Updated MiKTeX files, now miktex-xelatex.exe “-aux-directory=DIR” and “-output-directory=DIR”options suddenly conflict?

Question

EDIT3: As of 2017-01-09, the bug has been fixed (see: https://sourceforge.net/p/miktex/bugs/2565/)

EDIT2: After contacting the miktex-users mailing list, it appears this is a current bug. Until it is resolved, please see my answer below for a workaround.

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I have been using the following in a batch file to build my LaTeX documents for many months without issue:

@miktex-xelatex.exe -enable-enctex -enable-etex -enable-installer -enable-mltex 
-enable-pipes -enable-write18 -synctex=1 -aux-directory=_build_files 
-output-directory=./ "%1.tex"

Today, I updated (both as user and as admin) MiKTeX, which has a bunch of .exe file updates/removals. Everything builds more or less properly, but the -aux-directory option seems to have just completely stopped working when -output-directory is present. It seems -output-directory now acts like -aux-directory AND overrides it.

I had been using -aux-directory for all the build files, but still wanted -output-directory for putting the .pdf and .synctex.gz output files. But, with the update, I can user either

@miktex-xelatex.exe -enable-enctex -enable-etex -enable-installer -enable-mltex 
-enable-pipes -enable-write18 -synctex=1 -aux-directory=_build_files "%1.tex"

or

@miktex-xelatex.exe -enable-enctex -enable-etex -enable-installer -enable-mltex 
-enable-pipes -enable-write18 -synctex=1 -output-directory=_build_files "%1.tex"

The problem here is that neither of these methods places the .pdf and .synctex.gz output files in the same directory as the .tex file

It seems like this must be a bug? (it was working before the 2016-12-23 version of the files)

EDIT: It may have been introduced prior to 2016-12-23. After thinking about it... I'm not sure exactly how recently I updated MiKTeX and packages. Therefore, it might have be 1-2 versions earlier?

Answer 1

This is not a proper solution, because I still believe this is a bug. However, if anyone else is having the problem, hopefully it will help them handle it until the .exe is updated.

I modified the miktex-xelatex.exe call in the .bat file to (ie. removed the -output-directory option:

@miktex-xelatex.exe -enable-enctex -enable-etex -enable-installer -enable-mltex 
-enable-pipes -enable-write18 -synctex=1 -aux-directory=_build_files "%1.tex"

I also needed to add the following to options to copy the .pdf and .synctex.gz output files from the build folder back to the .tex folder.

@copy /Y "OUTPUT_DIR\%1.pdf" "%1.pdf"
@copy /Y "OUTPUT_DIR\%1.synctex.gz" "%1.synctex.gz"

Hope this helps someone!