[pdftex] append pdflatex search path (TEXINPUTS, command line options)

[Stephan Hennig]

Hi,

I'm trying to build a make file that works both with Windows as well as
with Unix flavours of pdfLaTeX. During compilation I need to input lots
of files from different directories. Since I don't like to add file
system information to source files I tried to append pdfLaTeX's search
path.

Unfortunately, I observed that the pdflatex.exe distributed with MiKTeX
ignores environment variable TEXINPUTS. Though, I've found a command
line option `-include-directory', which worked for my purposes (I
attached the output of `pdflatex -help' at the end of this mail).
However, I've then been told that the pdflatex distributed with tetex
doesn't accept this command line option, raising an error.

Is there any portable recommendation to append the search path? It would
be a sad situation if not. I've already asked on the MiKTeX mailing
list, with the only suggestion to add a new texmf tree (where I don't
know yet how a portable solution looks like). Any ideas?

Regards
Stephan Hennig


> C:\>pdflatex -version
> MiKTeX-pdfetex 2.4.2140 (1.21a) (MiKTeX 2.4)
> Copyright (C) 1982 D. E. Knuth, (C) 1996-2002 Han The Thanh
> TeX is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society.


> C:\>pdflatex -help
> Usage: pdflatex [OPTION...] [COMMAND...]
>   -alias=APP                      Pretend to be APP.  This affects both the
>                                   format used and the search path.
>   -aux-directory=DIR              Define the directory for auxiliary files.
>   -buf-size=N                     Set buf_size to N.
>   -c-style-errors                 Print file:line:error style messages.
>   -disable-installer              Don't install missing packages on-the-fly.
>   -enable-installer               Install missing packages on-the-fly.
>   -enable-write18                 Enable the \write18 construct.
>   -error-line=N                   Set error_line to N.
>   -font-max=N                     Set font_max to N.
>   -font-mem-size=N                Set font_mem_size to N.
>   -half-error-line=N              Set half_error_line to N.
>   -halt-on-error                  Stop after the first error.
>   -help                           Show this help screen and exit.
>   -include-directory=DIR          Prepend DIR to the input search path.
>   -initialize                     Be the INI variant of the program.  This is
>                                   implicitly true if the program name is ini*.
>   -interaction=MODE               Set the interaction mode; MODE must be one
>                                   of: batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode,
>                                   errorstopmode.
>   -job-name=NAME                  Set the job name and hence the name(s) of
>                                   the output file(s).
>   -job-time=FILE                  Set the job time.  Take FILE's timestamp as
>                                   the reference.
>   -max-in-open=N                  Set max_in_open to N.
>   -max-print-line=N               Set max_print_line to N.
>   -max-strings=N                  Set max_strings to N.
>   -mem-bot=N                      Set mem_bot to N.
>   -mem-max=N                      Set mem_max to N.
>   -mem-min=N                      Set mem_min to N.
>   -mem-top=N                      Set mem_top to N.
>   -nest-size=N                    Set nest_size to N.
>   -output-directory=DIR           Define the directory for output files.
>   -param-size=N                   Set param_size to N.
>   -pool-size=N                    Set pool_size to N.
>   -quiet                          Suppress all output (except errors).
>   -record-package-usages=FILE     Record package usages and write them into
>                                   FILE.
>   -recorder                       Record file names.
>   -save-size=N                    Set save_size to N.
>   -src-specials                   Insert source specials in certain places of
>                                   the DVI file.
>   -stack-size=N                   Set stack_size to N.
>   -string-vacancies=N             Set string_vacancies to N.
>   -tcx=TCXNAME                    Use the TCX file TCXNAME.
>   -terminal=oem                   Use the DOS codepage for console output.
>   -time-statistics                Show processing time statistics.
>   -trace=OPTIONS                  Set trace options.  OPTIONS must be a
>                                   comma-separated list of trace options.  See
>                                   the manual, for more information.
>   -trie-op-size=N                 Set trie_op_size to N.
>   -trie-size=N                    Set trie_size to N.
>   -undump=NAME                    Use NAME instead of program name when
>                                   loading internal tables.
>   -version                        Print version information and exit.