Re: Output to directory patch

[Al Haji-Ali]

Hi Ikumi,

On 04/02/2021, Ikumi Keita wrote:
> (1) It breaks preview-latex functionality. The location of generated pdf
>     file differs from what preview-latex expects, so no images are
>     displayed in the latex buffer.
>
This is true. I should have mentioned that I haven't tested this part yet.
I don't use preview-latex so I am not familiar with the source but I will look 
into it. In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions where I should look it 
would be much appreciated.

> (2) Latex signals error when \include tries to include files in
>     subdirectories like \include{subdir/subfile}, saying
> ./main.tex:6: I can't write on file `subdir/subfile.aux'.
>     Apparently latex wants to create .aux file for each individual
>     subfile under "build/subdir", which doesn't exist.
>
> In addition, I'm worrying whether packages which write or read external
> files via shell escape work well or not. It seems that tikzexternal
> works fine, but it isn't clear for other packages.
>

Regarding both of these points. The point of this patch is to expose the 
functionality to output to a sub-directory that is in many tools including TeX 
engines. This is supported by other tools like latexmk for example. IMO, errors 
in packages that don't work with this functionality is a bug in those packages. 
Nevertheless, this does advocate for making the TeX-output-dir a buffer-local 
variable so that tex files that use incompatible packages can revert to 
standard behaviour.

With that being said, I tried a simple example with a subdir input and it works 
fine for me. I am surprised that an aux file is expected or generated for an 
input file.
Are you sure you set the master file? Or perhaps you are using some custom 
package that I am unaware of?

> makeinfo accepts "-o" or "--output" option, with slightly different
> meaning from "--output-dir" of (la)tex. Try "man makeinfo".
>
> I think you can think of amstex as a variant of plain tex.
>
> upmendex is a variant of makeindex and compatible with respect to their
> arguments.
> https://ctan.org/pkg/upmendex/
> https://github.com/t-tk/upmendex-package
>

Thank you, I will take a look at these.

Best regards,
-- Al