pdfoutput=1 can't replace pdflatex for auto-pst-pdf

Question

It is frequently mentioned that latex and pdflatex are the same program invoked with different defaults for the variable \pdfoutput (0 in the former, 1 in the latter case); see What is the practical difference between latex and pdflatex?. A common advice to enforce pdflatex is therefore to put \pdfoutput=1 within the first 5 lines of the preamble (like http://arxiv.org/help/submit_tex#pdflatex). This fails for the first example using auto-pst-pdf on https://www.tug.org/PSTricks/main.cgi?file=pdf/pdfoutput.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(-5.25,-5.25)(5.25,5.25)%
  \pscircle*[linecolor=cyan]{5}
  \psgrid[subgriddiv=0,gridcolor=lightgray,gridlabels=0pt]
  \Huge\sffamily\bfseries
  \rput(-4.5,4.5){A} \rput(4.5,4.5){B}
  \rput(-4.5,-4.5){C}\rput(4.5,-4.5){D}
  \rput(0,0){auto-pst-pdf}
  \rmfamily
  \rput(0,-3.8){PSTricks}
  \rput(0,3.8){\LaTeX}
\end{pspicture}

% removed by poster: \includegraphics{foo}% can be foo.jpg or foo.png

\end{document}

compiles just fine with

$ pdflatex -shell-escape minimal.tex

and yields the desired minimal.pdf. Adding

\pdfoutput=1

before (or after) \begindocumentclass[12pt]{article} followed by

$ latex -shell-escape minimal.tex

or even

$ pdflatex -shell-escape minimal.tex

fails with No pages of output and

-------------------------------------------------
auto-pst-pdf: Auxiliary LaTeX compilation
-------------------------------------------------
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012)
entering extended mode

Package auto-pst-pdf Warning: 
    Creation of minimal-autopp.dvi failed.
This warning occured on input line 124.


Package auto-pst-pdf Warning: 
    Could not create minimal-pics.pdf. Auxiliary files not deleted.
This warning occured on input line 124.

-------------------------------------------------
auto-pst-pdf: End auxiliary LaTeX compilation
-------------------------------------------------

In either case, the corresponding log file minimal-autopp.log says

Package ifplatform Warning: 
shell escape is disabled, so I can only detect \ifwindows.

)
\c@app@runs=\count111

! Package auto-pst-pdf Error: 
"shell escape" (or "write18") is not enabled:
auto-pst-pdf will not work!
.

See the auto-pst-pdf package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.134         Or turn off auto-pst-pdf.}
                                    %
You need to run LaTeX with the equivalent of "pdflatex -shell-escape"
Or turn off auto-pst-pdf.

So, it seems like the auxiliary pdflatex process which generates the minimal-pics.pdf is now missing the option -shell-escape.

PS: Adding the option [crop=off] to auto-pst-pdf as in auto-pst-pdf Problem does not change anything (and I guess it shouldn't have worked in the first place if that would have been the problem).

Answer 1

The shell-escape feature cannot be activated from within a source file. When the file is open you cannot modify the shell escape feature, it's too late. This is a safe behaviour otherwise one could do any unsecure action.