[OS X TeX] MUST zap aux files

[Ross Moore]

Hello David,

On 07/09/2009, at 10:15 AM, david craig wrote:

> This isn't terribly serious, but it's just different from anything  
> I ever remember having to do, and now when I get a TeX error in the  
> console I don't know whether there really is a problem with the  
> source, or whether there's just something goofy in the aux file.

The .aux file is read by LaTeX *before* anything is placed
onto a page. Indeed, well before the  \begin{document}
has been fully processed.

Usually when the  .aux  has been malformed, you will get
an error very early in the processing. You can tell this
by looking at the .log  file (or Console window).
If no pages have been output you can be pretty sure that
LaTeX hasn't even started to process your content on that run.

Ergo, abort, kill the .aux  file and try again.

Of course you may still need to fix whatever it was that
caused the .aux  to get corrupted.
The 1st run after killing the  .aux  probably succeeds,
but with messages about unresolved references, etc.
It'll be the 2nd run of LaTeX where you'll find out whether
the problem has been fixed or not.


>
> Thoughts?
>
> David Craig
>
>
> <http://www.panix.com/~dac/>


Hope this helps,

	Ross

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Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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