Adding a .cls file to latex

Add a line to ~/.bashrc that points to your .cls files

The . in front is critical to source the current directory

For example, my github (http://www.github.com/kastnerkyle/Papers/) has an IEEEtran file that has the IEEE standard template inside. To use it, simply add this line to ~/.bashrc

export TEXINPUTS=.:<path_to_IEEEtran_file>:$TEXINPUTS

now running texi2pdf should compile IEEE format .tex files