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I have ommited the following files from my Latex repo.

*.aux
*.glo
*.idx
*.log
*.toc
*.ist
*.acn
*.acr
*.alg
*.bbl
*.blg
*.dvi
*.glg
*.gls
*.ilg
*.ind
*.lof
*.lot
*.maf
*.mtc
*.mtc1
*.out

I see my Professor submitted a .fls Latex file. Should this file be version controlled? I am trying to understand what this file refers to.

I see from another StackOverflow post (File extensions related to LaTeX, etc) that:

.fls - running latex with $ latex -recorder

The question is whether this intermediate file .fls is auto-generated or this needs to be version controlled.

Exploring
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1 Answers1

14

No, the .fls file should not be version controlled because it is a build artefact. That file is automatically generated when running LaTeX with the -recorder option and contains the full filesystem paths of all included files. That also means that the contents of this file depend on the installation directory of your TeX distribution and is therefore likely to vary between different systems.

Henri Menke
  • 109,596
  • great description: build artifact My word (s) of the day. – D Duck Sep 03 '20 at 14:37
  • what is the usage of the -recorder command? Seems like it records the full filesystem path of all dependent files. – Exploring Sep 03 '20 at 17:48
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    @Exploring Yes, that's what it does. Build systems like latexmk use this to get a list of files that have to be monitored for changes to trigger a rebuild. – Henri Menke Sep 03 '20 at 21:34
  • @DDuck That's common terminology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(software_development) – Henri Menke Sep 03 '20 at 21:34