Re: Auctex: Configure the cases when recompile is necessary

[Nicolas Richard <theonewiththeevillook@yahoo.fr>]

Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
> I've been trying various things and I can get it mostly work with my own
> scripts too. Then I realized that I almost always need to run the
> xelatex compiler twice, so why not just write a script that simply runs
> the command twice? There is probably no need for complicated magic. :-)

Sometimes it requires three or more compilation, or it might require to
call an external (non-latex) process between two latex passes (e.g.
bibtex). Latexmk takes care of many cases automagically by using a
make-like dependency system and using a list of files provided by latex
(.fls file, obtained by adding the -recorder option to latex on any
recent latex installation).

Also Latexmk tries hard to not run latex if the target file is already
up to date, thus saving your much time when compiling the whole document
(another huge time saver is to compile only the region within auctex.)

Using Latexmk is usually as simple as calling "latexmk yourfile.tex"
(options such as -pdf or -xelatex can be used and a have an obvious
meaning).

If you use specific extensions that are yet unknown to latexmk (such as
sagetex or asymptote) you need to create a config file to tell latexmk
about it (to do once, then forget about it) ; refer to the doc if that's
your case.

Similar (or complementary) tools exist, such as rubber already
mentionned, but I don't know anything about them.

Really, using these tools will save your time in most classical
situations, including multifile documents with multiple bibliographies
(at least when they're all in one folder ; subfolders are a bit more
complicated in my experience).

-- 
N.