Finding source of pdflatex build error

[Paul A. Rubin]

On 9/9/22 17:58, Rich Shepard wrote:
> I've a large report, six large chapters, bibliography, two appendices.
>
> When I try to compile it I get an error. Trying to find where that 
> error is
> created, I made a new, empty mwe.lyx file.
>
> Starting at the bottom of my report, I copied the appendices and
> bibliography to mwe.lyx. Saved and built. No error. I then added chapters
> individually to mwe.lyx, saved and built. No errors. Continued up through
> Chapter 2; didn't add Chapter 1 because the report had no issues before I
> added text, citations, and the appendices.
>
> So, somewhere in what I added today pdflatex couldn't digest. But, 
> copying
> from the end of the report forward, chapter-by-chapter everything builds.
>
> What other procedure should I use to find what's causing the error?
>
> Rich
Rich,

Here's what I would do. Assuming that you have the original document 
(the one that won't compile) salted away somewhere, I would take your 
MWE and add Chapter 1 and anything else that's missing. If it still 
compiles, I'd compare it to the original using a file comparison tool 
and see if there are any meaningful differences (e.g., LaTeX commands in 
one but not the other). If differences are found, I'd try to figure out 
which one(s) cause the problem and then what caused LyX to 
insert/delete/alter/reorder the critical lines.

Paul