Create files for simple projects and process them without much effort.

The script works by extensions: lmake.pl test.tex will copy ~/lmake/default.tex to test.tex if it does not exist. If it does exist, the default action all belonging to .tex is executed on test.tex. A different action can be given as the second argument.

These actions are specified in the file ~/lmake/config. This file contains a sequence of blocks, separated by empty lines. Each block begins with a comma-delimited sequence of extensions (including the dot). The next line contains a command that is executed before every action of these extensions, and the remaining lines define specific actions with the syntax <action>:<command> or <action>@<actions>, where the action list is delimited by whitespace. Use $1 and $2 to refer to the input filename, respectively with and without extension. Make sure to end all commands with a semicolon.

As an example, here is my .tex configuration:

.tex
mkdir -p build;cmd="pdflatex -output-directory build ./$1";
all: $cmd;
v: evince build/$2.pdf;
b: BIBINPUTS=build:$BIBINPUTS bibtex build/$2;
f: $cmd && $cmd;
bf@ all b f

Note that the intended use is for simple projects that consist of a single file and do not require specific build options.