Made pdflatex an optional dependency and a little more reliable.

README.rst

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ External dependencies
 =====================
 
 * You will need **pdftk** installed to generate the sheets in PDF format.
-* You will need **pdflatex** installed to generate the PDF spell pages.
+* You will need **pdflatex** installed to generate the PDF spell pages (optional).
 
 .. note::
 
@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ External dependencies
    is not available in some RPM distributions, such as Fedora and CentOS.
    One alternative would be to build your PC sheets using docker.
 
+.. note::
+
+   If the ``pdflatex`` command is available on your system,
+   spellcasters will include a spellbook with descriptions of each
+   spell known. If not, then this feature will be skipped.
+
 Usage
 =====
 

VERSION

@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.4.1
+0.4.2

dungeonsheets/exceptions.py

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 class DiceError(ValueError):
     """Improper formatting for a dice string."""
-    pass
+
+class LatexError(OSError):
+    """PDFLatex did not execute correctly."""
+
+class LatexNotFoundError(LatexError):
+    """PDFLatex did not execute correctly."""    

dungeonsheets/make_sheets.py

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
+import logging
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 import argparse
 import importlib.util
 import os
@@ -8,9 +10,10 @@ import warnings
 
 from fdfgen import forge_fdf
 
-from dungeonsheets import character
+from dungeonsheets import character, exceptions
 from dungeonsheets.stats import mod_str
 
+
 """Program to take character definitions and build a PDF of the
 character sheet."""
 
@@ -67,17 +70,29 @@ def create_spellbook_pdf(character, basename):
     tex_file = f'{basename}.tex'
     with open(tex_file, mode='w') as f:
         f.write(tex)
+    # Convenience function for removing temporary files
+    def remove_temp_files(basename_):
+        filenames = [f'{basename_}.tex', f'{basename_}.aux',
+                     f'{basename_}.log']
+        for filename in filenames:
+            if os.path.exists(filename):
+                os.remove(filename)
     # Compile the PDF
     pdf_file = f'{basename}.pdf'
-    output_dir = os.path.dirname(pdf_file)
-    result = subprocess.call(['pdflatex', '--output-directory',
-                              output_dir, tex_file],
-                             stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)
+    output_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(pdf_file))
+    try:
+        result = subprocess.run(['pdflatex', '--output-directory',
+                                  output_dir, tex_file, '-halt-on-error'],
+                                 stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, timeout=10)
+    except FileNotFoundError:
         # Remove temporary files
-    if result == 0:
-        os.remove(tex_file)
-        os.remove(f'{basename}.aux')
-        os.remove(f'{basename}.log')
+        remove_temp_files(basename)
+        raise exceptions.LatexNotFoundError()
+    else:
+        if result.returncode == 0:
+            remove_temp_files(basename)
+        else:
+            raise exceptions.LatexError(f'Processing of {basename}.tex failed.')
 
 
 def create_spells_pdf(character, basename, flatten=False):
@@ -319,7 +334,12 @@ def make_sheet(character_file, flatten=False):
         sheets.append(spell_base + '.pdf')
         # Create spell book
         spellbook_base = os.path.splitext(character_file)[0] + '_spellbook'
+        try:
             create_spellbook_pdf(character=char, basename=spellbook_base)
+        except exceptions.LatexNotFoundError as e:
+            log.warning('``pdflatex`` not available. Skipping spellbook '
+                        f'for {char.name}')
+        else:
             sheets.append(spellbook_base + '.pdf')
     # Combine sheets into final pdf
     final_pdf = os.path.splitext(character_file)[0] + '.pdf'