\graphicspath and trailing /

[kberry]

In the past it was not necessary to have an explicit / at the end of the elements of \graphicspath. As of the latest releases (not sure exactly when or what), it doesn't work unless the / is given. The documentation is not exactly clear on whether it's theoretically required, but since it's always worked before (I think). Trivial example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\graphicspath{{somedir}}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{somefig}% with or without extension
\end{document}

will not find somefig.{jpg,png,pdf} in somedir.

[josephwright]

I think this will be the dev release. I know what the reason will be. A bit of work but addressable.

[josephwright]

Ah, no, something arising from an earlier change. Anyway, I'll fix.

[josephwright]

Note that I’ll fix in expl3

[josephwright]

Right, that should sort it: I'll wait for some team colleagues to take a look, and then aim for an expl3 release before the final LaTeX2e 2023-06-01 one.

[davidcarlisle]

@josephwright I've no objection to making this work without a trailing / but I'm surprised it worked before, certainly it did not work originally, but perhaps the changes around spaces in filenames added that as a side effect.

grfguide uses / in all examples and documents that it's \input@path syntax which is

https://github.com/latex3/latex2e/blob/develop/base/ltdirchk.dtx#L121

so documented as explicitly needing /

[davidcarlisle]

I tested this, \graphicspath{{aaa}} with no / fails in texlive 2020 and older but it has worked since texlive 2021

[josephwright]

@josephwright I've no objection to making this work without a trailing / but I'm surprised it worked before, certainly it did not work originally, but perhaps the changes around spaces in filenames added that as a side effect.

grfguide uses / in all examples and documents that it's \input@path syntax which is

https://github.com/latex3/latex2e/blob/develop/base/ltdirchk.dtx#L121

so documented as explicitly needing /

I thought that was the case, but couldn't pin it down :)

When I adjusted the expl3 code recently to avoid duplicating / tokens in some cases, I went with relying on '\input@path requires a trailing /', but I was a bit worried as the expl3 equivalent doesn't. I can see arguments both ways for a trailing /, so switching to code where it's optional seemed a low barrier decision.

[davidcarlisle]

the reason it was mandatory in 1993 was to avoid run time checking on how to combine directory and filename, but vms, atari, ... less of an issue now, so it's probably safe to insert a /

[FrankMittelbach]

If the trailing / was required in the past and documented as requiring it, I wonder if we should make it more flexible if that means runtime checks throughout. The case is special enough in my opinion that a strict syntax is not a problem (and the fact that it worked for a little while neither). Just my 2 cents.

[FrankMittelbach]

just looked, making it flexible doesn't see so clostly, so I take it back.

[josephwright]

If the trailing / was required in the past and documented as requiring it, I wonder if we should make it more flexible if that means runtime checks throughout. The case is special enough in my opinion that a strict syntax is not a problem (and the fact that it worked for a little while neither). Just my 2 cents.

My original thinking was it was more effort than it was worth, but then @kberry popped up :) It's only a short loop and a quark test, I think we can live with it.

[kberry]

I guess it was my (and your) misfortune to have a need for \graphicspath during that window when it worked without slashes. The documentation in grfguide does (did) not unambiguously state that /'s are required, or that they're optional. Sure, the example there uses /'s, but that is not the same as a clear statement, one way or the other. "A list of directories" does not imply trailing slashes are required. So adding a sentence to that description in grfguide would be helpful, IMHO. Sorry if already done, I didn't check dev sources. --best, karl.

[josephwright]

The expl3 side is fixed and released, and once we finalise LaTeX2e 2023-06-01 this will be sorted: I'm marking fixed-in-dev.