Is it possible to write an arara rule which uses a bash script?

Question

I've written a shell script to convert some of my files to different formats for use in my LaTeX files. Is it possible to write an arara rule which can use my shell scripts?

EDIT

I should note: the script is loaded through my bash profile file where it's defined along the lines

myscript () { <script contents> }

In other words, the script does not exist as an executable residing in some directory.

Answer 1

Yes, this can certainly be done. Thanks to Paulo (arara creator) for his help on this one :)

Let's say that your .bashrc contains the following

function hello() {
   echo "Hello, $0!"
}

export -f hello

Note the use of export to make the hello function available from the command line.

We can then make our arara rule to contain the line

- <arara> bash -i -c hello @{name}

Note the use of the i and c flags. The rule can then be used either as

% arara: hello

or

% arara: hello: {name: Ellett}

hello.yaml

!config
# Hello world
# author: Chris Hughes, Paulo Cereda
# last edited by: cmh, June 14th 2013
# requires arara 3.0+
#
# Sample usage: 
#
# % arara: hello
# % arara: hello: {name: A.Ellett}
#
# This rule is really just a shortcut for commands like the following
#
#   hello
# or
#   hello A.Ellett
#
identifier: hello
name: hello
commands: 
- <arara> bash -i -c hello @{name}
arguments: 
- identifier: name
  flag: <arara> @{parameters.name}
  default: "world"

myfile.tex

% arara: hello
% arara: hello: {name: Ellett}
\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

test

\end{document}

And here's the output from arara -v myfile.tex

  __ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ __ _ 
 / _` | '__/ _` | '__/ _` |
| (_| | | | (_| | | | (_| |
 \__,_|_|  \__,_|_|  \__,_|

Running hello... 

Hello, world!
Status: SUCCESS

Running hello... 

Hello, Ellett!
Status: SUCCESS

Answer 2

In the next version of TeXlive there will be TrY, that is something similar to arara, but simpler. It uses simple bash commands into the TeX comments.

The main use of TrY is to make explicit in the document the list of commands needed to compile it, something like this:

%
%$ xetex -shell-escape filename.tex 
%$ bibtex -min-crossref=3 filename.aux
%$ xetex -shell-escape filename.tex
%$ xetex -shell-escape filename.tex
%

but you can call your script from the comments in the same way:

%
%$ ./myscript $0
%$ pdftex $0
%

where $0 is a placeholder standing for the parameter "this document".

You can also put a script into the comment:

%
%$ while [ $a -le "$LIMIT" ]
%$ do
%$   a=$(($a+1))
%$   if [ "$a" -eq 3 ] || [ "$a" -eq 11 ]
%$   then
%$     continue
%$   fi
%$   echo -n "$a "
%$ done
%
%$ pdftex $0
%

(the script is only an example and has not a particular function or meaning).

Then you have to compile the document in the obvious way:

$ try mydocument.tex