[luatex] getting --output-directory

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2013-04-30 at 18:45:36 +0200, Stephan Hennig wrote:

 > Am 29.04.2013 19:12, schrieb Stephan Hennig:
 > 
 > > Shouldn't io.read and io.write operate in the output directory
 > > instead of the current directory in the first place?
 > 
 > Or rather io.open and io.popen.
 > 
 > > Does this reasoning make any sense?

I don't think so.  There might be reasons to set --output-directory in
order to put the PDF file somewhere else than other files.

If you want to read/write other files from/to the directory specified
by --output-directory, it's easy enough to determine the argument of
--output-directory in Lua.

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{luacode}
\begin{luacode*}
  for k,v in pairs(arg) do
    if v:find('%-output%-directory') then
      if v:find('%-output%-directory=') then
        outputdir=string.explode(v, '=')[2]
      else
        outputdir=arg[tonumber(k)+1]
      end
    end
  end
  if outputdir and lfs.isdir(outputdir) then 
    texio.write_nl(outputdir..'\n') 
  end
\end{luacode*}
\begin{document}
\end{document}


But if you create a file, process it by an external tool, and read the
resulting file, it would be quite annoying if read and write
operations take place in different directories.  Thus I think that the
current behavior is appropriate and less confusing.

And even if Taco agrees more with you than with me, it would be very
helpful at least to have a boolean variable 'luaoutputdirectory' which
allows to control the behavior. 

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
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