000
554452 words of font info for 53 fonts, out of 8000000 for 9000
1141 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
41i,6n,42p,812b,271s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,80000s

! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

Seems like you have a Unicode character somewhere. Maybe issue with math formula ?

Or you need to use another engine maybe

This is the content that is causing the issue

I can see what the problem is. The beta symbol I used. I copy and pasted the beta symbol instead of writing beta_1. The problem is I don’t know how to go back so I can continue my work and knit it to PDF. Do I have to write anything in the console? Do I have to create a new R Markdown file? Because I can’t write any command in my .log file.

You need to modify you’re Rmd source file and re render.

You have a Rmd source file right ?

No I don’t. It disappeared. I just have the .log file. In fact, RStudio took another RMD file from my environment and knitted it as a word document and used the name from the original file that I wanted to knit. But the original RMD that I was editing disappeared after knitting it.

I am suprised by all this. You would need to described more your setup, and file organization. What was the content of the document ? What output functions was in the YAML header ? Are you using special behavior or just the default ? and any other useful informations

I don't see anything in the rmarkdown package that would make a Rmd file disappear. This is the source file and we don't move it and touch it as far as I know. I would be surprised we did. Are you using another tool based on rmarkdown ?

It should work this way :

  1. You write a Rmd file
  2. You use pdf_document() to produce a PDF (word_document() for a word document)
  3. You use the knit button to render. For PDF, LaTeX will be run and log file will be created. It will stays only when there is an issue and PDF is not produce otherwise you won't see it after rendering.
  4. At the end, you should have your Rmd file, a docx file when word_document() or a PDF file when pdf_document().

You need to share more information because I have no clue what could have happen here.

What file are in the same folder as the .log file ?

Hi, thank you for your help. I found out that I should not be using symbols such as beta or “less or equal than” symbol. It won’t let me knit to PDF, but it will let me knit it to word. With respect to the lost RMD file, I am just going to let it go. It was for an assignment, I just created a new RMD file and did it again. I really don’t know what could have happened there. I just got a 0 in my assignment because my teacher doesn’t understand what I did, and she thinks I am lying to her. I guess I’ll celebrate my 0 this weekend!

Again, thank you!!

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