Re: Output to directory patch

[Ikumi Keita]

Hi Al,

I noticed another problem. AUCTeX usually detects that the output file
(pdf or dvi) is ready to view when the user typed C-c C-c sufficient
times repeatedly. However, after your patch is applied, that feature no
longer works when TeX-output-dir is non-nil. How many times the user
types C-c C-c in a buffer without intermediate editing, AUCTeX always
suggests "LaTeX" as default command and never suggests "View" as
default. This makes C-c C-a useless.

>>>>> Al Haji-Ali <abdo.haji.ali@gmail.com> writes:
> Testing your example, I can see the error you mentioned. As you said,
> the tex engine tries to create an aux file in a "subdir" directory
> which exists under master root (since that's where one is including
> the file file from) but naturally does not exist under "build".

> I have no idea how to fix this. It is a bizarre implementation detail
> of tex engines that such directories are not created when
> `--output-directory` is passed. It seems even "latexmk" when provided
> with "--output-directory" fails on a first run for the same reason,
> only to automatically create the "build/subdir" on a second run and
> succeed. It is not ideal, but I could potentially recreate this
> solution, what do you think?

It seems that this is rather an inconsistency in the implementation of
"--output-directory" and \include than a fault of your work, because
manual invocation of "latex --output-directory=build ..." outside of
AUCTeX would already cause error and could not typeset the document. I
think that elisp application like AUCTeX can do very little about this
issue.

Generally speaking, it seems that this kind of task (=keeping the
document directory clean) should be taken care of by external tool
dedicated for that purpose. I came across blog posts discussing
this issue[1] and summarizing such tools[2]. (Note that these posts are
written in Japanese.) Actually I was made aware of subdiretory issue of
\include from the post[1]. The author of these posts claims that
"--output-directory" is too deficient and actually created one of the
tools mentioned above, ClutTeX[3].

[1] https://blog.miz-ar.info/2016/12/latex-and-output-directory/
[2] https://blog.miz-ar.info/2016/12/running-tex/#existing-tools
[3] https://blog.miz-ar.info/2016/12/cluttex/

Taking into the difficulties to make it compatible with preview-latex,
I'd recommend to consider that you don't aim for a comprehensive tool
but rather a tool with limited range of application, i.e., for users who
don't need preview-latex and \include+subdirectory.

Regards,
Ikumi Keita