How to influence the name of the pdf file created with pdfLaTeX (from within the source code)?

Question

I have a source file called 2011-05-27_Myfilename.tex and I'd like to create a PDF file from it called only Myfilename.pdf.

Can this be configured from within the .tex file itself?

(It seems to be possible with

pdflatex -jobname=Myfilename.tex 2011-05-27_Myfilename.tex

However, as many different files are concerned, It would be easier to have an option like output=Myfilename in the LaTeX source code.)

Answer 1

I'm afraid you cannot alter the output name from within the LaTeX source: the \jobname primitive can be read but not altered. You can arrange two-file solutions which allow one LaTeX file to 'call' another, but I am not sure that will answer your problem here.

Answer 2

You can specify additional parameters (like jobname) at the very beginning of your main file (even before \documentclass):

%& -job-name=newfilenameialwayswanted

It slightly depends on your compiler but it should work.

An additional comment: If you use an IDE, this may cause troubles for file opening hotkeys (the file they will try to open will not be there), in this case, you can look for an option like "output profile" (TeXnicCenter name) - you can also change the filename this way.

So there're no totally convenient ways to change your output filename from source, but it is possible.

Answer 3

You can do as follows.

\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{template.tex}
\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
Hello World
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\usepackage{pgffor,graphicx}
\foreach \outputfilename in {a,b,c}{\immediate\write18{pdflatex -jobname=\outputfilename\space template}}
\begin{document}
The files we created automatically are:

\foreach \outputfilename in {a,b,c}{\fbox{\includegraphics[scale=2]{\outputfilename}}\endgraf}
\end{document}

Answer 4

Inspired by https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/5265/46718 by @ulrike-fischer , the following code do the job for me for me when compiling with the --shell-escape option:

\def\myjobname{Myfilename}

\ifx\conditionmacro\undefined
  \immediate\write18{%
    pdflatex --jobname="\myjobname"
    "\gdef\string\conditionmacro{1}\string\input\space\jobname"
  }%
  \expandafter\stop
\fi

(this may need improvements since I'm not sure I understand all subtleties)

Answer 5

Although not exactly answering the OP's question, and looking at the accepted answer that seems to indicate a possibility via a multi-file solution I wanted to provide exactly such a multi-file solution alternative of managing such issues. If one is using VimTeX, it is quite easy to create differently named pdf files as output from the compilation process workflow of the same .tex file.

Here is an example provided the author of that plugin.

Roughly, have an outer student.tex and professor.tex (with possibly differently defined variables/commands/macros thereby controlling what gets typeset how). Both of these files get to \input{main.tex} the same file -- all three files in the same folder.

Once student.tex and professor.tex are setup, there is little to no need to keep updating them. All work can now happen in main.tex.

On opening main.tex, in Vim, the plugin automatically asks the user to specify which the calling file is -- student.tex or professor.tex. On making the choice, and on issuing the equivalent of the compile command [\ll in VimTeX], compilation occurs and based on the choice made, the output is student.pdf or professor.pdf.

See example (provided by the author of the plugin) below:

% main.tex
\begin{document}
Hello World! \person
\end{document}

% professor.tex
\documentclass{minimal}
\newcommand{\person}{from professor}
\input{main.tex}

% student.tex
\documentclass{minimal}
\newcommand{\person}{from student}
\input{main.tex}