Include without pagebreak

Question

I really like the \input command, but what I really like more is the \includeonly command. Is there a way to have the best of these worlds? (i.e. an \inputonly or an \include without page-breaks?)

Answer 1

You won't get the behaviour that \include gives, where it saves the missing page numbers, chapter/footnote/equation/theorem/etc counters, bibliographic citations, etc, but if all you want is the ability to conditionally select which pieces of the document you want to compile, then there are several options, as discussed in the FAQ. The comment, version, optional, versions packages allow this.

Answer 2

If your really want to suppress the page break, which is caused by a \clearpage at the end of \include, then your can temporarily redefine this macro.

The filehook package can be used for this:

\usepackage{filehook}
\AtEndOfIncludes{%
  \global\let\savedclearpage\clearpage
  \global\let\clearpage\relax
}
\AfterIncludes{%
  \global\let\clearpage\savedclearpage
}

I'm not sure right now if \global is required here but it will not hurt.

As already mentioned it is not guaranteed anymore that \includeonly gives correct results, e.g. page numbers, because the last page wasn't flushed.

---

If you only want to suppress certain input files, then you need a \inputonly macro:

% You can put this into a `.sty` file and load it with `\usepackage{ }`
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\inputonly}[1]{\gdef\@inputonly{,#1,}}
\@onlypreamble\inputonly % Make it only valid in the preamble 
\newcommand*{\oinput}[1]{%
   \begingroup
   \edef\@tempa{{,#1,}{\@inputonly}}%
   \expandafter\in@\@tempa
   \ifin@
     \endgroup
     \input{#1}%
     % Dump counter values here
   \else
     \endgroup
     % maybe add a \message{ } here
     % Load counter values here
     \expandafter\ignorespaces
   \fi
}

Usage:

\documentclass{article}
% Insert or load above code

% Use `\oinput` instead of `\input`:
\inputonly{aa,bb,cc}
\begin{document}
\oinput{aa}
\oinput{bb}
\oinput{ccc}% will not be `\input`ed
\oinput{cc}
\end{document}

The \input macro is also used by packages to read a lot of other files, so it cannot safely be overwritten. A different name, e.g. \oinput, must be used instead.

If you want to keep counter values you have to dump and load them by yourself. See the code of \include how it is done.

Answer 3

\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\def\inputonly#1{\inputonly@i#1,,\@nil}
\def\inputonly@i#1,#2,#3\@nil{%
  \global\@namedef{#1input}{#1}
  \ifx\relax#2\relax\else\inputonly@i#2,#3\@nil\fi}
\def\Input#1{\expandafter\ifx\csname#1input\endcsname\relax\else\input{#1}\fi}
\makeatother
\inputonly{aa,bb,cc}

\begin{document}
\Input{aa}
\Input{bb}
\Input{ccc}% will not be read
\Input{cc}
\end{document}

Answer 4

I think I have understand what you need. If you don't like the bothersome pagebreaks at the end of your chapters, you should use "openany" like following:

‎\documentclass[openany]{book}‎