How to do multiple calls to \includeonly?

Question

Doing multiple call to include only as:

\includeonly{myfirstinclude}
\includeonly{mysecondinclude}

It is only including the last file called mysecondinclude by the last \includeonly call. It is useful to do multiple calls to \includeonly when you have all your \includeonly call listed and commented out.

\documentclass{article}

% How does 'filecontents' keep LaTeX parsing while temporarily stop writing output
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/104159/how-does-filecontents-keep-latex
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{myfirstinclude.tex}
myfirstinclude
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{mysecondinclude.tex}
mysecondinclude
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{mythirdinclude.tex}
mythirdinclude
\end{filecontents*}

% \includeonly{myfirstinclude}
% \includeonly{mysecondinclude}
% \includeonly{mythirdinclude}

\begin{document}

\include{myfirstinclude}
\include{mysecondinclude}
\include{mythirdinclude}

\end{document}

So when you want to include only one or some files, you just uncomment the desired line(s).

\includeonly{myfirstinclude}
\includeonly{mysecondinclude}
% \includeonly{mythirdinclude}

---

Related Questions

1. What happens to a relative path in a file added with \input{}?
2. A variant of \includeonly
3. How to make the main file recognize relative paths used in the imported files?
4. subimport and includeonly
5. Using standalone to combine multiple .tex into a single file
6. Can a file know if it has been \include'ed or \input'ed?
7. Generate a merged LaTeX file, with \input code in place?
8. How to merge several tex files so that they have one table of contents/List of tables & figures
9. When should I use \input vs. \include?
10. Options for building multiple documents from the same content with different layouts
11. What state changes are caused by \input?

Answer 1

For your specific use case you could use just one includeonly by putting each chapter on its own line:

\includeonly{%
myfirstinclude,
mysecondinclude,
mythirdinclude,
}

This way it is easy to comment out any of them, say, the second one:

\includeonly{%
myfirstinclude,
%mysecondinclude,
mythirdinclude,
}

Answer 2

You can create a new command as \addtoincludeonly{somefile}, which holds an internal string as explained on Stringified commands to macros sequence, then after all your custom include only calls, you do the call to another command as \doincludeonly, which takes no arguments.

The new commnad \doincludeonly is required as we only should do a call to \includeonly when some call to \addtoincludeonly{somefile} is performed. Otherwise an empty call as includeonly{} will create an almost empty document not including anything inserted/added by \include{somefile}.

\documentclass{article}

% How does 'filecontents' keep LaTeX parsing while temporarily stop writing output
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/104159/how-does-filecontents-keep-latex
\usepackage{filecontents}

% Logical String Length
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/87638/logical-string-length
\usepackage{xifthen}
\usepackage{xstring}

\newcommand{\includeonlyfilelist}[0]{}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\addtoincludeonly}[1]
{%
    \StrLen{\includeonlyfilelist}[\includeonlyfilelistlen]

    % How to concatenate strings into a single command?
    % https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/74707/how-to-concatenate-strings-into-a
    \ifnum\includeonlyfilelistlen>0
        \g@addto@macro\includeonlyfilelist{,#1}
    \else
        \g@addto@macro\includeonlyfilelist{#1}
    \fi
}
\newcommand{\doincludeonly}[0]
{%
    \StrLen{\includeonlyfilelist}[\includeonlyfilelistlen]
    \ifnum\includeonlyfilelistlen>0
        \includeonly{\includeonlyfilelist}
    \else
    \fi
}
\makeatother

\begin{filecontents*}{myfirstinclude.tex}
myfirstinclude
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{mysecondinclude.tex}
mysecondinclude
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{mythirdinclude.tex}
mythirdinclude
\end{filecontents*}

\addtoincludeonly{myfirstinclude}
\addtoincludeonly{mysecondinclude}
% \addtoincludeonly{mythirdinclude}
\doincludeonly

\begin{document}

\include{myfirstinclude}
\include{mysecondinclude}
\include{mythirdinclude}

\end{document}

---

References

1. Using string variable with LaTeX
2. How to concatenate strings into a single command?
3. Stringified commands to macros sequence
4. How does 'filecontents' keep LaTeX parsing while temporarily stop writing output
5. How to form "if ... or ... then" conditionals in TeX?
6. Logical String Length
7. How to append data to a global string variable?