[tlbuild] new build of bibtex/bibtex8: failure when aux file is not in cwd

[Peter Breitenlohner]

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010, François Charette wrote:

> On January 12 I retrieved the TL sources via rsync and built the binaries for 
> a new version of the Arch Linux package "texlive-bin", which I maintain. Some 
> users have since noticed that between the previous version, which was built 
> using sources retrieved on September 30 and the latest one, there is a 
> regression in the behaviour of bibtex (and bibtex8). If the argument (the aux 
> file) is not in the current directory, bibtex fails with this message:
> bibtex: Not writing to /some/dir/basename.blg (openout_any = p).
> I couldn't open file name `/some/dir/basename.blg'

Hi François,

there always were some checks preventing malicious TeX input from destroying
vital data (search for '_name_ok' in kpathsea.info).  In Nov 2009 these
checks were applied to bibtex* in order to make bibtex a "safe" command. 
The problem is that bibtex writes the log (.blg) and bibliography (.bbl)
files into the directory of the (top-level) aux file.

BTW: there should be no problem when the aux file is in a subdirectory of
the current directory (specified as relative path without any '..'
components).

Hi Karl,

how to handle this?

Regards
Peter Breitenlohner <peb at mppmu.mpg.de>