Bug#575731: tex/pdftex -recorder works incorrectly on parrallel TeX runs (race, breaks make -j)

[Kirill Smelkov <kirr@landau.phys.spbu.ru>]

Package: texlive-binaries
Version: 2009-5
Severity: normal
File: /usr/bin/pdftex

Hello,

I use -recorder option in my TeX makefile in order to automatically
generate TeX dependencies (a-la gcc -MD) and discovered that -recorder
does not work correctly for parallel TeX runs. Look e.g. here:

    $ cat 1.tex
    Hello World
    \end

    $ strace tex -recorder 1.tex 2>&1 | grep fls
    open("tex.fls", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 4
    rename("tex.fls", "1.fls")              = 0

    $ strace pdftex -recorder 1.tex 2>&1 | grep fls
    open("pdftex.fls", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 4
    rename("pdftex.fls", "1.fls")           = 0


As can bee seen both tex/pdftex first use intermediate temporary file
(tex.fls / pdftex.fls) and only then rename it to $(jobname).fls

So the problem here is that when I try to compile both 1.tex and 2.tex
_simultaneously_ (e.g. through make -j2) there is a good chance that
both tex runs will open the same pdftex.fls and then oops, resulting
.fls will be wrong.

texk/web2c/lib/openclose.c suggests mkstemp would be a better option
instead of using intermediate <program>.fls :

    /* Helpers for the filename recorder... */
    /* Start the recorder */
    static void
    recorder_start(void)
    {
        /* Alas, while we might want to use mkstemp it is not portable.
           So we have to be content with using a default name... */
        string cwd;
    
        recorder_name = (string)xmalloc(strlen(kpse_program_name)+5);
        strcpy(recorder_name, kpse_program_name);
        strcat(recorder_name, ".fls");

    ...


    /* Change the name of the recorder file. */
    void
    recorder_change_filename (string new_name)
    {
       if (!recorder_file)
         return;
       rename(recorder_name, new_name);
       free(recorder_name);
       recorder_name = xstrdup(new_name);
    }


but I wonder, why use intermediate file for recorder at all? Why not to
open $(jobname).fls in the first place?


Thanks,
Kirill


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ii  libc6                   2.10.2-6         Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libfontconfig1          2.8.0-2          generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6            2.3.11-1         FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.4.2-9        GCC support library
ii  libkpathsea5            2009-5           TeX Live: path search library for 
ii  libncurses5             5.7+20100313-1   shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libpng12-0              1.2.43-1         PNG library - runtime
ii  libpoppler5             0.12.2-2         PDF rendering library
ii  libstdc++6              4.4.2-9          The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libx11-6                2:1.3.3-2        X11 client-side library
ii  libxaw7                 2:1.0.7-1        X11 Athena Widget library
ii  libxmu6                 2:1.0.5-1        X11 miscellaneous utility library
ii  libxpm4                 1:3.5.8-1        X11 pixmap library
ii  libxt6                  1:1.0.7-1        X11 toolkit intrinsics library
ii  tex-common              2.07             common infrastructure for building
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

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