package nicematrix does not work

[japm48]

Here is a minimal example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{nicematrix}

\begin{document}

\[
    \begin{bNiceArray}{rr}[]
     1 & 2 \\
     3 & 4
    \end{bNiceArray}
\]

\end{document}

It works with xelatex and fails in tectonic.

$ tectonic -k --keep-logs mv.tex
Running TeX ...
error: mv.tex:11: Fatal Package nicematrix Error: There is a problem. Maybe you have used l, c
(nicematrix)                      and r instead of L, C and R in the
(nicematrix)                      preamble of your environment.
(nicematrix)                      This error is fatal.

Type <return> to continue
Writing `mv.log` (11.91 KiB)
error: halted on potentially-recoverable error as specified

Output log: https://pastebin.com/h9PxrmKG XeLaTex log (succesful run): https://pastebin.com/qP8VWsU8

[vlasakm]

I am not a nicematrix user, but this is my understanding:

This is due to use of different versions of the nicematrix package. Your XeLaTeX comes most likely from TeX Live 2021, which with the updates applied now has nicematrix version 6.1 (2021-08-20), but even the initial version of nicematrix in TeX Live 2021 (what your package manager might have installed) has 5.13 (2021-03-23). While tectonic ships with the initial TeX Live 2020, which has 3.14 (2020-03-23).

The documentation says in the History section:

Changes between versions 4.4 and 5.0

• Use of the standard column types l, c and r instead of L, C and R.

Presumably your problem would be fixed when tectonic updates to TeX Live 2021.

Until then, you may find success with putting a newer version of the nicematrix.sty file in your document's directory. The most recent one doesn't work, because it depends on a lot of the new stuff, but version 5.0 seems to work:

$ tectonic test.tex
Running TeX ...
error: test.tex:11: Fatal Package nicematrix Error: There is a problem. Maybe you have used l, c
(nicematrix)                      and r instead of L, C and R in the
(nicematrix)                      preamble of your environment.
(nicematrix)                      This error is fatal.

Type <return> to continue
$ curl -sLo nicematrix.sty 'https://git.texlive.info/texlive/plain/Master/texmf-dist/tex/latex/nicematrix/nicematrix.sty?id=5e7c45a283a2403c25348d1f470fed5654d78d63'
$ tectonic test.tex
Running TeX ...
Running xdvipdfmx ...
Writing `test.pdf` (4.42 KiB)
Skipped writing 1 intermediate files (use --keep-intermediates to keep them)

But there is probably a reason why there has been a lot of 5.x point releases, so please read the version history and update to newer version accordingly. I got the older version from Norbert Preining's git mirror of TeX Live, the history of the particular file is here: https://git.texlive.info/texlive/log/Master/texmf-dist/tex/latex/nicematrix/nicematrix.sty.

If someone with more tectonic experience knows a better solution, please share.

[japm48]

Thanks a lot! It looks like a lot of issues I'm facing can be solved by updating to newer versions. Are there plans for TeX Live 2021 update timeline? (not in a hurry, just wanted to know).

[pkgw]

Unfortunately there's no specific timeline ­— these updates are done when I get the chance to work on them, which is quite rare these days :-( Hopefully all that is needed for an update is to run through the steps described in the readme for the tectonic-texlive-bundles repo, but often there are changes in the engine or tooling that need to be made in order for everything to work.

[Neved4]

Hello @japm48! I tried your MWE with tectonic 0.11.0 and it works! We're using the 2022 bundle right now, give it a try and let me know how it works 💛

[japm48]

Hello @japm48! I tried your MWE with tectonic 0.11.0 and it works! We're using the 2022 bundle right now, give it a try and let me know how it works 💛

Thanks! I confirm this now works!

I'm closing this as fixed, as the MWE is now functional. If something more specific arises, a new issue may be opened instead.

PS: sorry for the delay, I was busy visiting another continent :)

[pkgw]

Thanks for following up this and so many other issues @mnrvwl, and thanks for confirming @japm48!