%OUTDIR% should be used in the default pdftlatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex recipe

[floringogianu]

Pre-checks*

• The feature request has not been suggested in this repository.

The Missed*

• I noticed that by default the pdftlatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex recipe was not using %OUTDIR%, the custom build directory. I suppose %OUTDIR% should be supported by all the default recipes.

The Solution*

After a bit of research it turned out that only some small changes are required to the default tools. Not sure though if this is the best way to go about it. If it is though, I can turn it into a pull request.

    "latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
        {
            "name": "pdflatex + bibtex (OUT)",
            "tools": [
                "pdflatexOut",
                "bibtexOut",
                "pdflatexOut",
                "pdflatexOut"
            ]
        },
    ],
    "latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
        {
            "name": "pdflatexOut",
            "command": "pdflatex",
            "args": [
                "-output-directory=%OUTDIR%",  // tell pdflatex where the source tex is
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "%DOC%"
            ],
            "env": {}
        },
        {
            "name": "bibtexOut",
            "command": "bibtex",
            "args": [
                "%OUTDIR%/%DOCFILE%"  // tell bibtex where the source is
            ],
            "env": {}
        },
    ],

In my project I then have:

.
├── bibliography.bib
├── build
│   ├── main.aux
│   ├── main.bbl
│   ├── main.blg
│   ├── main.log
│   ├── main.pdf
│   ├── main.spl
│   └── main.synctex.gz
├── some_template.dtx
├── some_bibliography_style.bst
├── main.tex

And in main.tex things stay the same:

\bibliographystyle{some_bibliography_style} 
\bibliography{bibliography}

Hope this helps. Let me know if this should be a pull request for the defaults of pdftlatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex, since probably all recipes should respect OUTDIR.

Anything Else?

• Nope

[jlelong]

The bibtex tool does not always work well when it is not called directly from the directory containing the .aux and .bib files. So I am not in favour of tweaking the recipe. I am converting this issue into a conversation in case anyone is interested by your solution.

Note that all this is properly handled by latexmk, which is probably the best way to go.

[azure-96]

This can be solved if you set the outdir in the following way:

latex-workshop.latex.outDir": ".\\.aux"

And for the tools,

"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
        {
            "name": "pdflatex",
            "command": "pdflatex",
            "args": [
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "-output-directory=%OUTDIR%",
                "%DOC%"
            ],
            "env": {}
          },
          {
            "name": "bibtex",
            "command": "bibtex",
            "args": [
                "%OUTDIR%/%DOCFILE%"
            ],
            "env": {}
          },
        {
            "name": "latexmk",
            "command": "latexmk",
            "args": [
                "-synctex=1",
                "-interaction=nonstopmode",
                "-file-line-error",
                "-pdf",
                "-outdir=%OUTDIR%",
                "%OUTDIR%/%DOC%"
            ],
            "env": {}
          },
    ],