Customize the bookdown output filename

[tchevri]

我特别非常不好意思问问您，but i tried to ask my questions over a year ago, and i think you might have missed it - so a couple of weeks ago, i went to ask on Stack Overflow HERE but nobody picked it up yet and i am quite keen, if possible - and it seems like at least one other person would be keen too!
i feel bad to take up your time again: this is a follow to a question i already asked - you answered "impossible", but i tried some more and asked you again - i don't think you saw what i tried after you gave your negative answer.

Many thanks
thomas

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[tchevri]

ok... looks like my question number (link: 737) is not very auspicious!! hopefully does not crash me :-(

[yihui]

The only way at the moment is to render (bookdown::render_book()) to the default output filename, rename it (file.rename()), then render the next output format, and also rename the output file to your desired filename. This process could be automated via an R script. I don't have time for a more detailed answer. Sorry.

[timjore]

@tchevri Have you found a solution yet?

@yihui Would it be possible to add a configuration parameter to bookdown that uses a custom filename or automatically renames the output files? For example, the notes in section 4.4 explain that the book_filename parameter can be used to set the filename of the main Rmd file, i.e., the Rmd file that is merged from all chapters; by default, it is named _main.Rmd.

That parameter apparently triggers a file rename operation on _main.Rmd (or perhaps uses the custom name directly). It would be really helpful if the same process could be run on the filenames for the EPUB and PDF formats that are made available for download automatically from the gitbook toolbar. The filename could be set by the same book_filename parameter or perhaps default to the title parameter. As it is, the default download is _main.pdf which is not as helpful to the user.

[cderv]

@timjore I think book_filename already change the filename for the pdf or epub associated. Using bookdown-demo, pdf and epub are named as the book_filename parameter.

• See output files https://github.com/rstudio/bookdown-demo/tree/gh-pages
• See config https://github.com/rstudio/bookdown-demo/blob/eb2dd2a8d29e7eaffb5b69c1003f0e04172c3587/_bookdown.yml#L1

is that not working for you ? Is what you mean different ?

@tchevri case is different because it is about two output format for pdf but different files are needed. The best way is to indeed create a main R script (like _render.R) or a Makefile that would coordinate the different render_book() calls and rename output file as necessary. That way you would have filename as you want.
This is quite easy as bookdown::render_book() will return the path of the resulting file name.

I don't think we will support support in bookdown::render_book() directly because it feels something what should do part of an outside workflow and usually you won't build two files with the same extension from a bookdown project. it will be multiple formarts but 1 epub, 1 pdf, 1 docx, 1 HTML folder all named the same - which is already happening with book_filename (unless I am missing something).

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