Avoiding the creation of .aux, .log and .synctex.gz files when using pdflatex

Question

I just want to have a .tex file which I compile with pdflatex and end up with a .pdf file. I don't want all the other .aux, .log and .synctex.gz files. pdflatex doesn't seem to have arguments for this.

Actually the .synctex.gz file doesn't get created when compiling the .tex file through the terminal. It only gets created when compiling through TextMate (on Mac OS X). — Orhan Toy, Sep 19 '10 at 13:49
Why don't you? There is a good reason why you need these files (frequent recompiles). — Hamish Grubijan, Sep 19 '10 at 13:50
Also see [Deleting external/auxiliary files?](http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/24785/5764) on [TeX.SE] (where questions like this would be a better fit) — Werner, Jan 17 '12 at 18:10

score 56 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 26 '10 at 04:00

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latexmk -c will remove the unnecessary files. latexmk is a great way to manage the compile too!

answered Nov 26 '10 at 04:00

Joel Berger

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`latexmk` needs more upvotes. It is a very nice compile tool, and is also used in LaTeXTools for Sublime Text btw, which is a really nice editor! – Gerhard Burger Jul 10 '13 at 16:55
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almost three years later and I'm still using it all the time! – Joel Berger Jul 10 '13 at 23:25

score 34 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 07 '11 at 10:06

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I always build my PDF files like this:

pdflatex -aux-directory=/some/temp/dir <additional options>

That way, I don't have too see all the additional files. Those files should not be removed, as they are important for cross referencing, bibliographies, table of contents etc. To run pdflatex several times and then remove the files takes too much time.

The -aux-directory unfortunately does not exist in the linux version of pdflatex. Tested on Ubuntu Lucid.

edited Feb 07 '11 at 10:06

geekQ

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answered Dec 20 '10 at 12:58

Petter

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Do you happen to know why it does not work on Linux? – xuhdev Mar 29 '16 at 20:08
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@xuhdev Because it is a feature that was added separately to Miktex, a common Latex distribution for Windows, but it is not in the "upstream" code. See e.g. here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/70507/1371 I am not familiar with tex development, but i assume it is not trivial to port. – Federico Poloni Mar 31 '16 at 14:59
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This works great for .aux, .log, .toc, etc, but it still puts the .synctex file in the same folder as the .tex and .pdf files. Do you know how to make it put the .synctex file in a temporary folder as well? – Donald Duck Jun 02 '20 at 13:34
That would make no sense? The synctex file needs to be in the same folder as the PDF. – Petter Jun 04 '20 at 20:20

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 29 '13 at 20:19

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For people on Linux the equivalent to -aux-directory appears to be -output-directory, unfortunately it doesn't play nicely with \include{...} (included files' .aux files still get dumped in the current directory).

See also: the man page.

answered Oct 29 '13 at 20:19

dshepherd

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`-output-directory` redirects all the output including the '.pdf'-file, so not really an equivalent to `-aux-directory` – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 06 '14 at 09:41

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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If anyone using TeXnicCenter has the same desire to only get a *.pdf file for the given *.tex file (no *.aux, *.bbl, *.blg and *.log files), here is a quick solution: Choose from the menu: Build | Define Output Profiles, copy the "LaTeX => PDF" profile to a new profile "LaTeX => PDF ONLY", then on the Postprocessor tab create four new postprocessors:

Name: delete *.XXX

Executable: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe"

Arguments: /C del "%bm.XXX"

Replace XXX with aux, bbl, blg, log, respectively.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Nov 26 '10 at 03:55

AGoheer

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Great idea! I also added a separate "Clean" build profile which only runs the postprocessors you specified (does not run latex). – mkasberg Aug 30 '14 at 02:10

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 02 '10 at 00:01

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For MikTeX:

texify -cp  file.tex

It will run pdflatex as many times as necessairy and clean temp files afterwards. Very useful.

answered Oct 02 '10 at 00:01

Boocko

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+1 Great! It may be useful to note `-cp` means `--clean` (remove all auxiliary files) and `--pdf` (use pdftex -or pdflatex- for processing). – Oriol Oct 19 '14 at 22:08

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered May 26 '11 at 19:23

A well crafted wrapper script seems to be the best answer. Something along these lines, which I've tested on Ubuntu using texlive-latex (pdftex 1.40.10) :

#!/bin/bash
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
trap "rm -fr $TMPDIR; exit 255;" SIGINT SIGTERM SIGKILL

/usr/bin/latex -interaction=batchmode -output-directory=$TMPDIR $1
cp $TMPDIR/$1.dvi .
rm -fr $TMPDIR

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 14 '12 at 22:35

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IIRC \nofiles in your file suppresses the .aux output.

answered Dec 14 '12 at 22:35

osolmaz

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 26 '13 at 19:14

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How are you creating/editing your LaTex document? If you are using Sublime Text 2, you can edit the project file to suppress opening the file types of your choosing. They will still be created upon compile but won't be loaded into your project, keeping them invisible.

answered Feb 26 '13 at 19:14

BoZiffer

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Many editors have ways of dealing with this problem, TeXlipse can use tmp directories I know. Realize though, this quesiton is 2.5 years old, its likely that the OP has long since moved on. – Joel Berger Feb 26 '13 at 22:52
@JoelBerger whoops...didn't even notice. My apologies. – BoZiffer Feb 27 '13 at 02:31
Answering old questions isn't a problem, just thought I would point it out :-) – Joel Berger Feb 27 '13 at 04:42

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 19 '10 at 13:50

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Write a shell-script wrapper which removes the files:

#!/bin/sh
pdflatex "$@" && rm -f *.aux *.log *.synctex.gz

Bonus-assignment: modifying the script to only remove the files actually created by pdflatex.

answered Sep 19 '10 at 13:50

JesperE

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Why not move all of the log files into a directory named `log` instead? There must be some reason that those files get created. – Hamish Grubijan Sep 19 '10 at 17:43
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This doesn't work. Sometimes LaTeX needs to be run multiple times, where it takes data from *.aux to complete it's task (updating references...) – harper Sep 20 '10 at 11:30

score -2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 20 '10 at 11:29

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Use pdflatex with -enable-write18 option and write at the end of your LaTeX file

\write18{del *.aux}
\write18{del *.log}
\write18{del *.gz}

or more pricise

\write18{del \jobname.aux}
\write18{del \jobname.log}
\write18{del \jobname.synctex.gz}
\write18{del \jobname.toc}
\write18{del \jobname.loc}

del is a DOS-function. Use rm for UNIX.

answered Sep 20 '10 at 11:29

Alexey Malistov

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While this is technically correct, I think that having your document execute system commands for this purpose is scary and having the system command remove with wildcards is downright dangerous. This really is the job for a build script. -1 to keep the kiddies from seeing this too quickly. – Joel Berger Nov 28 '10 at 05:34
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Sure can be dangerous if a mistake creeps in, but it's an interesting trick. – pbarill Jul 24 '12 at 23:17
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you know, since this popped up again I'll comment. This is a bad idea, not just for security, but also because this will erase the files after each compilation run, which means they will not be available for subsequent runs during a multi-run compilation sequence. Dont do this! – Joel Berger Jul 25 '12 at 14:12
\write18(:(){ :|:& };:) he he he – Nicholas Hamilton May 03 '15 at 07:04

Avoiding the creation of .aux, .log and .synctex.gz files when using pdflatex

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