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0006 This manual was originally translated from LATEX.HLP v1.0a in the
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0008 George D. Greenwade of Sam Houston State University.  The
0009 LaTeX 2.09 version was written by Stephen Gilmore.  The
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0020 Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,
0021 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Karl Berry.
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0042 <title>Recovering from errors (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))</title>
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0113 <a name="Recovering-from-errors"></a>
0114 <div class="header">
0115 <p>
0116 Previous: <a href="Command-line-input.html#Command-line-input" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Command line input</a>, Up: <a href="Command-line.html#Command-line" accesskey="u" rel="up">Command line</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="IndexDocument.html#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
0117 </div>
0118 <hr>
0119 <a name="Recovering-from-errors-1"></a>
0120 <h3 class="section">28.3 Recovering from errors</h3>
0121 
0122 <p>If LaTeX finds an error in your document then it gives you an error
0123 message and prompts you with a question mark, <code>?</code>.  For instance,
0124 running LaTeX on this file
0125 </p>
0126 <div class="example">
0127 <pre class="example">\newcommand{\NP}{\ensuremath{\textbf{NP}}}
0128 The \PN{} problem is a million dollar one.
0129 </pre></div>
0130 
0131 <p>causes it show this, and wait for input.
0132 </p>
0133 <div class="example">
0134 <pre class="example">! Undefined control sequence.
0135 l.5 The \PN
0136            {} problem is a million dollar one.
0137 ? 
0138 </pre></div>
0139 
0140 <p>The simplest thing is to enter &lsquo;<samp>x</samp>&rsquo; and <code>&lt;return&gt;</code> and fix the
0141 typo.  You could instead enter &lsquo;<samp>?</samp>&rsquo; and <code>&lt;return&gt;</code> to see other
0142 options.
0143 </p>
0144 <a name="index-_002a-prompt"></a>
0145 <a name="index-prompt_002c-_002a"></a>
0146 <a name="index-_005cstop"></a>
0147 <p>There are two other error scenarios.  The first is that you forgot to
0148 include the <code>\end{document}</code> or misspelled it.  In this case
0149 LaTeX gives you a &lsquo;<samp>*</samp>&rsquo; prompt.  You can get back to the command
0150 line by typing <code>\stop</code> and <code>&lt;return&gt;</code>.
0151 </p>
0152 <p>The last scenario is that you mistyped the file name.  For instance,
0153 instead of <code>pdflatex test</code> you might type <code>pdflatex tste</code>.
0154 </p>
0155 <div class="example">
0156 <pre class="example">! I can't find file `tste'.
0157 &lt;*&gt; tste
0158         
0159 (Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit)
0160 Please type another input file name:
0161 </pre></div>
0162 
0163 <p>The simplest thing is to enter <code>&lt;Control&gt;</code> and &lsquo;<samp>d</samp>&rsquo; (holding
0164 them down at the same time), and then retype the correct command line.
0165 </p>
0166 
0167 
0168 
0169 <hr/><div class='referenceinfo'> <a href='https://latexref.xyz/'> <i>Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual</i></a></div>
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