[tex-live] Bug in TexLive 2005 and 2007? Non-writable aux-file

George N. White III gnwiii at gmail.com
Wed Mar 7 14:28:32 CET 2007


On 3/7/07, Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> Philip & Le Khanh <Philip-and-LeKhanh at Royal-Tunbridge-Wells.Org> wrote:
>
> > > However, in the case of just pressing RET, I see no harm in asking again
> > > (not trying to open *any* files in the meantime).  As a TeX user, I
> > > would be rather surprised if the job aborted from simply pressing RET.
> > > TeX has never behaved that way in the past.
> >
> > Are you sure that "not try to open *any* files in the meantime"
> > is the most appropriate behaviour ?  Might a user not use
> > "RET" to indicate "I've fixed the protections; please try again" ?
>
> indeed the user might.  however, the user also has the option of
> starting again, and given the potential pitfalls i would suggest that
> "no file" is probably the best  assumption.

It is annoying when a simple file permissions problem can only be
solved by "redo from start", in part because the user may need a
couple attempts to fix a permission problem (e.g., when both file and
directory permissions prevent writing or they end up as user "nobody"
on some NFS mount).  Allowing the user to continue after attempting to
fix the problem or (Windows) closing the file in Adobe Reader permits
experimentation to solve permission problems.

 --------------------------------------------------
! I can't write on file `ex.aux'.
l.4 \immediate \openout \aux = ex.aux


Please fix the problem and enter <CR> to continue wth the same name,
or type another output file name (Ctrl-C or Ctrl-D aborts the job):
 --------------------------------------------------

or:

--------------------------------------------------
! I can't write on file `ex.aux'.
l.4 \immediate \openout \aux = ex.aux


Please type another output file name (or Ctrl-H for more details):^H

The named file could be opened for writing.  The file may already
exist with read-only
permissions or may already have been opened by another program, you
may not have  permission to create new files in the directory, or the
device may be full. You may enter <CR> to continue processing with the
same name after fixing the problem, enter Ctrl-C or Ctrl-D to about
the job, or enter another filename.  If you enter <CR> and the problem
was not fixed, you will be prompted again.  Note that if you do not
provide an extension, the default (.tex) will be supplied.


Please type another output file name (or Ctrl-H for more details):
 --------------------------------------------------


-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia


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