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I am trying to clean up my LaTeX project source before uploading it to a versioning system, and there are a couple files that I'm not sure if I need to upload.

Obvisouly, I don't need to track .pdf, .synctex.gz, .bbl (regenerated upon demand during compilation) but what about .ist, .ptc and .bcf files?

.ist seems to contain some kind of index information, just like .ptc; .bcf seems to be bibliography-related but it's not clear to me what's it for.

What exactly are they for? Or perhaps there's some comprehensive documentation that covers the different LaTeX file types?

Rokas
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    You may want to have a look at https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/7770/35864 – moewe Jul 26 '20 at 09:30
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    You definitely won't need the .bcf (it is a temporary file that biblatex uses to communicate with Biber). It is regenerated in each (successful) LaTeX run. – moewe Jul 26 '20 at 09:31
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    @moewe Sorry, I mistyped the extension. It's .ptc. Fixed the question. – Rokas Jul 26 '20 at 09:54
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    Ahhh :-). .ptc is on that list. – moewe Jul 26 '20 at 10:01
  • @moewe of I use an online tool yo generate PDF files such as Overleaf, where do these necessary files are storaged? Because in Overleaf I only need .tex to generate any PDF. – manooooh Jul 26 '20 at 10:54
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    @manooooh The necessary input files are visible directly in your project (in the pane on the right): Usually that is a .tex file and possibly a .bib file and some images. The temporary files (.aux, .bbl, .bcf, ...) are hidden from you, but can be obtained as described in https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/462314/35864 if you are interested. ... – moewe Jul 26 '20 at 11:27
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    ...Strictly speaking, the temporary files are necessary for LaTeX to do its job correctly. So if you delete them between every LaTeX run, you will not get the expected output. But since they can be recreated automatically, they can be safely deleted if you are cleaning up and they are usually not tracked in version control software. If you are using Overleaf you generally need not worry about the temp files, you won't get to see them and things just work. Only if you have a very nasty error you may need to tell Overleaf to clear these files http://overleaf.com/learn/how-to/Clearing_the_cache – moewe Jul 26 '20 at 11:32

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