Installing latex2html on PC under RH6.1 Linux

Getting necessary pieces

   wget http://ftp.sunet.se/ftp/pub/www/utilities/www-tools_uni-karlsruhe/giftrans/giftrans.1
   wget http://ftp.sunet.se/ftp/pub/www/utilities/www-tools_uni-karlsruhe/giftrans/giftrans.c
   gcc -o giftrans giftrans.c
   cp giftrans /usr/local/bin
   cp giftrans.1 /usr/local/man/man1

Installing latex2html

• Visit the site: http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~latex2ht/ and click on Documentation. Pick up this one:

     http://www-texdev.mpce.mq.edu.au/l2h/docs/manual/
     The official manual provided by the primary LATEX2HTML author, Ross Moore
  

  Click on the link above, and then choose: A Postscript version available (which is linked to: http://www-texdev.mpce.mq.edu.au/l2h/docs/manual.ps.gz) and download it. Keep it, and print it sometime later when you are ready to use latex2html. The installation instructions in the PostScript manual do not refer to the version which you have right now. However, manual has a lot of important information on proficient use of the software, so you will need it when you are ready to use the software.
• Visit page http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~latex2ht/ again, but now click on Download. You will be transfered to the directory: http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~latex2ht/current/. Get the file:

      latex2html-99.2beta6.tar.gz   14-Apr-2000 07:15   1.0M  

  i.e., the URL: http://saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de/~latex2ht/current/latex2html-99.2beta6.tar.gz. I am providing the local copies of these two files here:

     manual.ps.gz
     latex2html-99.2beta6.tar.gz

  but you should check the original sites, since they may have some newer, better version.
• Unpack the latex2html package:

     cd /usr/local/tempjkl
     gtar zxvf latex2html-99.2beta6.tar.gz

  Carefully read the INSTALL file (/usr/local/tempjkl/latex2html-99.2beta6/INSTALL).
• Check if you have all programs which latex2html needs to run.

     cd /usr/local/tempjkl/latex2html-99.2beta6
     ./configure --help

  This will list all options defined in the configure script. you should have all the software installed (and available in the PATH which is listed in the lines:

     --with-somesoftware=PATH

  Now, use which or whence (depending on the shell you are using) and check if you can access the codes. For example, in my case, I could:

  which gs
     /usr/bin/gs
  ....
  which giftrans
     /usr/local/bin/giftrans

  Note that I do not use giftool. If one or more programs are not found, you need to install them. Go to http://rufus.w3.org and retrieve needed RPM pachages. Once you have them, it is a snap to install them (but you must be a root:

      rpm -Uhv some_package.rpm

  Be careful, you actually may have the package installed, but your PATH variable is not set correctly. You may need to do something like this:

      PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin
      export PATH

  if you are using the Bourne type shell (e.g., ksh, sh), or

      setenv PATH ${PATH}:/usr/local/bin

  of you are using csh or tcsh.
• configure Makefiles needed to build the latex2html:

     cd /usr/local/tempjkl/latex2html-99.2beta6
     ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/latex2html 

  If you did not get complaints like: not found, or something, you are ready to compile. If it complains, give it what it wants. For example, on one of my boxes it said:

  checking for ghostscript library and font paths... no
  Warning: Could not determine GS_LIB path.
           Ghostscript may not work due to missing startup files.
           You need to set the value of GS_LIB manually in cfgcache.pm.
  Hint:    Search for the file 'gs_init.ps'. This directory and the 'fonts'
           directory (usually same level) should be set in GS_LIB.
           Separate the entries with the ":" character. The current
           directory "." should be included, too.

  I edited cfgcache.pm and changed there:

  $cfg{'GS_LIB'} = q'';

  to

  $cfg{'GS_LIB'} = q'/usr/share/ghostscript/5.10';

  and it was happy.
  Note that this will make latex2html reside under /usr/local/latex2html after installation. You may be tempted to put it under /usr/local but be warned that it will clutter it with a lot of strange files.
• compile and install latex2html:

     cd /usr/local/tempjkl/latex2html-99.2beta6
  
     make
  
     make check

  if no horrors, you are ready to install latex2html. First, edit the file l2hconf.pm in the top directory, by and changing LOCAL_ICONS from 0 to 1, i.e., to be:$LOCAL_ICONS = 1;. While it will waste some disk space (the common icons will be added to each translated document), the advantage is that you are not in any way dependent on where you put your document in the Web tree. Otherwise, you would have to have a special directory for icons, which would hold common icons. If you wanted to give your friend your paper to put on his web site, or view it as a file:///someting on the laptop, there would be unsatisfied images on your pages. Now, put the files where they belong:

     cd /usr/local/tempjkl/latex2html-99.2beta6
     make install

You installed latex2html and now what?

  echo ${PATH}
  echo ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}

   if [ "$PATH".r = ".r" ]; then
     PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/latex2html/bin 
   else
     PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/latex2html/bin 
   fi
   export PATH
   if [ "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH".r = ".r" ]; then
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib
   else
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/usr/local/lib
   fi
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

   if ( ${?PATH} == 1 ) then
     if ( ${PATH} == "" ) then
       setenv PATH /usr/local/bin/:usr/local/latex2html/bin
     else
       setenv PATH ${PATH}:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/latex2html/bin
     endif
   else
     setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:/usr/local/latex2html/bin
   endif
   if ( ${?LD_LIBRARY_PATH} == 1 ) then
     if ( ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} == "" ) then
       setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib
     else 
       setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/usr/local/lib
     endif 
   else
     setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib
   endif

Of course, you can be nice, and do it for everybody by adding it to the end of /etc/profile, and /etc/.login; respectively (but make them simpler, since here you know what is set an what is not set in these files by looking at them).

Now try it...
If L^AT_EX document is called mypaper.tex, you just do:

   latex mypaper.tex
   latex mypaper.tex
   latex2html mypaper.tex

This is a version which does not use GIF images by default, but uses a new (better) format, called PBM (Portable BitMap). While this format is supported by all newer browsers, you may still want to use GIFs to by portable. In this case, you may force latex2html to produce transparent GIFS as output:

   latex2html -image_type gif -transparent mypaper.tex