As stated in the question, trying to produce a pdf, results in the above error, and Kile (my editor of choice) opens a new tab with the aux file. If I look at myfile.log, it ends with the following (and 3400 lines above it):
l.1185 \@ LN{932}{15} Sorry, but I'm not programmed to handle this case; I'll just pretend that you didn't ask for it. If you're in the wrong mode, you might be able to return to the right one by typing `I}' or `I$' or `I\par'. ! You can't use `\spacefactor' in math mode. \@->\spacefactor \@m {} l.1186 \@ LN{933}{15} (That makes 100 errors; please try again.) Here is how much of TeX's memory you used: 17820 strings out of 493315 299733 string characters out of 6145893 408971 words of memory out of 5000000 20928 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+600000 12592 words of font info for 29 fonts, out of 8000000 for 9000 957 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191 63i,3n,57p,974b,205s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,80000s ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced! So how do I make sense of that? It seems like the spacefactor is an error that I can ignore (even though it shows up 326 times), and probably is related to some macros or self defined commands (in the template) beyond my control. At last I can't think of anything I have done, related to math mode, that I have tone 326 times. What else can the log file tell me?
Or, how do I actually boil it down to a minimal example, that I could share? This specific error message shows up quite a few times, but most times its either something very beamer specific (which I am not using), points towards some issues where files are locked, or the user has not rights to write a certain file (should also be no problem in my case) or dies without an answer.
Problem is, the whole thing is occurring in an 800 line document, that used to compile without problems (that is, no errors that put everything to a halt), until I put in a table. But if I put the table into a minimal example (see below), it works, but if I comment out the table in my original document, it still fails. So, it is not the table!?
Then what else could it be? How do I pinpoint the input where it all starts to go wrong?
The aux file that gets opened has the cursor at a line saying the following:
\@writefile{tdo}{\contentsline {todo}{nur ganz grobe Idee. Falls Sinnvoll, koennte ich daf\GenericError {(inputenc) }{Package inputenc Error: Keyboard character used is undefined\MessageBreak in inputencoding `utf8'}{See the inputenc package documentation for explanation.}{You need to provide a definition with \def 1 ${}\def \begingroup \let \reserved@d =\bgroup \def \let \reserved@d =*\def \par }\def \begingroup \let \reserved@d =\bgroup \def \let \reserved@d =*\def \par }\def \begingroup \let \reserved@d =\bgroup \def \let \reserved@d =*\def \par }\def \begingroup \let \reserved@d =\bgroup \def \let \reserved@d =*\def \par OK, so it has issues with encoding, and I have some German words with stuff like ü and ß in them, but I have had those letters in there from the beginning, and those errors I could always ignore. And the rest is not very readable to me.
Example
Using the copernicus template from linked here
\documentclass[hess]{copernicus}%, manuscript]{copernicus} %% \usepackage commands included in the copernicus.cls: %\usepackage[german, english]{babel} %\usepackage{tabularx} %\usepackage{cancel} %\usepackage{multirow} %\usepackage{supertabular} %\usepackage{algorithmic} %\usepackage{algorithm} %\usepackage{amsthm} %\usepackage{float} %\usepackage{subfig} %\usepackage{rotating} \usepackage{todonotes} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \begin{document} test %%% TWO-COLUMN TABLE % %t \begin{table*}[t] \caption{This is a table \todo[inline]{some fixme notes about this table} } %\begin{tabular}{column = l c c c c} %Somehow, the above does not work, even though the template specifies it. But the standard solution below works. \begin{tabular}{l | c c c c c c} Location & Average & Average & Average & Average & Average & Average \\ \tophline xxx & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy \\ xxx & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy & yyy \\ % % % \middlehline % % \bottomhline \end{tabular} \belowtable{} % Table Footnotes \label{Result_table} \end{table*} \end{document} works.
EDIT I have played around a bit with deleting the aux file, and I can somewhat get it to compile. Seems like this line:
xx & SGI, SPI and SRSI & SGI and SPI & SGI & SGI and SRSI & SRSI & SRSI and SPI \\ is the one causing it to fail. However, when I put it into the example above, it does not cause any issues. How can a single line that seems to be quite "normal" cause a whole document to fail?
EDIT2 Here is the output of \listfiles:
*File List* copernicus.cls 2016/01/22 8.09 Copernicus papers fixltx2e.sty 2006/09/13 v1.1m fixes to LaTeX copernicus.cfg article.cls 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class fleqn.clo 1998/08/17 v1.1c Standard LaTeX option (flush left equations) size10.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option) fontenc.sty t1enc.def 2005/09/27 v1.99g Standard LaTeX file textcomp.sty 2005/09/27 v1.99g Standard LaTeX package ts1enc.def 2001/06/05 v3.0e (jk/car/fm) Standard LaTeX file inputenc.sty 2008/03/30 v1.1d Input encoding file utf8.def 2008/04/05 v1.1m UTF-8 support for inputenc t1enc.dfu 2008/04/05 v1.1m UTF-8 support for inputenc ot1enc.dfu 2008/04/05 v1.1m UTF-8 support for inputenc omsenc.dfu 2008/04/05 v1.1m UTF-8 support for inputenc ts1enc.dfu 2008/04/05 v1.1m UTF-8 support for inputenc babel.sty 2013/05/16 v3.9f The Babel package english.ldf 2012/08/20 v3.3p English support from the babel system array.sty 2008/09/09 v2.4c Tabular extension package (FMi) tabularx.sty 1999/01/07 v2.07 `tabularx' package (DPC) graphicx.sty 1999/02/16 v1.0f Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR) keyval.sty 1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC) graphics.sty 2009/02/05 v1.0o Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR) trig.sty 1999/03/16 v1.09 sin cos tan (DPC) graphics.cfg 2010/04/23 v1.9 graphics configuration of TeX Live dvips.def 1999/02/16 v3.0i Driver-dependant file (DPC,SPQR) color.sty 1999/02/16 color.cfg 2007/01/18 v1.5 color configuration of teTeX/TeXLive dvipsnam.def 1999/02/16 v3.0i Driver-dependant file (DPC,SPQR) amssymb.sty 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS font symbols amsfonts.sty 2013/01/14 v3.01 Basic AMSFonts support amsmath.sty 2013/01/14 v2.14 AMS math features amstext.sty 2000/06/29 v2.01 amsgen.sty 1999/11/30 v2.0 amsbsy.sty 1999/11/29 v1.2d amsopn.sty 1999/12/14 v2.01 operator names amsthm.sty 2004/08/06 v2.20 url.sty 2006/04/12 ver 3.3 Verb mode for urls, etc. cancel.sty 2000/03/12 v2.1 Cancel math terms multirow.sty supertabular.sty 2004/02/20 v4.1e the supertabular environment caption.sty 2013/05/02 v3.3-89 Customizing captions (AR) caption3.sty 2013/05/02 v1.6-88 caption3 kernel (AR) natbib.sty 2006/09/06 7.4a (PWD) rotating.sty 2009/03/28 v2.16a rotated objects in LaTeX ifthen.sty 2001/05/26 v1.1c Standard LaTeX ifthen package (DPC) lineno.sty 2005/11/02 line numbers on paragraphs v4.41 times.sty 2005/04/12 PSNFSS-v9.2a (SPQR) pifont.sty 2005/04/12 PSNFSS-v9.2a Pi font support (SPQR) upzd.fd 2001/06/04 font definitions for U/pzd. upsy.fd 2001/06/04 font definitions for U/psy. hyperref.sty 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hypertext links for LaTeX hobsub-hyperref.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset hyperref (HO) hobsub-generic.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset generic (HO) hobsub.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Construct package bundles (HO) infwarerr.sty 2010/04/08 v1.3 Providing info/warning/error messages (HO) ltxcmds.sty 2011/11/09 v1.22 LaTeX kernel commands for general use (HO) ifluatex.sty 2010/03/01 v1.3 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO) ifvtex.sty 2010/03/01 v1.5 Detect VTeX and its facilities (HO) intcalc.sty 2007/09/27 v1.1 Expandable calculations with integers (HO) ifpdf.sty 2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO) etexcmds.sty 2011/02/16 v1.5 Avoid name clashes with e-TeX commands (HO) kvsetkeys.sty 2012/04/25 v1.16 Key value parser (HO) kvdefinekeys.sty 2011/04/07 v1.3 Define keys (HO) pdftexcmds.sty 2011/11/29 v0.20 Utility functions of pdfTeX for LuaTeX (HO) pdfescape.sty 2011/11/25 v1.13 Implements pdfTeX's escape features (HO) bigintcalc.sty 2012/04/08 v1.3 Expandable calculations on big integers (HO) bitset.sty 2011/01/30 v1.1 Handle bit-vector datatype (HO) uniquecounter.sty 2011/01/30 v1.2 Provide unlimited unique counter (HO) letltxmacro.sty 2010/09/02 v1.4 Let assignment for LaTeX macros (HO) hopatch.sty 2012/05/28 v1.2 Wrapper for package hooks (HO) xcolor-patch.sty 2011/01/30 xcolor patch atveryend.sty 2011/06/30 v1.8 Hooks at the very end of document (HO) atbegshi.sty 2011/10/05 v1.16 At begin shipout hook (HO) refcount.sty 2011/10/16 v3.4 Data extraction from label references (HO) hycolor.sty 2011/01/30 v1.7 Color options for hyperref/bookmark (HO) ifxetex.sty 2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional auxhook.sty 2011/03/04 v1.3 Hooks for auxiliary files (HO) kvoptions.sty 2011/06/30 v3.11 Key value format for package options (HO) pd1enc.def 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hyperref: PDFDocEncoding definition (HO) hyperref.cfg 2002/06/06 v1.2 hyperref configuration of TeXLive hdvips.def 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hyperref driver for dvips pdfmark.def 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hyperref definitions for pdfmark specials rerunfilecheck.sty 2011/04/15 v1.7 Rerun checks for auxiliary files (HO) todonotes.sty 2012/07/25 xkeyval.sty 2012/10/14 v2.6b package option processing (HA) xkeyval.tex 2012/10/14 v2.6b key=value parser (HA) xcolor.sty 2007/01/21 v2.11 LaTeX color extensions (UK) color.cfg 2007/01/18 v1.5 color configuration of teTeX/TeXLive tikz.sty 2010/10/13 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.76) pgf.sty 2008/01/15 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.12) pgfrcs.sty 2010/10/25 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.24) everyshi.sty 2001/05/15 v3.00 EveryShipout Package (MS) pgfrcs.code.tex pgfcore.sty 2010/04/11 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.7) pgfsys.sty 2010/06/30 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.37) pgfsys.code.tex pgfsyssoftpath.code.tex 2008/07/18 (rcs-revision 1.7) pgfsysprotocol.code.tex 2006/10/16 (rcs-revision 1.4) pgfcore.code.tex pgfcomp-version-0-65.sty 2007/07/03 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.7) pgfcomp-version-1-18.sty 2007/07/23 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.1) pgffor.sty 2010/03/23 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.18) pgfkeys.sty pgfkeys.code.tex pgffor.code.tex tikz.code.tex calc.sty 2007/08/22 v4.3 Infix arithmetic (KKT,FJ) ts1cmr.fd 1999/05/25 v2.5h Standard LaTeX font definitions t1ptm.fd 2001/06/04 font definitions for T1/ptm. nameref.sty 2012/10/27 v2.43 Cross-referencing by name of section gettitlestring.sty 2010/12/03 v1.4 Cleanup title references (HO) umsa.fd 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols A umsb.fd 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols B t1phv.fd 2001/06/04 scalable font definitions for T1/phv. graphics/pic1.jpeg graphics/pic2.png graphics/....png draft.bbl *********** System is: This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.5-1.40.14 (TeX Live 2013/TeX Live for SUSE Linux) (format=latex 2016.6.17) 6 JUL 2016 15:56
I just ran my list and the list in the accepted answer trough a comparison, and it seems that in almost all cases, a different (older) date is quoted on Opensuse, and also, often, older versions. But in most cases, it only seems to be minor version differences. I would assume that a large and current distro, such as Opensuse ships a working texlive.
Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active [] [11 ! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [input stack size=5000]. \reserved@a ->\def \reserved@a *{\@refstar }\reserved@a l.632 If you really absolutely need more capacity, you can ask a wizard to enlarge me.before it. Seems quite different. And why no\todo? in captions? That used to never be an issue.