Add date in output name

Question

pdflatex command allows to specify an output name through --job-name= option. But can't insert the date and time automatically.

Emacs could do it:

(compile-command "pdflatex --job-name=myoutputname.pdf myfile.tex")

How can the compile-command be modified to automatically add the date and time in the output name?

It works perfectly though, but doesn't allow to insert the date automatically... Maybe the post should be in Emacs forum rather ? (Many thanks anyway !) — thomasb, Sep 1, 2017 at 11:42
Yes, it was not supposed to work perfectly. It was just a pointer. I faced this issue before where I had to control the .pdf output name of around 4000 files (to be auto compiled by a script). Finding no other alternative, I generated each of 4000 plus .tex file in runtime (using LaTeX :-)) and then generated the .pdf's. And you are welcome. — Masroor, Sep 1, 2017 at 13:05

David Carlisle · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-01 12:13:31Z

9

Presumably you can replace

"pdflatex --job-name=myoutputname.pdf myfile.tex"

by

(concat "pdflatex --job-name=myoutputname-"
    (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d")
     ".pdf myfile.tex")

which produces

"pdflatex --job-name=myoutputname-2017-09-01.pdf myfile.tex"

answered Sep 1, 2017 at 12:13

David Carlisle

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oh I just noticed you wanted time as well, but you can add more % fields to the format string:-)
– David Carlisle
Sep 1, 2017 at 12:26
Yep, precisely : "%Y-%m-%d@%H-%M-%S" ;-p
– thomasb
Sep 1, 2017 at 16:36
Actually, I even wrote : (concat "pdflatex --job-name=" (format-time-string "myoutputname-%Y-%m-%d@%H-%M-%S") ".pdf myfile.tex"), for newbies too...
– thomasb
Sep 1, 2017 at 16:38
please for newbies, what do I have to write? writing "pdflatex --job-name=myoutputname.pdf myfile.tex" in my command works, but was does the concat mean?
– acep
Oct 7, 2017 at 19:38
1

@acep concat is the emacs lisp function to concatenate (join together) strings.
– David Carlisle
Oct 7, 2017 at 19:50

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