Including eps graphics and compiling with pdflatex gives a pdftex.def Error: File 'xxx-eps-converted-to.pdf' not found

Question

I am storing my graphics in a directory contained in the parent folder of my main.tex file:

/parent
     /main
          /main.tex
     /graphics
          /figure.eps

I add that directory to my graphics path in the setup:

\usepackage{graphicx}   % Including figure files
\usepackage[outdir=/home/username/Paper Production/graphics/]{epstopdf}
...
\graphicspath{{../graphics/}}

...
...

\begin{figure}
 \includegraphics[scale=0.4]{multi_relation.eps}
 \caption{blabla}
 \label{blabla}
\end{figure}

I read another thread here Converted xxx-eps-converted-to.pdf not found where the solution was to use the epstopdf package and specify the outdir. I tried to do that above. However I get this error when I try to import eps graphics:

! Package pdftex.def Error: File `/home/username/PaperProduction/graphics/multi_re
lation-eps-converted-to.pdf' not found.

Also same when I use outdir=../graphics/. Can anyone help me figure out what's wrong?

Answer 1

By default tex is prevented from writing to files not below the current directory (eg ../anything) for security reasons.