[XeTeX] [tex-live] Problem with XeTeX's (and perhaps other binaries -- not investigated) handling of --output-directory

[David Carlisle]

On 14 January 2017 at 17:39, Philip Taylor <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk> wrote:

>
>
> David Carlisle wrote:
>
> >> E:\TeX\Projects\WBH\Welcome>xetex foo --output-directory=../dynamic-
> content
> >> (./foo.tex This is the intended foo.tex )
> >
> > isn't that just because the flags after the filename are ignored?
>
> Silently ?! :-(
>


try a file without \end[document} (\end for you:-)  and type \end to the *
prompt
you will see that the text such as
--output-directory=...
after the filename is just typeset

so any text on the commandline after the filename is just like text at the
end of the file
which is silently ignored if the file has \end before that point.


>
> > Personally I'd just add it to the end of the list of reasons never to
> > use --output-directory, although that list is so long, it's hard to
> > find the end:-)
>
> If (as I do) one uses Dropbox to mirror one's work for security, the last
> thing one needs is for Dropbox to continually synch one's ephemeral files
> (.aux, .log, .ind/idx, .pdf, etc), whence my unvarying use of
> --output-directory via TeXworks configuration options.
>
> ** Phil.
>



The problem is that if you configure tex to write somewhere strange you
have to configure _everything_
(makeindex, bibtex, tex, ... to find the files that have been written: it
causes endless confusion and questions
on support lists) compared to just (for example) configuring your editor to
save a copy to your dropbox
backup folder on each save.

David
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