texi2dvi ignores -o under unclear circumstances.

[Jack Kelly-3]

Hello,

I think I have found a bug with texi2dvi. It seems to manifest only
when using -o to write the dvi to a subdirectory and when the .texi
file has a sectioning command like @top. texi2dvi emits an identical
copy of the dvi file in the current working directory.

I found a similar-sounding report from 2007:
http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-texinfo@.../msg03174.html (indeed,
I found the problem in the same way: my `make distcheck ' failed
because of extra .dvi files left about.)

Minimal example to reproduce this bug:

doc/foo.texi
8<---
\input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename foo.info
@settitle foo
@c %**end of header
@node Top
@top Top
@bye
--->8

Running texi2dvi -o doc/foo.dvi doc/foo.texi causes a copy of foo.dvi
to be left in the current directory. If you want a minimal autotools
example add:

configure.ac:
8<---
AC_INIT([ambug],[0],[/dev/null])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT
--->8

Makefile.am:
8<---
info_TEXINFOS = doc/foo.texi
--->8

Run `autoreconf -i', then `make distcheck' and it will fail.

Is there any other useful information I can provide?

-- Jack

[Karl Berry]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the report.

    Running texi2dvi -o doc/foo.dvi doc/foo.texi causes a copy of foo.dvi

Akim, are you around now?  Can you look into this?
(I am drowning just now after two weeks away.)

Thanks,
Karl

[Jack Kelly-3]

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 4:29 AM, Karl Berry<karl@...> wrote:
> Thanks for the report.
>    Running texi2dvi -o doc/foo.dvi doc/foo.texi causes a copy of foo.dvi

I wound up fixing this in my case by adding foo.dvi (equivalent) to
CLEANFILES in Makefile.am. Perhaps automake can change the generated
rules for `make clean' as an interim fix? There'd have to be some
checking that texi2dvi won't clobber files in the working directory.

Alternative: Is it feasible (i.e., portable and otherwise safe) to
change the generated rules for .dvi files. Perhaps phrase this as:

doc/foo.dvi: doc/foo.texi
        cd doc && texi2dvi -o foo.dvi foo.texi

instead of

doc/foo.dvi: doc/foo.texi
        texi2dvi -o $@ $<

(I'm simplifying here, but hopefully the idea is clear.)

When generating Makefile.in?

-- Jack

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Jack,

Jack Kelly writes:

>
> I think I have found a bug with texi2dvi. It seems to manifest only
> when using -o to write the dvi to a subdirectory and when the .texi
> file has a sectioning command like @top. texi2dvi emits an identical
> copy of the dvi file in the current working directory.
>
> I found a similar-sounding report from 2007:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-texinfo <at> gnu.org/msg03174.html (indeed,
> I found the problem in the same way: my `make distcheck ' failed
> because of extra .dvi files left about.)
>
> Minimal example to reproduce this bug:

FWIW, I reported a similar bug a while ago, it got fixed in texinfo.
I cannot reproduce your bug with the current texinfo.

> Is there any other useful information I can provide?

Yes: if this still occurs with current texinfo, then please provide
a recipe to reproduce that.

Thanks!
Ralf