Re: [help-texinfo] texi2dvi: Preserve foo.log

[Akim Demaille]

>>> "Karl" == Karl Berry <address@hidden> writes:

 >     That's a very nice idea, but what about --clean, where you are
 >     expected to remove the temp file.  Should we leave the whole
 >     directory?  Move just the log file?

 > I'm a little confused.  Does --clean now use a subdir of the current dir
 > instead of in /tmp?  (Sorry, my brain isn't up to following the logic
 > right now. :)

No, it doesn't: it is still in /tmp.  But I tend to think it should
not: it should stay in pwd.  There are less issues with rights (to do
currently), it is simpler to implement, and finally it is more
predictable.

 > In any case, I think --clean should definitely not leave the entire
 > directory behind.  If there's an error, I guess the log file should
 > be preserved.

 > Actually, I don't understand why anyone should ever use --clean
 > now.  Is there ever a reason to do so?  Maybe it should just be a
 > synonym for --tidy?

We seem to share opinions here :)  I think clean = tidy + mostlyclean.

 > Also, I noticed this bit:

 >     case $build_mode in
 >       local) clean=true;  tidy=false;;

 > So what gets cleaned in the local case?  Like before, the temp dir we
 > use for the makeinfo expansions and stuff?

--clean != $clean.  $clean means the temp dir is clearer.  The temp
dir contains various texi2dvi auxiliary material, e.g., the output of
tex --help, or computing texinfo.tex's version, the back up of the
xref files etc.