pandoc: "template" (line 642, column 111): unexpected "<" expecting letter about pandoc-latex-template

[Wandmalfarbe]

Could you give me the document that you're trying to convert? I'll have a look then.

command:
pandoc how_to_convert_markdown_to_pdf.md -o how_to_convert_markdown_to_pdf.pdf --from markdown -s --template eisvogel

how_to_convert_markdown_to_pdf.md.gz

[Wandmalfarbe]

Hm, that's strange. The error message tells me that pandoc can't parse something in the template (maybe a $ because that character has a special meaning). When I run it on my mac everything is fine and I can't reproduce the problem.

Can it be that you downloaded the template somehow wrong, and it therefore contains invalid characters (possibly also something like a BOM)?

You could try to redownload the file from the GitHub generated zip here. It may also be possible, that the template does't work with the older pandoc version you are using. You could install the newer version like mentioned on askubuntu. This command should do the trick:

sudo wget https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/download/1.19.2.1/pandoc-1.19.2.1-1-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i pandoc-1.19.2.1-1-amd64.deb

Unfortunately I don't have an Ubuntu installation ready at the moment.

[eben-roux]

I had the same issue and Wandmalfarbe is correct about the template being "corrupt".

Initially I didn't follow the instructions properly and added the template to my "source" folder where I had my markdown file. Somehow pandoc used it and it was changed.

Once I actually copied it across to the proper user location I got the mentioned error since the template was altered into an unusable form.

I downloaded the template again and it is much smaller and the error was gone.

Just thought I'd mention that.

I have downloaded zip file as you mentioned and it works. Thank you both.