Rubber
******
Rubber is a wrapper for LaTeX and companion programs. Its purpose is,
given a LaTeX source to process, to compile it enough times to resolve
all references, possibly running satellite programs such as BibTeX,
makeindex, Metapost, etc. to produce appropriate data files.
1 Introduction
**************
The purpose of Rubber is to make the building of a document automated,
from the source files to the final document file, replacing the work of
a Makefile.
The basis is a routine that compiles a LaTeX source the right number
of times to resolve all references and make all tables of contents, list
of figures, and so on. On top of that, Rubber provides a modular system
to handle various tasks needed apart from compilations. This, for
instance, includes processing bibliographic references or indices, as
well as compilation or conversion of figures. Additionally, modules can
perform a post-processing of the document (for instance to convert a DVI
to PostScript or PDF) or even a preprocessing (useful when the LaTeX
source is generated by another program, like cweave).
Dependency analysis is performed by parsing the source files, so that
modifying any source, user package, graphics file or other dependency
leads to appropriate compilations. Modules are triggered either
explicitly using command line options, or implicitly when the sources
are parsed. For instance, BibTeX support is activated whenever the
source contains commands that generate a bibliography, graphics support
is activated by '\usepackage{graphics}' and similar commands, and so on.
The modular approach allows any additional feature to be supported by
simply writing a module to support it.
Some information cannot be extracted from the LaTeX sources. This is
the case, for instance, with the search paths (which can be specified in
environment variables like 'TEXINPUTS'), or the style to be used with
Makeindex. To address this problem, one can add information for Rubber
in the comments of the LaTeX sources, see *note Directives::.
The package comes with three different command line programs:
'rubber'
Builds the specified documents completely. The source files may be
either LaTeX sources or documents in a format Rubber knows how to
translate into LaTeX.
'rubber-pipe'
Does the same for one document but it reads the LaTeX source from
standard input and dumps the compiled document on standard output.
'rubber-info'
This is a utility for extracting various kinds of information from
a LaTeX document, either from the source or from the compilation
log files.
2 Command lines
***************
The command line of each program is read using the GNU Getopt
conventions. 'rubber' and 'rubber-pipe' mostly have the same syntax.
2.1 Syntax for 'rubber' and 'rubber-pipe'
=========================================
The syntax of the command lines for 'rubber' and 'rubber-pipe' are:
rubber [options] files
rubber-pipe [options]
The source files may be either LaTeX sources (in which case the suffix
'.tex' may be omitted) or documents in a format Rubber knows how to
translate into LaTeX. This currently includes CWEB documents (filename
extension '.w', via 'cweave'), Literate Haskell ('.lhs' via 'lhs2tex')
and Knitr ('.Rtex'). If any compilation fails, the whole process stops,
including the compilation of the next documents on the command line, and
the program returns a non-zero exit code.
The options are the following:
'-b'
'--bzip2'
Compress the final document (in 'bzip2' format). This option is
equivalent to saying '-o bzip2' after all other options. It is
incompatible with the option '--gzip'.
'--clean'
Remove all files produced by the compilation, instead of building
the document. This option is present in rubber only. It applies
to the compilation as it would be done with the other options of
the command line, i.e. saying
rubber --clean foo
will not delete foo.ps, while saying
rubber --ps --clean foo
will.
'-c <command>'
'--command <command>'
Execute the specified command (or directive) _before_ parsing the
source files. *Note Directives::.
'-e <command>'
'--epilogue <command>'
Execute the specified command (or directive) _after_ parsing the
source fiels. *Note Directives::.
'-f'
'--force'
Force at least one compilation of the source. This may be useful,
for instance, if some unusual dependency was modified (e.g. a
package in a system directory). This option is irrelevant in
rubber-pipe.
'-z'
'--gzip'
Compress the final document (in 'gzip' format). This option is
equivalent to saying '-o gz' after all other options. It is
incompatible with the option '--bzip2'.
'-h'
'--help'
Display the list of all available options and exit nicely.
'--inplace'
Go to the directory of the source files before compiling, so that
compilation results are in the same place as their sources.
'--into <directory>'
Go to the specified directory before compiling, so that all files
are produced there and not in the current directory.
'--jobname <name>'
Specify a job name different from the base file name. This changes
the name of output files and only applies to the first target.
'-k'
'--keep'
This option is for 'rubber-pipe' only. With this option, the
temporary files will not be removed after compiling the document
and dumping the results on standard output. The temporary document
is named 'rubtmpX.tex', where 'X' is a number such that no file of
that name exists initially.
'-n <num>'
'--maxerr <num>'
Set the maximum number of displayed errors. By default, up to 10
errors are reported, saying '-n -1' displays all errors.
'-m <module>[:<args>]'
'--module <module>[:<args>]'
Use the specified module in addition to the document's packages.
Arguments can be passed to the package by adding them after a
colon, they correspond to the package options in LaTeX. The module
is loaded _before_ parsing the document's sources.
'--only <sources>'
Compile the document partially, including only the specified
sources. This works by inserting a call to '\includeonly' on the
command line. The argument is a comma-separated list of file
names.
'-o <module>[:<args>]'
'--post <module>[:<args>]'
Used the specified module as a post-processor. This is similar to
the '-m' options except that the module is loaded _after_ parsing
the document.
'-d'
'--pdf'
Produce PDF output. When this option comes after '--ps' (for
instance in the form '-pd') it is a synonym for '-o ps2pdf',
otherwise it acts as '-m pdftex', in order to use pdfLaTeX instead
of LaTeX.
'-p'
'--ps'
Process the DVI produced by the process through 'dvips' to produce
a PostScript document. This option is a synonym for '-e module
dvips', it cannot come after '--pdf'.
'-q'
'--quiet'
Suppress all messages during the process.
'-r <file>'
'--read <file>'
Read additional directives form the specified file (see also the
directive 'read').
'-S'
'--src-specials'
Enable generation of source '\special's if the compiler supports
it. This is equivalent to setting the variable 'src-specials' to
'yes'.
'-s'
'--short'
Display LaTeX's error messages in a compact form (one error per
line).
'--synctex'
Enable SyncTeX support in the LaTeX run.
'-I <dir>'
'--texpath <dir>'
Add the specified directory to the search path of TeX files.
'--unsafe'
Permit the document to invoke arbitrary external programs. This is
potentially dangerous, only use this option for documents coming
from a trusted source.
'-v'
'--verbose'
Increase the verbosity level. The default level is 0, levels up to
3 exist. Beware, saying '-vvv' makes Rubber speak a lot.
'--version'
Print the version number and exit nicely.
'-W <type>'
'--warn <type>'
Report warnings of the given type, if there was no compilation
error. The available types are:
'boxes'
overfull and underfull boxes,
'refs'
undefined or multiply defined references,
'misc'
other warnings,
'all'
all of the above.
2.2 Syntax for 'rubber-info'
============================
The command-line syntax for 'rubber-info' is the following:
rubber-info [options] [action] source
The options are all those accepted by 'rubber' and 'rubber-pipe', as
described in *note rubber command line::. The 'action' specified what
kind of information has to be extracted. At most one such argument must
be present on the command line, '--check' is assumed if none is present.
The possible actions are:
'--boxes'
Extracts from the log file the places in the source where bad boxes
appeared (these are the famous overfull and underfull '\hbox' and
'\vbox').
'--check'
Report errors if there are any, otherwise report undefined
references if there are any, otherwise list warnings and bad boxes.
This is the default action.
'--deps'
Analyse the source files and produce a space-separated list of all
the files that the document depends on and that Rubber cannot
rebuild.
'--errors'
Extract from the log file the list of errors that occured during
the last compilation.
'-h'
'--help'
Display the list of all available options and exit nicely.
'--refs'
Report the list of undefined or multiply defined references (i.e.
the '\ref''s that are not defined by one '\label').
'--rules'
Analyse the source files and produce a list of dependency rules.
One rule is produced for each intermediate target that would be
made when running 'rubber'. Rules are formatted in the style of
Makefiles.
'--version'
Print the version number and exit nicely.
'--warnings'
Stupidly enumerate all LaTeX warnings, i.e. all the lines in the
log file that contain the string "Warning".
3 Directives
************
Some information cannot be extracted from the LaTeX sources. To address
this problem, one can add information for Rubber in the comments of the
LaTeX sources, in the form of directives. A directive is a line like
% rubber: cmd args
The line must begin with a '%', then any sequence of '%' signs and
spaces, then the text 'rubber:' followed by zero or more spaces and a
directive name, possibly followed by spaces and arguments.
The argument in the directive line are separated by spaces, single
and double quotes allow escaping of spaces (and quotes). The directive
can contain variable references with the syntax '$VAR' or '${VAR}'. For
details on the use of variables, see *note Variables::.
If a directive name has the form 'foo.bar', it is considered a
command 'bar' for the module 'foo'. If this module is not registered
when the directive is found, then the directive is silently ignored.
See the individual documentation for modules for module-specific
directives.
3.1 General directives
======================
'alias <name1> <name2>'
Pretend that the LaTeX macro 'name1' is equivalent to 'name2'.
This can be useful when defining wrappers around supported macros,
like:
% rubber: alias ig includegraphics
\newcommand\ig[1]{\includegraphics[scale=.5]{#1}}
'clean <file>'
Indicates that the specified file should be removed when cleaning
using '--clean'.
'depend <file>'
Consider the specified file as a dependency, so that its
modification time will be checked.
'make <file> [<options>]'
Declare that the specified file has to be generated. Options can
specify the way it should be produced, the available options are
'from <file>' to specify the source and 'with <rule>' to specify
the conversion rule. For instance, saying
% rubber: make foo.pdf from foo.eps
indicates that 'foo.pdf' should be produced from 'foo.eps', with
any conversion rule that can do it.
'module <module> [<options>]'
Loads the specified module, possibly with options. This is
equivalent to the command-line option '--module'.
'onchange <file> <command>'
Execute the specified shell command after compiling if the contents
of the specified file have changed. In case the file or command
contains spaces, they must be enclosed within double or single
quotes.
'path <directory>'
Adds the specified directory to the search path for TeX (and
Rubber). The name of the directory is everything that follows the
spaces after 'path'.
'produce <file>'
Declares that the LaTeX run will create or update the specified
file(s). This implies that Rubber will check if the file contents
changed and re-make other files derived from it; it also implies
that rubber -clean will remove the indicated file. 'produce' may
be combined with 'watch'. For example, Rubber's built-in behavior
of recompiling the main LaTeX source until the auxiliary file's
contents no longer changes may be achieved using
produce document.aux
watch document.aux
'read <file>'
Read the specified file of directives. The file must contain one
directive per line. Empty lines and lines that begin with '%' are
ignored.
'rules <file>'
Read extra conversion rules from the specified file. The format of
this file is the same as that of 'rules.ini', see *note
rules.ini::.
'set <name> <value>'
Set the value of a variable as a string. For details on the
existing variables and their meaning, see *note Variables::.
'setlist <name> <values>'
Set the value of a variable as a list of strings. The list is
space-separated, possibly empty. For details on the existing
variables and their meaning, see *note Variables::.
'shell_escape'
Mark the document as requiring external programs (shell-escape or
write18). Rubber does not actually enable this unless called with
the option '--unsafe'.
'synctex'
Enable SyncTeX support in the LaTeX run.
'watch <file>'
Watch the specified file for changes. If the contents of this file
has changed after a compilation, then another compilation is
triggered. This is useful in the case of tables of contents, for
instance.
3.2 Variables
=============
The following variables are defined by Rubber (or its modules) and used
by various modules to influence compilation. All variables are strings
that should be defined by the 'set' directive, unless explicitly
specified.
'arguments (list)'
Extra command-line arguments that are passed to the compiler. Note
that this is potentially dangerous and has no reason to be portable
across different compilers. This variable contains a list of
strings, it should be set using the 'setlist' directive.
'engine'
Deprecated. Please use a module to change the compiler, as
described in *note Compiler choice::.
'file'
Deprecated. The name of the current file (this is set during
parsing).
'job'
The job name of the document, with no path indication. Note that
changing the value of this variable does not affect compilation; in
order to actually change the job name, use the command line option
'--jobname'.
'logfile_limit'
Specify how much of the LaTeX logfile Rubber reads. The default is
1 MB, which should be ample for any real document.
'line'
Deprecated. The current line number in the current file (this is
set during parsing).
'src-specials'
The kind of source '\special's that should be generated. When
empty (which is the case by default), no '\special's are generated.
When set to 'yes', the default set is generated, otherwise the
variable is passed as the argument of the '-src-specials' switch of
the compiler.
4 Modules
*********
4.1 Supported Packages
======================
For every package that a document uses, Rubber looks for a module of the
same name to perform the tasks that this package my require apart from
the compilation by LaTeX. Modules can be added to the ones provided by
default to include new features (this is the point of the module
system). The standard modules are the following:
'asymptote'
Process the '.asy' files generated by the LaTeX package, then
triggers a recompilation.
'beamer'
This module handles Beamer's extra files the same way as other
tables of contents.
'biblatex'
Takes care of processing the document's bibliographies with Biber
or BibTeX when needed. For details, see *note BibLaTeX::.
'bibtex'
'bibtopic'
'multibib'
Takes care of processing the document's bibliographies with BibTeX
when needed. The 'bibtex' module is automatically loaded if the
document contains the macro '\bibliography'. For details, see
*note BibTeX::.
'combine'
The combine package is used to gather several LaTeX documents into
a single one, and this module handles the dependencies in this
case.
'epsfig'
This modules handles graphics inclusion for the documents that use
the old style '\psfig' macro. It is actually an interface for the
graphics system, for details see *note Graphics::.
'glossaries'
Run 'makeglossaries' and recompiles when the '.glo' file changes.
'graphics'
'graphicx'
These modules identify the graphics included in the document and
consider them as dependencies for compilation. They also use
standard rules to build these files with external programs. For
more details, see *note Graphics::.
'hyperref'
Handle the extra files that this package produces in some cases.
'index'
'makeidx'
'nomencl'
Process the document's indexes with 'makeindex' when needed. For
details, see *note Indexing::.
'minitoc'
'minitoc-hyper'
On cleaning, remove additional files that produced to make partial
tables of contents.
'moreverb'
'verbatim'
Adds the files included with '\verbatiminput' and similar macros to
the list of dependencies.
'ltxtable'
Add dependencies for files inserted via the 'ltxtable' LaTeX
package.
'xr'
Add additional '.aux' files used for external references to the
list of dependencies, so recompiling is automatic when refer- enced
document are changed.
4.1.1 BibLaTeX support
----------------------
If the document loads the package 'biblatex', Rubber enables BibLaTeX
support. Rubber will extract the appropriate external bibliography tool
such as 'biber' or 'bibtex' from the 'backend' option to the 'biblatex'
package and invoke it as needed.
'biblatex.path <directory>'
Add the specified directory to the seach path for BibTeX database
files ('.bib' files). The directory will be passed down to the
bibliography tool in the environment variable 'BIBINPUTS'.
4.1.2 BibTeX support
--------------------
If the document contains a call to '\bibliography' or
'\bibliographystyle', then the BibTeX module is used. This triggers the
execution of BibTeX between compilations when new references are made,
bibliographies are changed, and in other appropriate cases. The
following directives may be used to control BibTeX's behaviour:
'bibtex.crossrefs <number>'
Set the minimum number of 'crossref' required for automatic
inclusion of the referenced entry in the citation list. This sets
the option '-min-crossrefs' when calling 'bibtex'.
'bibtex.path <directory>'
Add the specified directory to the seach path for BibTeX database
files ('.bib' files). The directory will be passed down to the
bibliography tool in the environment variable 'BIBINPUTS'.
'bibtex.stylepath <directory>'
Add the specified directory to the search path for BibTeX style
files ('.bst' files).
'bibtex.tool <command>'
Call the specified command instead of 'bibtex' to process the .aux
file, for example 'bibtex8'.
Multiple bibliographies can be handled by the 'multibib' package.
The directives provided by the 'multibib' module are the same as those
of the 'bibtex' module, and they may be used with an optional first
arument of the form '(foo,bar,quux)' in order to specify that the
directive only applies to the bibliographies named 'foo', 'bar' and
'quux'. By default, directives are applied to all bibliographies.
4.1.3 Index generation
----------------------
The use of the packages 'index', 'makeidx' and 'nomencl' triggers the
generation of an index (or several of them). Currently Rubber can use
either the standard Makeindex or the more sophisticated Xindy. The
following directives may be used to control how indices are generated:
'index.tool <name>'
Specifies which tool is to be used to process the index. The
currently supported tools are 'makeindex' (the default choice) and
'xindy'.
'index.language <language>'
Selects the language used for sorting the index. This only applies
when using 'xindy' as the indexing tool.
'index.modules <module>...'
Specify which modules to use when processing an index with 'xindy'.
'index.order <options>'
Modifies the sorting options for the index. The argument must be a
space-separated list of words among 'standard', 'german' and
'letter'. his only applies when using 'makeindex'.
'index.path <directory>'
Adds the specified directory to the search path for index style
files ('.ist' files).
'index.style <style>'
Specifies the index style to be used.
Each of these directives may be used with an optional first arument
of the form '(foo,bar,quux)' in order to specify that the directive only
applies to the indexes named 'foo', 'bar' and 'quux'. By default,
directives are applied to all indices.
When using the package 'makeidx' instead of 'index', the directives
must of course be prefixed by 'makeidx.' instead of 'index.', and the
optional first argument is not accepted.
4.2 Post-processors
===================
The following modules are provided to support different kinds of
post-processings. Note that the order matters when using these modules:
if you want to use a processing chain like
foo.tex -> foo.dvi -> foo.ps -> foo.pdf -> foo.pdf.gz
you have to load the modules 'dvips', 'ps2pdf' and 'gz' in that order,
for instance using the command line
rubber -p -o ps2pdf -z foo.tex
'bzip2'
Produce a version of the final document compressed with 'bzip2'.
'dvipdfm'
Runs 'dvipdfm' at the end of compilation to produce a PDF document.
'dvips'
Runs 'dvips' at the end of compilation to produce a PostScript
document. This module is also loaded by the command line option
'--ps'.
'expand'
Produce an expanded LaTeX source by replacing '\input' macros by
included files, bibliography macros by the bibliography produced by
'bibtex', and local classes and packages by their source. For
details, see *note Expand::.
'gz'
Produce a version of the final document compressed with 'gzip'.
'ps2pdf'
Assuming that the compilation produces a PostScript document (for
instance using module 'dvips'), convert this document to PDF using
'ps2pdf'.
4.2.1 Dvips and Dvipdfm
-----------------------
The 'dvips' and 'dvipdfm' modules can be used to call the associated DVI
drivers to produce PostScript or PDF documents from the DVI output of
LaTeX. The following directives may be used to change their behaviour:
'dvipdfm.options <options>'
'dvips.options <options>'
Pass the specified options to the driver. The argument is a
space-separated list of options that are passed before the DVI
file's name.
4.2.2 Source file expansion
---------------------------
The module 'expand' produces a LaTeX source from the original one by
expanding included files and packages. If the main file is 'foo.tex'
then then expanded file will be named 'foo-final.tex'. This file will
be self-contained, in particular it will not need BibTeXing nor
user-defined packages, as may be required when preparing the final
version of a document for publication.
As additional effect, this module removes all comments from the
source file (including those that may contain Rubber directives). It
also removes any text that may be present after '\end{document}'.
Please note that this module is rather experimental.
The following options control how the expansion is done:
'class'
If the document class is user-defined (i.e. if it is in a local
directory instead of a system directory), the '\documentclass' call
will be replaced by the code of the '.cls' file. Note that this is
dangerous in general.
'nobib'
Do not expand the bibliography. When this option is _not_ present,
any call to '\bibiography' is discarded and the call to
'\bibliographystyle' is replaced by the document's '.bbl' file.
'nopkg'
Do not expand user-defined packages. When this option is _not_
present, local packages (i.e. those that are in the current
directory) are replaced by their contents.
4.3 Changing compilers
======================
The following modules are used to change the LaTeX compiler:
'aleph'
Use the Aleph compiler instead of TeX, i.e. compile with 'lamed'
instead of 'latex'.
'omega'
Use the Omega compiler instead of TeX, i.e. compiles the document
using 'lambda' instead of 'latex'. If the module 'dvips' is used
too, it will use 'odvips' to translate the DVI file. Note that
this module is triggered automatically when the document uses the
package 'omega'.
'pdftex'
Instructs Rubber to use 'pdflatex' instead of 'latex' to compile
the document. By default, this produces a PDF file instead of a
DVI, but when loading the module with the option 'dvi' (for
instance by saying '-m pdftex:dvi') the document is compiled into
DVI using 'pdflatex'. This module is also loaded by the command
line option '--pdf'.
'vtex'
Instructs Rubber to use the VTeX compiler. By default this uses
'vlatex' as the compiler to produce PDF output. With the option
'ps' (e.g. when saying 'rubber -m vtex:ps foo.tex') the compiler
used is 'vlatexp' and the result is a PostScript file.
5 Graphics conversion
*********************
Rubber includes a system for automatic conversion of graphics (and other
files) between various file formats. This is used when graphics are
included using commands from the packages 'graphicx', 'graphics' or
'epsfig'.
When a graphics inclusion macro like '\includegraphics' (even with
the parameters allowed by the 'graphicx' package) or '\epsfig' is found
in a LaTeX source, Rubber looks for the corresponding file or a way to
generate it. If the call to the macro does not specify a file
extension, then the list of possible suffixes is tried (according to the
current compiler and the options passed to the graphics package). For
each possible file name, Rubber tries to find a good way to convert this
file from a source, and looks for the file itself. The precise method
is described in *note Conversion algorithm::.
5.1 Conversion algorithm
========================
Files are converted using conversion rules, as described in *note
Standard rules::, and each rule can take a number of formats as input
and produce a number of formats as output.
Assume you are using 'pdflatex' to compile a document that contains a
macro call '\includegraphics{foo}'. Since 'pdftex' only accepts figures
in 'png', 'pdf' and 'jpg' format, one of 'foo.png', 'foo.pdf' and
'foo.jpg' must be available. If the only available file around happens
to be 'foo.gif', it has to be translated into one of these formats.
There are tools to convert 'gif' files into just about any other format,
so we have to choose the proper conversion to perform.
Hence all rules have a _cost_, an integer that represents how
unlikely a given conversion is. For instance the rule form '.fig' to
'.eps' files (for XFig support) has cost zero because it is almost
certain that this is the expected rule when the '.fig' file exists. On
the other hand, the rule from '.eps' to '.jpeg' has cost 11 because this
conversion is possible though usually not wanted.
Now assume that a directory contains a LaTeX source that contains
'\includegraphics{foo}' and that both 'foo.eps' and 'foo.pdf' are
present, because we want to compile the document both to PostScript and
to PDF format. How can Rubber decide which figure is the source file
and which is converted from the other? By default, in this situation,
no conversion will ever be performed, since there is no way to decide.
Generally, a file will never be overwritten if the source could have
been produced by some conversion rule. This behaviour can be overridden
using the 'make' directive, see *note General directives::.
To sum up, for each requested file, the detection algorithm works as
follows. If relevant, take all possible suffixes (i.e. all accepted
file formats, if no format is specified in the source), and take all
possible directories where the file will be searched for by LaTeX. In
each case, you get a file name 'foo'. If there is an applicable rule
with cost at most 0 to produce 'foo', use that rule. Otherwise, if the
file 'foo' exists, use it without conversion. Otherwise use the
applicable rule with the least cost. If all fails, proceed to the next
file name.
The list of standard rules is defined in the file 'rules.ini' in the
data directory. The syntax of this file is described in *note
rules.ini::, the standard rules are described in *note Standard rules::.
Additional rules can be defined in a file with the same format and
declared using the directive 'rules'.
The path searched for graphics files is the same as that for LaTeX
inputs by default. If the macro '\graphicspath' is used, the specified
paths are also searched, the same way as LaTeX does. Limited support is
also provided for the '\DeclareGraphicsExtensions' and
'\DeclareGraphicsRule' macros.
5.2 Standard conversion rules
=============================
The following built-in rules are available:
'eps_gz'
This rule is used to extract a bounding box from a gzipped EPS
file, in order to be able to compile a document while keeping large
figure files compressed.
'fig2dev'
This is the exporting program that goes with XFig. It is used to
convert files in '.fig' format into EPS, PDF or PNG. Rubber also
supports the use of combined EPS/LaTeX of PDF/LaTeX, it is detected
when an '\input' macro refers to a filename that ends in '.eps_t'
or '.pstex_t'. When the suffix is '.eps_t' or '.pdf_t', the same
document will compile both in PostScript and PDF.
'mpost'
MetaPost has extra support in Rubber. If a graphics is included
with a filename that ends with a dot and a decimal number like
'foo.42', then it is considered to be generated from 'foo.mp' if it
exists. Dependency analysis is performed between MetaPost sources,
so that recompilation always occurs when needed. If the
compilation of a MetaPost source fails, the errors are reported as
it would be done for LaTeX errors.
'shell'
Other programs can be used using the 'shell' rule. This rule takes
an extra parameter 'command', specified in the rule file, that
defines a shell command-line. This is used for simple conversion
rules using command-line tools like 'convert' (from ImageMagick),
'epstopdf'.
5.3 Syntax of 'rules.ini'
=========================
The rules file has a format in the style of Wind*ws INI files. The
lines that start with a semicolon ';' are comments, empty lines are
ignored. The file is decomposed in sections, each introduced by a line
of the form
[rule-name]
where 'rule-name' is a unique identifier for the rule. Following this
header are lines of the form
key = value
where 'key' is an attribute name and 'value' is its value, without any
quotes. The spaces around the value are stripped.
The following attributes are used:
'target'
A regular expression that matches the target file name.
'source'
A template that describes the source file name, with references to
groups marked in the target expression as '\1', '\2' etc. This
template may also contain choices of the form '{foo,bar,quux}' to
denote several possibilities for the source name.
'rule'
The name of the conversion rule. This name currently refers to
internal modules of Rubber, as described in *note Standard rules::.
'cost'
The cost of the rule, as an integer. In the default file, this
ranges between 0 and 12.
6 Encoding issues
*****************
6.1 Design choices about input and output encoding.
===================================================
Since version 1.5, rubber decodes '.tex' sources and log files with the
UTF-8 encoding. Legacy 8-bits encodings are quite common, but can
easily be converted, and should become rare now that the LaTeX community
recommends UTF-8 for new documents.
For data exchanged with the underlying operating system, like
arguments received from the command line, paths passed to subprocesses
or messages displayed on the console, it makes sense that rubber uses
the system default encoding: generally UTF-8, a code page depending on
local settings on Windows.
In the rare cases where it converts auxiliary files by itself, rubber
simply avoids to decode, and only deals with bytes between 0 and 127.
6.2 Conversion of legacy sources to UTF-8
=========================================
Most text editors allow you to explicitly select this encoding for newly
created files.
An existing source with any other encoding can be converted, either
by selecting the appropriate option when saving from your favorite
editor, or with a dedicated tool. For example, the following commands
translate 'doc.tex' from the 'latin1' encoding.
cp doc.tex doc.tex.bak
iconv doc.tex.bak -f latin1 -o doc.tex -t utf-8
You should then update the 'inputenc' line, check that the
compilation goes well, and finally remove the 'doc.tex.bak' backup.
Legacy US-ASCII sources, only containing bytes betwen 0 and 127 and
relying on TeX constructs like '\'e' to encode local characters, are
valid UTF-8 sources, and will be decoded correctly. No conversion is
needed.
More generally, conversion from usual (8-bits, US-ASCII-compatible)
encodings will only replace bytes from 128 to 255 with new UTF-8 byte
sequences, but US-ASCII bytes will remain unchanged.
6.3 Handling of unconverted legacy sources
==========================================
For various reasons, some sources cannot be converted. Rubber attempts
to deal with them, but the result will never be perfect.
Accurate detection of the source encoding is not as easy as it seems.
An 'inputenc' command anywhere in an included '.tex' source can affect
remaining bytes in all including files. Its arguments can be generated,
or depend on the result of a test. In other words, rubber would need a
full TeX interpreter, including features that the author now consider as
bugs, like tolerating encoding errors inside comments.
Instead, rubber translates bytes from 0 to 127 to the right ASCII
character, most bytes from 128 to 255 to the Unicode replacement
character (often displayed as an empty square), and rare sequences of
such bytes as random non-ASCII characters.
All encodings encountered in the TeX world share the property that a
byte between 0 and 127 anywhere in the file always represents a single
US-ASCII character, and that such characters cannot be represented by
another byte sequence. Since rubber searches for TeX commands expressed
with such characters, it will most of the time be able to work even if
it ignores all other bytes.
Non-ASCII characters will look ugly in log messages displayed on the
screen, and this is acceptable.
Real problems may occur when commands intended for cooperation with
the underlying operating system, like '\includegraphics' or '\input',
receive arguments, like paths, containing non-ASCII characters.
These characters will be decoded incorrectly, resulting in various
problems later (no file found with the given path, for example). This
problem is not specific to rubber, and such path arguments should always
be formed of ASCII characters, ideally roman letters, decimal digits and
a dot for the extension.
7 Index
*******
7.1 Index of directives
=======================
* Menu:
* alias <name1> <name2>: General directives. (line 312)
* biblatex.path <directory>: BibLaTeX. (line 526)
* bibtex.crossrefs <number>: BibTeX. (line 540)
* bibtex.path <directory>: BibTeX. (line 545)
* bibtex.stylepath <directory>: BibTeX. (line 550)
* bibtex.tool <command>: BibTeX. (line 554)
* clean <file>: General directives. (line 319)
* depend <file>: General directives. (line 323)
* dvipdfm.options <options>: Dvips and Dvipdfm. (line 652)
* dvips.options <options>: Dvips and Dvipdfm. (line 653)
* index.language <language>: Indexing. (line 578)
* index.modules <module>...: Indexing. (line 582)
* index.order <options>: Indexing. (line 585)
* index.path <directory>: Indexing. (line 590)
* index.style <style>: Indexing. (line 594)
* index.tool <name>: Indexing. (line 573)
* make <file> [<options>]: General directives. (line 327)
* module <module> [<options>]: General directives. (line 336)
* onchange <file> <command>: General directives. (line 340)
* path <directory>: General directives. (line 346)
* produce <file>: General directives. (line 351)
* read <file>: General directives. (line 362)
* rules <file>: General directives. (line 367)
* set <name> <value>: General directives. (line 372)
* setlist <name> <values>: General directives. (line 376)
* shell_escape: General directives. (line 381)
* synctex: General directives. (line 386)
* watch <file>: General directives. (line 389)
7.2 Index of modules
====================
* Menu:
* aleph: Compiler choice. (line 697)
* asymptote: Packages. (line 450)
* beamer: Packages. (line 454)
* biblatex: Packages. (line 458)
* bibtex: Packages. (line 462)
* bibtopic: Packages. (line 463)
* bzip2: Post-processing. (line 620)
* combine: Packages. (line 470)
* dvipdfm: Post-processing. (line 623)
* dvips: Post-processing. (line 626)
* epsfig: Packages. (line 475)
* expand: Post-processing. (line 631)
* glossaries: Packages. (line 480)
* graphics: Packages. (line 483)
* graphicx: Packages. (line 484)
* gz: Post-processing. (line 637)
* hyperref: Packages. (line 490)
* index: Packages. (line 493)
* ltxtable: Packages. (line 509)
* makeidx: Packages. (line 494)
* minitoc: Packages. (line 499)
* minitoc-hyper: Packages. (line 500)
* moreverb: Packages. (line 504)
* multibib: Packages. (line 464)
* nomencl: Packages. (line 495)
* omega: Compiler choice. (line 701)
* pdftex: Compiler choice. (line 708)
* ps2pdf: Post-processing. (line 640)
* verbatim: Packages. (line 505)
* vtex: Compiler choice. (line 716)
* xr: Packages. (line 513)
Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Sat May 18 12:47:58 CEST 2024.