[Tex/LaTex] latexdiff + svn not working with multiple files (flatten)

inputlatexdiffrevision controlsubversion

Short question

Seems like --flatten doesn't work properly with latexdiff-vc.
How can I get this working, without reverting to my elaborated workflow described below?

Context

I track the history of my Latex documents using SVN. I've recently started using latexdiff to generate PDFs highlighting the changes between certain revisions.

My initial workflow of svn+latexdiff was (1) to copy over the whole svn folder to a temporary lcoation, (2) update this to the relevant revision, (3) go back to the original svn folder and (4) start latexdiff specifying the relevant folders and files. As I split up my latex document in multiple files using \input{} statements, I have to use the latexdiff --flatten option to get this working. So, at the Windows command prompot I type something like:

latexdiff --flatten ..\..\copy_at_r48\main.tex main.tex > diff.tex

I figured there must be an easier way and bumped into latexdiff-vc which supports specifying svn revisions directly.
However, the following doesn't seem to work, as the old versions of linked files doesn't seem to get retrieved/flatten; there are only DIFF markings in the main content:

latexdiff-vc --flatten -r 48 main.tex

Best Answer

I've written a very simple Windows batch script (latexdiff-svn.bat) that automated my described workflow. It exports a given revision of the the svn working copy to a temporary folder (typically under C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp), performs latexdiff --flatten, and deletes the temporary folder.

The actual barebones script is only 5 lines

:: Usage: 
::      latexdiff-svn <svn revision number> <filename>
set tempfolder=%TEMP%\latexdiffsvn
rmdir /s /q %tempfolder%
svn export -r %1 . %tempfolder%
latexdiff --flatten %tempfolder%/%2 %2 > diff-%2-r%1.tex
rmdir /s /q %tempfolder%



And below a slightly more elaborated version that does some basic checking on the parameters, and provides some friendly clues to the user. You can copy-paste the code in a file named for example 'latexdiff-svn.bat'

:: Usage: 
::      latexdiff-svn <svn revision number> <filename>
:: e.g.
::      latexdiff-svn.bat 23 main.tex

::Some basic checks on the arguments
@if "%1"=="" goto not_enough_parameters
@if "%2"=="" goto not_enough_parameters
@if not exist %2 goto file_does_not_exist
@svn info -r %1 > NUL
@if errorlevel 1 goto revision_does_not_exist
@goto all_seems_ok

:not_enough_parameters
@echo.
@echo I need exactly two arguments, the first one specifying 
@echo the svn revision number, the second one the file name.
@echo Example syntax:
@echo    latexdiff-svn 23 main.tex
@goto :EOF

:file_does_not_exist
@echo.
@echo I couldn't find the file you specified: %2
@goto :EOF

:revision_does_not_exist
@echo.
@echo The current folder does not contain an svn working copy, 
@echo or the revision number specified (%1) does not exist
@goto :EOF

:all_seems_ok
@set tempfolder=%TEMP%\latexdiffsvn
@set difffile=diff-%2-r%1.tex
@if exist %tempfolder% rmdir /s /q %tempfolder%
@echo Creating temporary folder at revision %1
@svn export -r %1 . %tempfolder% > NUL
@echo Running latexdiff
latexdiff --flatten %tempfolder%/%2 %2 > %difffile%

:cleanup
@if exist %tempfolder% rmdir /s /q %tempfolder%

@echo.
@echo Written to: %difffile%
@echo Done !

Note: the latexdiff script used with the --flatten option outputs a few DEBUG lines. If you want to suppress these (without fixing the perl script itself), see the solution to this stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11362041/how-to-suppress-specific-lines-in-windows-cmd-output

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