[AUCTeX] Re: Customizing pdfLaTeX for a particular file with AUCTeX (original question posted to tex.sx)

[Faheem Mitha]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:46:07 +0100, Marcus Frings <address@hidden> wrote:
> * Faheem Mitha <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> 1) Do you have any idea what is causing this? Is there any clearly
>> identifiable patch in upstream for this issue? Is it reproducible in
>> vanilla 11.86?
>
> Unfortunately, I don't know what is causing this issue. The changelog
> from 11.86-1 to 11.86-2 in Davide's package doesn't give any hint. The
> mentioned changes don't seem to be related to this. I only know that
> the bug is not present in Debian's 11.86-1 which I use since September
> because Davide is just not taking care of this bug. :-(

Yes, I too don't see anything in the changelog that could point to
such a problem. I'll try with 11.86-1.

>> 2) Do you know whether
>
>> %%% Local Variables:
>> %%% LaTeX-command: "latex -shell-escape"
>> %%% End:
>
>> is necessary or will just
>
>> %%% LaTeX-command: "latex -shell-escape"
>
>> work?
>
> As far as I know local variables in the .tex file should be declared in
> the style which I used. I took it from the manual:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/manual/auctex/Parsing-Files.html

Ok, so

%%% LaTeX-command: "latex -shell-escape"

doesn't work, or is simply bad practice?

> Since Debian's AUCTeX is not really actively maintained (for years), I
> seriously consider to switch to plain AUCTeX + preview-latex if I find
> out how to get it installed and run.

I've talked to people in #debian-release and #debian-mentors. I was
told to write and ask Davide Salvetti to propose a patch for stable
for #610714. I've just done so. I agree an unmaintained Debian auctex
is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs. I don't think installing an
upstream version is a problem, but we shouldn't have to. That's the
point of running Debian.

                                                      Regards, Faheem