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

[François Charette]

On 29/01/2010 10:39, Peter Breitenlohner wrote:
> 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).
Indeed.

As I said, this is not a problem for most users, but some utilities do 
appear to call bibtex from a different location. I'm fine with whatever 
you'll decide. I guess LilyPond and gedit's latex plugin will eventually 
adapt to this change.

Thanks for the answer.
F
>
> Hi Karl,
>
> how to handle this?
>
> Regards
> Peter Breitenlohner <peb at mppmu.mpg.de>