Order of options and input file _do_ matter (sometimes)

[aubertc]

(This comes from a question I have asked on stack overflow)

The following:

pandoc test.md --pdf-engine=latexmk --pdf-engine-opt=-emulate-aux-dir --pdf-engine-opt=-aux-directory=aux -o test.pdf

gives:

Rc files read:
  NONE
Latexmk: Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'
Latexmk: Run number 2 of rule 'pdflatex'

but

pandoc --pdf-engine=latexmk --pdf-engine-opt=-emulate-aux-dir --pdf-engine-opt=-aux-directory=aux test.md -o test.pdf

gives:

Rc files read:
  NONE
Latexmk: In reading rule 'pdflatex' in 'aux/input.fdb_latexmk',
  destination has different name than configured...
Latexmk: Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'

so the order matters: the name of the input file should preced the options when invoking pandoc. I don't think this is documented anywhere (I have checked the man page and website, to no avail).

[jgm]

Well, this may be true in this one particular case, due to peculiarities with these latexmk options, but in general it is certainly true that you can put the input file names anywhere.
I don't think this one special case is worth a note in the manual.

[aubertc]

Ok thanks.