Compile tex dependency before compiling main file

Question

I need to include a letter in my report, and I'm doing this using the pdfpages package. I'd like it so that when my report, report.tex goes to compile and include letter.pdf, it first compile letter.tex and then, after having compiled letter.tex, include letter.pdf into the report. I've thought of writing a script to do this, but the solution needs to be cross-platform (the report is being worked on by five people using both Linux and Windows).

Thanks.

Answer 1

May be something like this using --shell-escape or --enable-write18 for pdflatex (Assuming your letter-test.tex files are safe to run) and \immediate\write18{...}

letter-test.tex

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This is the letter.
\end{document}

report-test.tex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage{mwe} % http://www.ctan.org/pkg/mwe
\immediate\write18{pdflatex letter-test}
\begin{document}
This is the report with figure.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics{example-image-a}
\end{figure}
\includepdf{letter-test}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I use arara to do this instead of a script

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
    \clearpage
    \includepdf[pages={-}]{docA.pdf}

    \clearpage
    \includepdf[pages={-}]{docB.pdf}

    \clearpage
    \includepdf[pages={-}]{docC.pdf}
\end{document}

% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docA.tex ] }
% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docB.tex ] }
% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docC.tex ] }
% arara: pdflatex

I go one step further and have written an arara rule which calls arara. The arara directives in my main document looks like

% arara: arara: { files: [ docA.tex ] }
% arara: arara: { files: [ docB.tex ] }
% arara: arara: { files: [ docC.tex ] }
% arara: pdflatex

while the directives in docA.tex might look like

% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docA.tex ] }
% arara: biber: { files: [ docA.bcf ] }
% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docA.tex ] }
% arara: pdflatex: { files: [ docA.tex ] }