Re: [AUCTeX-devel] patch for preview-latex to reduce file clutter and not overwrite document

[Tim Toolan]

Quoting "David Kastrup" <address@hidden>:

> "Tim Toolan" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > First, I must thank the developers of preview-latex for this really
> > great package.
> >
> > Included is a small patch for preview-latex that does three things:
> >
> > 1) Greatly reduces file clutter.  When generating previews, only two
> >    things are added to the main tex directory, a directory called
> >    MASTERTEXFILE.prv and a file called file _region_.tex.  All other
> >    files generated when creating previews, including previews of
> >    regions, are placed in the directory MASTERTEXFILE.prv.
> >
> > 2) Any typeset version of the document, such as a .pdf or .dvi file is
> >    left alone.  Previously they were deleted when generating a preview.
> >
> > 3) Auxilary files are created for previews since there is no longer
> >    any danger of clobbering anything.
>
> How does this play together with \include ?
The \include function is defined as:

\def\include#1{\relax
  address@hidden@partaux
    address@hidden@error{\string\include\space cannot be address@hidden
  \else address@hidden \fi}

which means it is just a simple wrapper to address@hidden  There are only  
two lines changed in the address@hidden function, and they are:
  1) When the command is written to the master aux file to input the
     the aux file for the included tex file, it modifies any path
     component in the filename string that is written.  In otherwords,
     instead of writing
       address@hidden/chap1.aux}
     it writes
       address@hidden
     to masterfile.aux.
  2) When TeX creates the aux file which corresponds to the included file
     for writing it also modifies the path component similarly.

This modification should be safe anytime, whether or not using the  
preview package or the -output-directory option.

I tried to implement it using a \let for \include that alters the  
argument to modify itself when it is followed by the string ".aux",  
but because the argument is used in a \write command, and any  
implementation would require a \futurelet statement, it is not  
possible to do it this way.

-Tim