Re: temp file name conflicts in unattended document generation

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Ed L. Cashin wrote:

> > I agree with Ed here, there *is* a bit of a clash (also for
> > mpgraph.mp). But my solution is to use /var/tmp/$client-id as
> > directory, which solves the problem nicely.
> 
> Wow, thanks, that's an excellent idea!  I heard about or saw someone
> do that once and had forgotten the technique.

In the current/next release when one says \protectbufferstrue in for
instance cont-sys.tex, temporary files will be prefixed. The protection
concerns the utility file copy, used to determine if more runs are
needed, the buffers used in a run and in figure inclusion (put a table
in a buffer and include it as 'external' figure and you can scale etc
like any figure), mpgraphics, mprun (a different kind of graphics), and
--still undocument but very well present-- the context_to_mp status info
file, which makes it possible to set up page backgrounds
spanning/combining areas, etc. Especially handling the mp files is
important, because in a next release I will introduce extensive embedded
graphic support, acting on graphic layers etc. Of course the texexec
option file is also protected now. 

Now, prefixing is handled low level by: 

\def\bufferprefix%
  {\ifprotectbuffers\jobname-\fi}

Technically, I can let texexec redefine this macro in the option file.
The best place for specifying the alternative prefix is probably the
texexec.ini file. Something: 

  for tetex set TeXScratchPath to /var/tmp/$client-id

or so. which would result in 

  print OPT "\\def\\bufferprefix{/var/tmp/$client-id/\n"

(of course I have to resolve the id first). 

This would at least provide a decent cleanup method. Now, how is this on
windows? 

Hans

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