Install latexindent on Ubuntu Linux

latexindent is a perl script that can help you format LaTeX files. It is shipped with texlive (at least 2020 version). To use it you have to install some other perl packages.

Warning!! Don't try to install latexindent in a conda environment. It does not work at the moment of writing. Some perl packages cannot be installed.

Step 1. Install perl

sudo apt install perl

Step 2. Install the perl package management tool cpanm.

sudo cpan -i App::cpanminus

Step 3. Install the needed perl packages

sudo cpanm YAML::Tiny
sudo cpanm File::HomeDir
sudo cpanm Unicode::GCString
sudo cpanm Log::Log4perl
sudo cpanm Log::Dispatch::File

Step 4. If everything worked, you should be able to see the help information of latexindent by

latexindent -h

Tags: programming LaTeX