Output to multiple .pdf documents using LuaLaTeX and Toggles

Question

I have a document that I sometimes want to print as one single document, and other times I want to print it as smaller groups of pages. I would like to automate the process. I'm using TeXmaker with LuaLaTeX on a Windows 10 machine.

I'm unclear what arguments I need to pass to the \ShellEscape command. I've read several of the other posts on this but they are mostly from about 8-9 years ago and I cannot get the code to work. I cannot tell if there has been a change to TeX (or Windows) such that the solutions in these older posts no longer work.

Here is my MWE (which doesn't work).

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex
% !TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{shellesc}  %for creating multiple output files.
\usepackage{etoolbox}  %for use with the toggles function

\newtoggle{individualpages}
\togglefalse{individualpages}

\begin{document}
Test page 1.
\iftoggle{individualpages}{%
    And this too.   %testing code just to make sure the toggle is working.  
    \ShellEscape{lualatex --jobname="file1.pdf"}
}{} 

\newpage
Test page 2.
\iftoggle{individualpages}{%
    Dont forget me!
    \ShellEscape{lualatex --jobname="file2.pdf"}
}{} 

\end{document}

Ideally I would turn the toggle to false and it would compile a .pdf using the name of my .tex document of all pages. However, when I turn the toggle to true, it would create 2 separate .pdf files named "file1.pdf" and "file2.pdf", each one page and containing there respective texts. Is this even possible?

Answer 1

You could (ab)use the docstrip file format to generate and build all three output files simultaneously.

% \iffalse
%<*internal>
\input docstrip.tex
\keepsilent\askforoverwritefalse
\nopreamble\nopostamble
\generate{
    \file{file1.tex}{\from{\jobname.dtx}{file1}}
    \file{file2.tex}{\from{\jobname.dtx}{file2}}
    \file{all.tex}{\from{\jobname.dtx}{all}}
}
\immediate\write18{lualatex file1.tex}
\immediate\write18{lualatex file2.tex}
\immediate\write18{lualatex all.tex}
\endbatchfile
%</internal>
%<*all|file1|file2>
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
%</all|file1|file2>
%<*all|file1>
Test page 1.
%</all|file1>
%<*file1>
And this too.
%</file1>
%<*all>
\newpage
%</all>
%<*all|file2>
Test page 2.
%</all|file2>
%<*file2>
Dont forget me!
%</file2>
%<*all|file1|file2>
\end{document}
%</all|file1|file2>
% \fi

This will both generate three separate .tex files: all of the content, content of file1, and content of file2 (the \generate{...} part), and compile those files into pdf documents using LuaLaTeX (the \immediate\write18 parts). The comments of the form %<selector> start a section that you want as a separate file, and similarly %</selector> ends the section. You will find more information on the docstrip file format from this CTAN tutorial https://ctan.org/pkg/dtxtut.

In order to call lualatex to build the generated .tex files, you will need to enable shell escape when building. From the command line one would call tex --shell-escape <filename>.dtx. I don't have access to a Windows machine so cannot help with enabling shell escape on MikTeX, but perhaps following the solutions presented in How can I enable write 18 on a MikTeX installation helps.

all.pdf:

file1.pdf:

file2.pdf:

Answer 2

This answer does not produce two separate files simultaneously, but nevertheless has flexibility with respect to defining what is output to two or more files. It uses the \includecomment feature of the comment package to identify what should be output to each file.

This involves:

1. Create a new conditional, here it is \ifkeep, and define whether \ifkeep is true or false. e.g. \keeptrue.
2. Use \ifkeep to define an if else test on the actions to be performed when \ifkeep is true or false.
3. Place code to appear in all documents, outside a \begin{keep} \end{keep} environment.
4. Place code to appear in a subset of documents between \begin{keep} \end{keep} depending on the value of \ifkeep

With \keeptrue the output is:

The result with \keepfalse is Test page 1 only. And this too and the image are omitted.

The version package has similar functionality. pdfscreen exploits this functionality to be able to output content either in an article format or for on-screen presentation as a slide.

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{comment}

% Toggle "keep" to determine if output is retained or discarded
\newif\ifkeep
%\keeptrue
\keepfalse

% If \ifkeep true, retain the code in the \begin{keep} environment, otherwise discard
\ifkeep
  \includecomment{keep}
\else
  \excludecomment{keep}
\fi

\begin{document}

Test page 1.

\begin{keep}
And this too.

\centering\includegraphics[width=0.6\linewidth]{example-image-a}
\end{keep}

\end{document}