[tex-live] [XeTeX] Problem with XeTeX's (and perhaps other binaries -- not investigated) handling of --output-directory

[Philip Taylor]

Zdeněk Wagner wrote:

>> [PT] What are "the normalisation rules", Zdeněk ? ** Phil.

> A path can be specified by many equivalent ways, for instance a/./b
> is the same as a/b, a/c/../b is again a/b (it need not be true in
> unix systems). Doble slashes are ignored too, a//b is again a/b. The
> canonical path does not contain double slashes, ./, ../, the engine
> may remove them before searching the file.

Hmmm, thank you : however, it would appear to be the case (here, at least) that "//" <> "/" :

> E:\TeX\Projects\WBH\Welcome>xetex
> --output-directory=../dynamic-content /foo.tex This is XeTeX, Version
> 3.14159265-2.6-0.99996 (TeX Live 2016/W32TeX) (preloaded
> format=xetex) restricted \write18 enabled. entering extended mode 
> (/foo.tex This is the intended foo.tex) *\end No pages of output. 
> Transcript written on ../dynamic-content/foo.log.
> 
> E:\TeX\Projects\WBH\Welcome>xetex
> --output-directory=../dynamic-content //foo.tex This is XeTeX,
> Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99996 (TeX Live 2016/W32TeX) (preloaded
> format=xetex) restricted \write18 enabled. entering extended mode ! I
> can't find file `//foo.tex'.

** Phil.