Re: texi2dvi changes

[Gavin Smith]

On 24 September 2015 at 21:54, Vincent Belaïche
<address@hidden> wrote:
>> I pointed out that the log files were being grep'd a lot to get the
>> list of generated files. This won't happen as much now.
>>
>
> I have seen that what you have done goes far beyond reverting the
> TEXINPUTS order to what it was originally and removing the
> .flz. Well... maybe it would have been more careful to sort out what we
> already have on the table, rather than open another item with reducing
> the amount of log grepping. Anyway, on the other hand that was a good
> occasion to do it, as everybody has now warmed up on this texi2dvi.

IIRC this change was part of avoiding an infinite loop happening due
to the fls file being created as a recorder file, saved, and then
overwritten as a sorted index file, and then differing from that which
had been saved, indicating that another TeX run was required. Now only
the files that are directly produced are compared, not the sorted
index files. I wasn't sure if this was right for BibTeX (in case, for
example, TeX produces a file A, which is then processed to create file
B, which then in turn is processed to create a file C: then even if
file A hasn't changed, if file B has we still need another run of the
tools), but it appears to work. It's possible I could have done it in
a simpler way, but I don't know.

It occurred to me why we don't simply check that the dvi or pdf file
hasn't changed, and forget about the other files. It's probably
because those files are considered to be too big to back up and
compare, and only comparing the auxiliary files is more efficient.

> As a preliminary comment I would say that all the xxx_p named function
> have now misleading names as the `_p' suffix stands for `predicate', ie
> involves that the function returns a boolean condition to be used in a
> boolean expression (like within an `if ... ;'. Now these functions do
> some border effect (ie `echo ...'), so the names should be changed (ie
> dropping the `_p' tail) accordingly.

Yes. I want also to rename the variables referring to "xref" files,
because only one of those files is actually used for cross-references.

>> This was a big change to a complex script with many ways of running
>> it, so it's quite possible that something's broken. (I've deliberately
>> refrained from uploading texi2dvi to the FTP site for the last few
>> revisions for that reason.)
>>
>> Can anybody try the script with LaTeX source with BibTeX, or else send
>> me a test case? I want to make sure the BibTeX files are checked
>> properly.
>
> I have done that. See attached test file and the session (essai.session)
> where I try a compilation both in --tidy mode, and then w/o --tidy for
> an essai.tex file using a bib. I also made a trial on a Texinfo file.

Thanks for testing, good to hear it appears to be working.