Generating a single TeX file by merging different TeX files

Question

I have a main TeX file which inputs many other TeX files i.e. for example

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\input{input1.tex}
\input{input2.tex}
\input{input3.tex}
\end{document}

Let's call the above file say main.tex I want a single TeX file which imports contents from input1.tex,input2.tex and input3.tex, so that I have only one single TeX file instead of the above four TeX files.

Answer 1

Although I've never used it, the bundledoc package seems to provide this functionality. From the package description:

The bundledoc package is a post-processor for the snapshot package that bundles together all the classes, packages and files needed to build a given LaTeX document. It reads the .dep file that snapshot produces, finds each of the files mentioned therein, and archives them into a single .tar.gz (or .zip, or whatever) file, suitable for moving across systems, transmitting to a colleague, etc.

A script, arlatex, provides an alternative “archiving” mechanism, creating a single LaTeX file that contains all of the ancillary files of a LaTeX document, together with the document itself, using the filecontents* environment.

Answer 2

here is a perl script which can build one TeX file. All \input and \include files are read and inserted into the main file. Use it

./buildFile.pl < main.tex > main_all.tex

the perl program buildFile.pl:

#!/usr/bin/env perl    
### change the
sub p_inc {
  $DateiName = shift;
    if ( open (my $datei, "$DateiName.tex") ) {
      print "%%%---------- open: ", $DateiName, "\n";
      while (<$datei>) {
        if ((/^\s*\\include{\s+(\S+)/i) or (/^\s*\\input{\s+(\S+)/i)) {
          my $include = $1;
          chomp($include);chop($include);
          print "%%%%%%%%% jump to ", $include, "\n";
          p_inc($include);
        } else { print unless /^\s*(#|$)/; }
      }
      print "%%%---------- close: ", $DateiName, "\n";
      close $datei;
    } else { print "%%%<===== file soesn't exist\n"; }
}
#
@zeilen = (<>);
for $zeile (@zeilen) {
  next if $zeile =~ /^\s*(%)/;
  if (($zeile =~ /^\s*\\include{\s*(\S+)/i) or ($zeile =~ /^\s*\\input{\s*(\S+)/i)) {      
    my $include = $1;
    chomp($include);
    chop($include);
    print "%%%%%%%%%%% jump to ", $include, "\n";
    p_inc($include);
  } else { print $zeile; }
}