[texworks] TeXworks cannot find primary input file.

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi Philip,

as a preface: it is historically/generally a bad idea to use spaces, 
"special" characters etc. in filenames intended for use with TeX. I 
would recommend avoiding that as much as possible...

On 28.08.24 18:11, Philip Taylor (RHBNC) wrote:
> I have a file which has evolved over time, and the evolution is 
> reflected in its name :
>> No parking (single sheet, 594 x  420, 3mm bleed, 5mm border).tex

I noted that you have two spaces between "x" and "420". I assume that is 
not just an artifact from the email?

> And TeXworks says it cannot find it :
>> This is XeTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-0.999996 (TeX Live 2024) 
>> (preloaded format=xetex)
>>
>> restricted \write18 enabled.
>>
>> entering extended mode
>>
>> ! I can't find file `"No parking (single sheet, 594 x 420, 3mm bleed, 
>> 5mm borde
>>
>> r).tex"'.
>>
>> <*> ...et, 594 x 420, 3mm bleed, 5mm border).tex"
>>
>> (Press Enter to retry, or Control-Z to exit)
>>
>> Please type another input file name:
>>
> The same is true if I ask TeXworks to use PdfTeX.  If I rename the 
> file to something simpler (e.g., NP-neue-bis.tex), TeXworks has no 
> trouble opening it.

In the "I can't find file" line, TeX reports only a single space between 
"x" and "420". Indeed, I could reproduce this on a Win7 virtual machine 
(directly from the command line). If you have two versions (one with two 
spaces and one with one space), TeX always tries to typeset the version 
with the one space, regardless of which one you specify as program argument.
As this issue occurs on the command line as well, it's probably a "bug" 
(as far as spaces in filenames are supported at all) in how (whichever) 
TeX handles command line arguments, not in what TeXworks does.

HTH
Stefan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://tug.org/pipermail/texworks/attachments/20240907/c91f72f5/attachment.htm>