import package and graphicspath do not work together

Question

Hi I tried to use the import command from the import package to not conflict with the relative paths in the imported file. However, this doesn't seem to work with \graphicspaths.

Here the structure of my directories

folder/
   a5version/
       a5version.tex
   source/
       master.tex
       chapters/
          chapter1.tex
       images/
          buw.pdf

Then the a5version.tex looks like

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{import}
\import{./../source/}{master.tex}

the master.tex looks like

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphics}
\graphicspath{{./images/}}
 
\begin{document}
\chapter{chapter 1}
\input{./chapters/chapter1.tex}
\end{document}

and chapter1.tex looks like

This is the first chapter. Here is a graphic:
\includegraphics{buw.pdf}

When I try to compile a5version.tex I get the following error:

ERROR: Package pdftex.def Error: File `buw.pdf' not found: using draft setting.

Is there a way to fix this? I mean clearly I could just don't use \graphicspath and use includegraphics{./images/buw.pdf}, but this is a little bit inconvenient.

Answer 1

Replace

\graphicspath{{./images/}}

by

\makeatletter
\graphicspath{{\import@path/images/}}
\makeatother

You have to make sure that master.tex is always \imported, not just \input, as otherwise \import@path will not be defined.

Answer 2

The OP mentions in the comments that the original file should also be compilable on its own. In this case, the subfiles package may help to hide a bit of the machinery.

% a5version/a5version.tex
\PassOptionsToClass{a5paper}{book}
\documentclass[../source/master]{subfiles} % get preamble from ../source/masters.tex
% ... additional settings for a5version.tex ...
\begin{document}
\subfile{../source/master}% import contents of document, skipping its preamble
\end{document}

% source/master.tex
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subfiles}
% subfiles package has to be loaded before \graphicspath
\graphicspath{{images/}}% graphics path relative to this file
\begin{document}
\chapter{chapter 1}
\input{./chapters/chapter1.tex}% input path relative to this file
\end{document}

Answer 3

In yet another comment, Nathanael asks for a solution in the case that the document should be typeset with another document class, but remaining unchanged otherwise. If the two versions are in the same folder, then

% a5version.tex
\documentclass[a5paper]{scrbook}
\newcommand\skipdocumentclass[2][]{\let\documentclass\origdocumentclass}
\let\origdocumentclass\documentclass
\let\documentclass\skipdocumentclass
% ... additional definitions for a5version
\input{master}

should do the trick. If the main document is somewhere else and inputs/includes/imports other files itself, you will need something like

% a5version/a5version.tex
\documentclass[a5paper]{scrbook}
\RequirePackage{import}
\newcommand\skipdocumentclass[2][]{\let\documentclass\origdocumentclass}
\let\origdocumentclass\documentclass
\let\documentclass\skipdocumentclass
% ... additional definitions for a5version
\import{../source}{master}

If the main document uses \graphicspath and is not in the same folder as its clones, load the package subfiles in the preamble before \graphicspath.

% source/master.tex
\documentclass...
...
\usepackage{subfiles}
...
\graphicspath{..}

The subfiles package redefines \graphicspath such that it add \import@path, which ensures that the path specifications are interpreted relative to the folder of master.tex, not to the one of the file in the latex command.