Passing command-line arguments to LaTeX document

Question

Hello there,

I have a LaTeX file, 'myfile.tex' say, that sometime in the middle of the code an ASCII file with LaTeX macros has to be input, 'macrofile.tex, say, through an '\input{macrofile}' command. Actually, there are more than one 'macrofiles', so every time I have to edit 'myfile' and change the name of 'macrofile'. I can avoid the edit part by using a \typein command, yet, I'd still have to enter the name from the keyboard. Is there any way to do that from the command line? So, to summarize, 'myfile.tex' looks like:

\documentclass{article}
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\begin{document}
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\input{macrofile1} OR {macrofile2} OR {macrofile3} ETC...
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\end{document}

Can I pass the name of 'macrofile' as an argument to 'myfile.tex'?

Thanks

John

Answer 1

Yup, something like:

latex "\def\myvar{info-to-pass} \input{<filename>}"

should do you. You can then use \myvar in your document.

Answer 2

Thanks Joseph; it works just fine! John