latex margin issues --- still

[marc]

marc said...
> jjramsey said...
> > 
> > I can confirm that teTeX on Ubuntu is buggy with regard to paper size. I
> > just installed it today. Running "sudo texconfig paper letter" doesn't
> > work. Changing the content of /etc/papersize from a4 to letter doesn't
> > work. And my LaTeX file just isn't that complicated, a regular LaTeX
> > article with nothing in the preamble but
> > "\providecommand{\boldsymbol}[1]{\mbox{\boldmath $#1$}}".
> 
> I only ever use [a4paper], but I just changed it to [letterpaper] on 
> Ubuntu and it produced the expected output.
> 
> I've just dug out the rest of this thread from the archives and in the 
> discussion folk have asked you to provide the preamble of a problem doc. 
> There's a reason for this, so please supply it.
> 
> As far as I'm aware, LaTeX doesn't use /etc/papersize when compiling a 
> document - it would be a pain if it did. The standard - and as far as I 
> know, the only way - to determine paper size is via the papersize option 
> of the \documentclass
> 
> In other words, something like:
> 
> \documentclass[a4paper]{memoir}
> \begin{document}
> This produces a4 output
> \end{document}
> 
> and 
> 
> \documentclass[letterpaper]{memoir}
> \begin{document}
> This produces letter-sized output
> \end{document}
> 
> Try these and see what happens.

I had a closer look at this and it appears that papersize cannot be 
adjusted in the article, book and report classes in Ubuntu. (I have no 
idea why. I always use memoir, so I've not hit this before.)

Can anyone confirm this problem? If so, then I will raise a bug.

However, the easiest way to sidestep this problem is to add the geometry 
package, thus:

  \documentclass{article}
  \usepackage[letterpaper]{geometry}
  \begin{document}
  This one's on US letter-sized paper
  \end{document}

Hopefully, that solves the OP's problem, especially if he wishes to 
manipulate the margins further.

-- 
Best,
Marc