platex command not found

Introduction

When you run more command in linux terminal / console, you get the following error message

platex: command not found

or when using sudo you get the following error message

sudo: platex: command not found

Solutions to platex: command not found

How To Fix platex: command not found in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux / Raspbian

In Ubuntu platex is provided by texlive-lang-japanese package.

texlive-lang-japanese is:

Support for Japanese; additional packages are in collection-langcjk.

This package includes the following CTAN packages:

ascmac – Boxes and picture macros with Japanese vertical writing support

babel-japanese – Babel support for Japanese

bxbase – BX bundle base components

bxcjkjatype – Typeset Japanese with pdfLaTeX and CJK

bxghost – Ghost insertion for proper xkanjiskip

bxjaholiday – Support for Japanese holidays

bxjalipsum – Dummy text in Japanese

bxjaprnind – Adjust the position of parentheses at paragraph head

bxjatoucs – Convert Japanese character code to Unicode

bxjscls – Japanese document class collection for all major engines

bxorigcapt – To retain the original caption names when using Babel

bxwareki – Convert dates from Gregorian to Japanese calender

convbkmk – Correct platex/uplatex bookmarks in PDF created with hyperref

endnotesj – Japanese-style endnotes

gckanbun – Kanbun typesetting for (u)pLaTeX and LuaLaTeX

gentombow – Generate Japanese-style crop marks

haranoaji – Harano Aji Fonts

haranoaji-extra – Harano Aji Fonts

ifptex – Check if the engine is pTeX or one of its derivatives

ifxptex – Detect pTeX and its derivatives

ipaex – IPA (Japanese) fonts

japanese-otf – Advanced font selection for platex and its friends

japanese-otf-uptex – Support for Japanese OTF files in upLaTeX

jlreq – Japanese document class based on requirements for Japanese text layout

jlreq-deluxe – Multi-weight Japanese font support for the jlreq class

jsclasses – Classes tailored for use with Japanese

kanbun – Typeset kanbun-kundoku with support for kanbun annotation

lshort-japanese – Japanese version of A Short Introduction to LaTeX2e

luatexja – Typeset Japanese with Lua(La)TeX

mendex-doc – Documentation for Mendex index processor

morisawa – Enables selection of 5 standard Japanese fonts for pLaTeX + dvips

pbibtex-base – Bibliography styles and miscellaneous files for pBibTeX

platex – pLaTeX2e and miscellaneous macros for pTeX

platex-tools – pLaTeX standard tools bundle

platexcheat – A LaTeX cheat sheet, in Japanese

plautopatch – Automated patches for pLaTeX/upLaTeX

ptex – A TeX system for publishing in Japanese

ptex-base – Plain TeX format for pTeX and e-pTeX

ptex-fontmaps – Font maps and configuration tools for Japanese/Chinese/Korean fonts with (u)ptex

ptex-fonts – Fonts for use with pTeX

ptex-manual – Japanese pTeX manual

ptex2pdf – Convert Japanese TeX documents to PDF

pxbase – Tools for use with (u)pLaTeX

pxchfon – Japanese font setup for pLaTeX and upLaTeX

pxcjkcat – LaTeX interface for the CJK category codes of upTeX

pxjahyper – Hyperref support for pLaTeX

pxjodel – Help change metrics of fonts from japanese-otf

pxrubrica – Ruby annotations according to JIS X 4051

pxufont – Emulate non-Unicode Japanese fonts using Unicode fonts

texlive-ja – TeX Live manual (Japanese)

uplatex – pLaTeX2e and miscellaneous macros for upTeX

uptex – Unicode version of pTeX

uptex-base – Plain TeX formats and documents for upTeX

uptex-fonts – Fonts for use with upTeX

zxjafbfont – Fallback CJK font support for xeCJK

zxjatype – Standard conforming typesetting of Japanese, for XeLaTeX

To fix this problem, we can install more using the command below.

sudo apt-get -y install texlive-lang-japanese

This command might take some time to finish depending on your machine internet connection.

You can also use apt command to install texlive-lang-japanese.

sudo apt -y install texlive-lang-japanese

Or if you have aptitude installed you can use the following command.

sudo aptitude install texlive-lang-japanese

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to fix platex command not found error in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux or Raspbian distribution.