[OS X TeX] Recovering from typing errors

[Maarten Sneep]

On 18 Feb 2006, at 16:57, Nicola Cabibbo wrote:

> Would it be possible to avoid the second run by making a backup of  
> the .aux
> file and restoring it in case of an aborted typesetting? I realize  
> that in
> certain cases a second run is required, e.g if new labels have been  
> introduced,
> but in many cases it should not.

An interesting thought.

> Where should such a modification be introduced?
> in texshop itself, or in an ad-hoc script?

I think you can get away with an ad-hoc script, but you'll have to  
detect the error in the script, and restore the aux files from there.  
You should also be aware that some errors are caused by an old aux  
file (introducing or removing some packages - natbib, hyperref,  
longtable, ... I don't recall which one in particular). Having such a  
restore mechanism in place then would cause a loop you really do not  
want.

> Is this possible? Is it difficult?

Not easy, at least not if you rely on \include, because you get an  
aux file for each .tex file.

> Is it dangerous?

Smoking is dangerous, wrong shell scripts are a mere nuisance.  
Incorrectly detecting errors will cause a great deal of frustration -  
probably more than having to typeset twice, at least if I speak for  
myself.

Maarten
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