[tex-live] pretest: epstopdf overwrites existing files

[George N. White III]

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Uwe Siart<uwe.siart at tum.de> wrote:

> Angelo Graziosi <angelo.graziosi at alice.it> writes:
>
>> In any case, it seems that it happens only with PDF files which are
>> older than EPS ones.
>
> But I think it should not happen at all. The assumption behind this
> feature is that the PDFs are derivated from the EPSs. But this is not
> generally true.
>
> Imagine an author who uses PDF graphics with transparency (a PDF 1.6
> feature) and EPS versions of the same but without transparency. It may
> further happen that this author received those files from a third person
> and is unable to recover those files (because he is not the creator of
> those graphics or because he lacks access to the creating software).
>
> Now unsuspectingly he calls 'pdflatex' after a TL update and his
> transparent PDF graphics are lost forever. Ruined by a harmless latex
> run. TeX destructed the document sources. What a nightmare! Ok, he could
> have avoided this if only he knew about the new magic command. But how
> many users will fall into that trap during the first 2-3 years?

I'm pretty sure I will do it to myself if nothing is changed. My "new
tl version"
resolution is to be diligent about making figures read-only.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia