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

[Philip Taylor]

Philip Taylor wrote:

> But the defined behaviour for :
> 
> 	o xetex --output-directory=../dynamic-content E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex
> 
> must /surely/ be to process E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex, not E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Dynamic-content/foo.tex, which is what it does; 

This statement was in error :

>	o xetex --output-directory=../dynamic-content E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex

does indeed process E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex as requested.  Yet with
the current working directory :

> E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex

>	o xetex --output-directory=../dynamic-content ./foo.tex

the file that is actually processed is 

> E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Dynamic-content/foo.tex

In both cases, the path to the source directory has been specified, yet "E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/" is correctly honoured while "./" (for . = E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome) is not.  I remain completely confused by this seemingly aberrant and inconsistency behaviour. 

Philip Taylor
--------
E:\TeX\Projects\WBH\Welcome>xetex --output-directory=../dynamic-content E:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/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
(e:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.tex This is the intended foo.tex
(e:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.aux This is the intended foo.aux) )
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
(../dynamic-content/./foo.tex This is the unintended foo.tex
(e:/TeX/Projects/WBH/Welcome/foo.aux This is the intended foo.aux) )
No pages of output.
Transcript written on ../dynamic-content/foo.log.

E:\TeX\Projects\WBH\Welcome>