[tex-live] Bug in TexLive 2005 and 2007? Non-writable aux-file

Hartmut Henkel hartmut_henkel at gmx.de
Sat Mar 10 13:18:31 CET 2007


Hi,

what i don't understand at all is that you can even delete a .tex file
while reading it, e. g. foo.tex, by simply writing:

\openout 5 foo.tex \bye

Wouldn't the overall situation be better if there would be a clear
locking between writing and reading a file, so that only after explicit
\closein it could be written again, else it should give an error?
Looking up the relevant passages in the TeXbook and the tex.web code i
couldn't find a real indication for this, there is only in tex.web:

  @ Files can be closed with the \ph\ routine `|close(f)|', which
  @^system dependencies@>
  should be used when all input or output with respect to |f| has been completed.
  This makes |f| available to be opened again, if desired; and if |f| was used for
  output, the |close| operation makes the corresponding external file appear
  on the user's area, ready to be read.

Maybe one could interpret into this that a file must be closed after end
of input before it's available to be opened (e. g. for output) again?

Regards, Hartmut


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