Re: Output to directory patch

[Al Haji-Ali]

Hello Ikumi,

On 09/03/2021, Ikumi Keita wrote:
> The cross dependency I talk about here is an implicit one through
> `find-file-hook'. `TeX-master-file' calls `TeX-master-output-dir', which
> calls `find-file-noselect', which in turn calls `find-file-hook'.
>
Ah, good catch. The dependency is now theoretical with the patch I sent last 
time, since TeX-output-master-dir is now never called if the extension to 
TeX-file-master is not an output one, additionally `find-file-noselect` should 
not be called more than once to open the master file (if the master is set 
correctly at least).

In any case, I agree that having to call `find-file-noselect` inside 
TeX-master-file can be dangerous, because all such unintended consequences, and 
other solutions should probably be sought.

> How about stopping trying to obtain the value of `TeX-output-dir' from
> master file? The purpose of my report 2[1] is to draw attention to the
> existence of cross dependency (and to suggest to work on eliminating
> it), and not to recommend to identify the proper value of
> `TeX-output-dir'.
> In my point of view,
> - it is the user's responsibility to make sure that the main and sub
>   files share the common value of `TeX-output-dir' and
> - it's OK that your patch has some troubles such as ending up with error
>   when the value of `TeX-output-dir' isn't coherent over the main and
>   sub files (unless it causes serious problem such as deleting tex files
>   or killing emacs session, of course).
>
> [1] https://lists.gnu.org/r/auctex-devel/2021-02/msg00046.html
>
Hmm.. I do think that this complicates the usage of the feature unnecessarily, 
but I don't have another solution at this time that would address the issues 
above.

Just to make sure, would you expect the path of the build directory to be set 
relative to master or relative to the current directory?

1. If relative to master. Then users can set the default value of 
TeX-output-dir (like I do) or use a directory local variable to set its value 
for all files within the project directory. It does mean that 
TeX-master-output-dir would have to call TeX-master-file to get the path of 
master, if the argument master-file is not provided.

2. If relative to output-directory. Then users would have to set both 
TeX-master and TeX-output-directory with exactly the same relative path which 
seems redundant.

> Changing environment varible itself is fine, but it seems that there is
> no end if you deal with such small incompatibilities one by one.
My personal preference would be to change the environment variable since this 
would deal with most of these incompatibilities (the only remaining one I could 
think of is `\include`), but that can be left to a future patch.

Best regards,
-- Al