Automatically create two PDF output files from one tex file

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Can one TeX file output to multiple PDF files?

Let's say I have a tex file foo.tex. Now, I want to achieve that pdflatex does not only create a file foo.pdf but simultaneously a file fooxy.pdf which is identical (!) to foo.pdf. Is there a simple solution to this problem?

PS:

• Yes, I could just do this by copying and renaming the file in the file manager. But I want to have an automatic solution.
• No, I am not crazy. Please don't ask me why I want to do this.

Answer 1

I can think of three ways to approach this:

&&

You could just add a copy command after pdflatex as in the following:

pdflatex foo.tex && cp foo.pdf fooxy.pdf

The does everything you want in one line and it is a simple solution.

Make

You could make it slightly more sophisticated by making a Makefile such as the following:

namebase = foo
nameaddon = xy
tex = pdflatex          # Might wanna set this to latexmk

.PHONY : all
all : $(namebase)$(nameaddon).pdf

$(namebase)$(nameaddon).pdf : $(namebase).pdf
    cp $< $@

$(namebase).pdf : $(namebase).tex
    $(tex) $<

This gives you more flexibility when it comes to naming file and it does not compile or copy unless it is needed. You only have to issue

make all

and make decides what needs to be done.

tee

This does not work but was the first approach I came to think about. The command tee reads from standard input and writes to standard output and the files given as arguments. If pdflatex would write the pdf to standard output you could have used

pdflatex foo.tex | tee foo.pdf fooxy.pdf > /dev/null

but as pdflatex does not this approach fails.

Answer 2

Only for Microsoft Windows users.

It has been properly tested in my daily jobs and works.

rem this file name is pdflatexdup.bat

rem first arg specifies the master input filename without extension
rem remaining args specifies a list of duplicate filenames

rem remove the previously created master PDF
if exist "%~1.pdf" del "%~1.pdf"

rem create master PDF
if exist "%~1.tex" pdflatex -draftmode -interaction=batchmode "%~1.tex"
if exist "%~1.tex" pdflatex -draftmode -interaction=batchmode "%~1.tex"
if exist "%~1.tex" pdflatex -draftmode -interaction=batchmode "%~1.tex"
if exist "%~1.tex" pdflatex "%~1.tex"

rem remove unnecessary files
for %%x in (aux log out toc nav snm) do (if exist "%~1.%%x" del "%~1.%%x")

rem save the master file name
set master=%~1
shift

:loop
if "%~1"=="" goto :eof
copy "%master%.pdf" "%~1.pdf" 
shift
goto :loop

rem remove the master PDF if you want 
rem if exist "%master%.pdf" del "%master%.pdf"

How to use:

Compile your foo.tex with the following command typed in the CMD window.

pdflatexdup foo a b c d e f g

where a, b, c, ... g are the duplicate file names. After compilation you will get 8 99.99% identical PDF files (including the master PDF).

If you duplicate names contain spaces then you need to enclose it with quotes as follows:

pdflatexdup foo a b c d e f g "garbage collector"

In this case you get 9 PDF files as follows.

Answer 3

You can run LaTeX inside LaTeX when you run it as pdflatex -shell-escape (MikTeX):

\documentclass{article}
\write18{pdflatex --jobname="\jobname xy" \jobname}
\begin{document}
Hello Copy!
\end{document}

This has the advantage that the second run can be slightly different, for example another page layout.

Answer 4

It has been tested many times in my daily projects. Compile it with pdflatex --shell-escape executor.tex. And you will get 5 PDF files: 4 identical PDF files (a.pdf, b.pdf, c.pdf, d.pdf) and executor.pdf that can be regarded as a log file.

% this file name is executor.tex
% compile it with pdflatex -shell-escape executor.tex

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{foo.tex}
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a6paper,margin=3cm]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\LaTeX\ is fun!
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}



\makeatletter
% make a master 
\immediate\write18{pdflatex foo.tex}
\@for\ext:={tex,dvi,ps,log,aux,out,toc,nav,snm}\do{\immediate\write18{cmd /c del foo.\ext}}%
% make multiple copies
\@for\filename:={a,b,c,d}\do{\immediate\write18{cmd /c copy foo.pdf \filename.pdf}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
Done!
\end{document}

Explanation:

The executor.tex is an auxiliary input file to automate the process of compiling the foo.tex for multiple output names (a.pdf, b.pdf, c.pdf, d.pdf).

Disclaimer:

The multiple copies are not guaranteed to be 100% identical because the time stamp (creation date time, etc) for each file might not be identical.

Answer 5

Within LaTeX in a linux system could be:

% Need --enable-write18 or --shell-escape 
\immediate\write18{cp foo.pdf fooxy.pdf}

Or instead of cp (copy) you can call any other command (a script running pdflatex several times, for example).

Addendum: In a Windows system could be (not tested):

\immediate\write18{foo.bat}

Where foo.bat is a simple text file with .bat extension that contain the following text:

pdflatex foo.tex
copy foo.pdf fooxy.pdf
del foo.aux
del foo.log

But this have no sense, because then the simplest way is to execute the batch file alone:

C:\SOMEDIR> foo

Answer 6

The questioner stated in a comment that they use Windows.

My solution contains of two files (see below).
Inside the TeX file the batch file is run with the start command. This issues a second process so that pdfLaTeX "thinks" that the \write18 macro already ended and so that it finishes the PDF creating process without waiting for the copy process (which would copy an outdated or non-existent PDF).

Files

foo.tex

\documentclass{article}
\AtEndDocument{\immediate\write18{start "write18 call" /MIN kopie.bat \jobname\space xy}}%
\begin{document}
Hello real copy!
\end{document}

kopie.bat

@ECHO OFF
ping 127.0.0.1 /n 2
copy %1.pdf %1%2.pdf
exit

Explanation

The ping command is simply to pass some time. The amount of pings that is needed for LaTeX to finish the pdf is empiric for this document. I expect for a big document that you need more time. (Windows 7 offers timeout /T 2 for a two-second wait.)
There is probably also a way to wait for the pdflatex process to exit.

\jobname is foo (for the batch file it will be saved in %1). xy stands for the variable suffix you want to add (could be macro, too).

If you want to copy foo to moo you can edit the copy command to:

copy %1.pdf %2.pdf

Note

If you need to use bib(la)tex, makeindex or something of the sort you are better off using make, an advanced batch script or you tweak your editor's build chain.