Commands that disable everything except the counters

Question

what I'm looking for...

I'm looking for a couple a commands, \disableAllButCounters and \enableAll that would do the following:

Everything between \disableAllButCounters and \enableAll would be ignored excepted commands such that \setcounter{counterA}{k}, so that the only common thing between

\disableAllButCounters
\manyCommands
\enableAll

and

%\disableAllButCounters
\manyCommands
%\enableAll

would be that after both, the values of the counters is the same. In particular, anything between these commands will not produce any output (nor aux).

I'm looking for a solution for latex and for a solution for luatex.

If it exists, these commands could provide a solution to this question.

but why!?

Basically, I would like to produce several outputs from a single latex file: one output for the content from A to B, one output for the content from B to C, etc. I plan to do it by cutting the file into multiple files. My question raises the problem of dealing with the references.

If by any chance, you think of a better solution, don't hesitate!!

Answer 1

You could try with

\newcommand{\disableAllButCounters}{\setbox0=\vbox\bgroup}
\newcommand{\enableAllButCounters}{\egroup}

Since \setcounter and similar commands act globally, this should do; \write commands are executed only when the box eventually finds its way in the main vertical list, which the constructed box won't.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\disableAllButCounters}{\setbox0=\vbox\bgroup}
\newcommand{\enableAllButCounters}{\egroup}

\begin{document}

\section{A}

Text

\disableAllButCounters

\section{B}

Text

\enableAllButCounters

\section{C}

Text

\end{document}

This is the .aux file:

\relax 
\@writefile{toc}{\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1}A}{1}}
\@writefile{toc}{\contentsline {section}{\numberline {3}C}{1}}

which shows no entry related to section 2.

Beware that floats could ruin the thing; if you need them, some countermeasures should be taken.

Answer 2

The following solution takes care of the problem caused by figure.

\usepackage{letltxmacro}

\newcommand{\disableAllButCounters}{%
% Dealing with the figure environment
\LetLtxMacro{\savedfigure}{\figure}
\renewcommand{\figure}{}
\LetLtxMacro{\savedendfigure}{\endfigure}
\renewcommand{\endfigure}{}
% Disabling everything but counter
\setbox0=\vbox\bgroup
}

\newcommand{\enableAllButCounters}{%
% Reenabling everything but counter
\egroup
% Dealing with the figure environment
\renewenvironment{figure}{\savedfigure}{\savedendfigure}
}