Delete _minted_.. folders when running `:VimtexClean`

[doronbehar]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe it.

When I compile a document that has \inputminted, the compilation produces a directory _minted_$(basename $texFileName). :VimtexClean doesn't clean this directory.

Describe the solution you'd like

I'd like to be able to tell :Vimtex that this path is an additional path that it might need to clean when I run :VimtexClean.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Removing it by hand - or overriding the command on my own init.vim.

[lervag]

If you use latexmk as the backend, then it is latexmk that also cleans files and directories. You need to instruct it to remove these files. I believe this SO question with answers and comments may be relevant: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/232338/how-to-set-latexmk-to-clean-directory.

[lervag]

To be more specific, I believe you can fix this by adding something like the following to your .latexmkrc file:

$clean_ext .= " _minted-%R/* _minted-%R";

[doronbehar]

If you use latexmk as the backend

But @lervag , this is not generally the case. In my case, I use tectonic as the backend. Please reopen 🙏 .

[lervag]

If you use latexmk as the backend

But @lervag, this is not generally the case. In my case, I use tectonic as the backend. Please reopen.

The detail about which backend you are using is clearly important. But I should have asked and not assumed, so sorry about that. I'll reopen.

Now, the question would be how to properly implement this. The current implementation is very simple: We simply delete all files named ${basename}.EXT for a list of relevant extensions EXT. The current request will need to "complicate" things. I think we could hardcode this with something like this:

let l:dir = printf("%s/_minted_%s", self.state.root, self.state.base)
if isdirectory(l:dir)
  call delete(l:dir, 'rf')
endif

However, this requires some assertions:

1. Is _minted_BASENAME always the correct path name? If not, what are the possibilities and what controls this? According to the previously mentioned post, it seems the path is _minted-SOMETHING?
2. Will the directory always be placed in the root? Does it depend on the outdir-option (g:vimtex_compiler_tectonic.out_dir)?

[doronbehar]

1. Is _minted_BASENAME always the correct path name? If not, what are the possibilities and what controls this? According to the previously mentioned post, it seems the path is _minted-SOMETHING?
2. Will the directory always be placed in the root? Does it depend on the outdir-option (g:vimtex_compiler_tectonic.out_dir)?

So this topic is covered in minted's manual, section: 5.1 Package options. It's pretty complicated - there's the cachedir package option, and there's the path sanitation, and LaTeX can be used to detokenize the string passed to cachedir etc.

I think that it'd be too much to ask vimtex to parse these options and figure out correctly the path to delete. What I was hoping for, is simply a way to manually add directories / paths to the list of paths that VimtexClean deletes. Then, we could advise in vimtex.txt that adding the glob _minted* there permanently, can be used for minted users that don't modify the default cachedir.

[lervag]

1. Is _minted_BASENAME always the correct path name? If not, what are the possibilities and what controls this? According to the previously mentioned post, it seems the path is _minted-SOMETHING?
2. Will the directory always be placed in the root? Does it depend on the outdir-option (g:vimtex_compiler_tectonic.out_dir)?

So this topic is covered in minted's manual, section: 5.1 Package options. It's pretty complicated - there's the cachedir package option, and there's the path sanitation, and LaTeX can be used to detokenize the string passed to cachedir etc.

Thanks for the reference.

I think that it'd be too much to ask vimtex to parse these options and figure out correctly the path to delete.

Agreed!

What I was hoping for, is simply a way to manually add directories / paths to the list of paths that VimtexClean deletes.

I would actually prefer not to add any options. But perhaps that's wishful thinking...

Ok, so, let's assume we have some option that does what you want. How would the docs look like? Perhaps something like this?

*g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths*
  A list of additional path expressions for generated files that you want to be
  cleaned by `:VimtexClean`. Each expression is a glob expression (see |glob()|
  and |wildcards|) and each path is assumed rooted to the project root.

  For instance, to clean any generated `_minted` paths (including directories),
  you could use something like this: >vim

    let g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths = ['_minted*']
<
  Warning: Each resolved path will be deleted with |delete()| with the `"rf"`
           flag!

  Note: This option is only relevant for compiler backends that do not provide
        their own clean options:
        * |vimtex-compiler-tectonic|
        * |vimtex-compiler-arara|
        * |vimtex-compiler-generic|

  Default value: `[]`

[whisperity]

I suggest adding to the documentation the fact that output directories exist (for certain compiler toolchains, like latexmk?) and if the project is complex enough, these out-of-tree builds should be preferred (and less dangerous than executing a glob in the source directory). My on-going PhD thesis's latexmkrc contains several about 15 file extensions and the appropriate configuration for all the cleaning that latexmk would recognise and delete out-of-the-box...

---

To be more specific, I believe you can fix this by adding something like the following to your .latexmkrc file:

$clean_ext .= " _minted-%R/* _minted-%R";

@lervag Wow, it's so nice that this works now. At least can confirm latexmk version 4.80 does understand this nicely, even if an output directory is otherwise specified.

---

2. Will the directory always be placed in the root? Does it depend on the outdir-option (g:vimtex_compiler_tectonic.out_dir)?

So this topic is covered in minted's manual, section: 5.1 Package options. It's pretty complicated - there's the cachedir package option, and there's the path sanitation, and LaTeX can be used to detokenize the string passed to cachedir etc.

@doronbehar @lervag It does depend on the outdir option, and using output directories with packages that generate external content (I found epstopdf when using pdflatex, minted and svg with all compilers to be affected) gets finicky. This post shows a sketch on how to set it up to work in the general case all the time: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/339931/latex-minted-package-using-custom-output-directory-build/548869#548869. Same deal with \epstopdfsetup{outdir=...} and inkscapepath=... for svg.

[doronbehar]

How would the docs look like? Perhaps something like this?

This looks great as a starting point. However, @whisperity's comment makes me think that perhaps the docs should mention that latexmk's compiler method doesn't read this vimtex option because it has the $clean_ext option, that is recommended as an alternative. Perhaps this should be the documentation:

*g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths*
  A list of additional path expressions for generated files that you want to be
  cleaned by `:VimtexClean`. Each expression is a glob expression (see |glob()|
  and |wildcards|) and each path is assumed rooted to the project root.

  For instance, to clean any generated `_minted` paths (including directories),
  you could use something like this: >vim

    let g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths = ['_minted*']
<
  Warning: Each resolved path will be deleted with |delete()| with the `"rf"`
           flag!

  Note: This option is only relevant for compiler backends that do not provide
        their own clean options (like `$clean_ext` in `latexmk`[1]):
        * |vimtex-compiler-tectonic|
        * |vimtex-compiler-arara|
        * |vimtex-compiler-generic|
    
  Default value: `[]`

  [1]: See `latexmk`'s `$clean_ext` documentation at https://texdoc.org/serve/latexmk/0

[lervag]

I suggest adding to the documentation the fact that output directories exist (for certain compiler toolchains, like latexmk?) …

I would be very happy to see a concrete suggestion on what to add and where to add it. A PR or just an inline suggestion. Thanks!

To be more specific, I believe you can fix this by adding something like the following to your .latexmkrc file:

$clean_ext .= " _minted-%R/* _minted-%R";

@lervag Wow, it's so nice that this works now. At least can confirm latexmk version 4.80 does understand this nicely, even if an output directory is otherwise specified.

Yes; I've been amazed at latexmk several times myself. It's a good piece of software!

@doronbehar @lervag It does depend on the outdir option, and using output directories with packages that generate external content (I found epstopdf when using pdflatex, minted and svg with all compilers to be affected) gets finicky. This post shows a sketch on how to set it up to work in the general case all the time: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/339931/latex-minted-package-using-custom-output-directory-build/548869#548869. Same deal with \epstopdfsetup{outdir=...} and inkscapepath=... for svg.

Thanks for the info!

[lervag]

How would the docs look like? Perhaps something like this?

This looks great as a starting point. However, @whisperity's comment makes me think that perhaps the docs should mention that latexmk's compiler method doesn't read this vimtex option because it has the $clean_ext option, that is recommended as an alternative. …

Thanks! That seems wise. I think I'll go for something like this:

*g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths*
  A list of additional path expressions for generated files that you want to be
  cleaned by `:VimtexClean`. Each expression is a glob expression (see |glob()|
  and |wildcards|) and each path is assumed rooted to the project root.

  For instance, to clean any generated `_minted` paths (including directories),
  you could use something like this: >vim

    let g:vimtex_compiler_clean_paths = ['_minted*']
<
  Warning: Each resolved path will be deleted with |delete()| with the `"rf"`
           flag!

  Note: This option is NOT relevant for the compiler backends
        |vimtex-compiler-latexmk| and |vimtex-compiler-latexrun|, because these
        provide their own clean implementations. For `latexmk`, see the
        documentation for `$clean_ext` at https://texdoc.org/serve/latexmk/0.

  Default value: `[]`

[doronbehar]

That seems wise. I think I'll go for something like this:

That's very good!