LyX sometimes deletes a file and directory instead of making a pdf

[Pavel Sanda]

On Fri, May 03, 2024 at 03:35:38AM +0000, Boylan, Ross wrote:
> Since I'm not sure this is a bug, or what it's a bug in, I thought I'd post here.  First, I'd like to thank all the LyX developers for their work.
> 
> The core problem is that when I run `lyx -export pdf2 -v inst\doc\msep_num.lyx` under some conditions-detailed below---the .lyx file and the doc directory it is in are deleted, and no pdf is created in the top-level directory.  Here's the accompanying output:
>  [1] ""                                                                                                                           
>  [2] "Running: git ls-files \"msep_num.lyx\" > \"C:/Users/rdboylan/AppData/Local/Temp/3/lyx_tmpdir.PEIeNMGadmvT/lyxvcout.kdsSyY\""
>  [3] ""                                                                                                                           
>  [4] "Running: pdflatex  \"msep_num.tex\" > nul"                                                                                  
>  [5] "This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.25 (TeX Live 2023) (preloaded format=pdflatex)\r"                              
>  [6] " restricted \\write18 enabled.\r"                                                                                           
>  [7] "entering extended mode\r"                                                                                                   
>  [8] "(./msep_num.tex\r"                                                                                                          
>  [9] "LaTeX2e <2023-06-01> patch level 1\r"                                                                                       
> [10] "L3 programming layer <2023-08-03>\r"                                                                                        
> [11] "\r"  
> 
> Some theories about the problem:
>    1. The file argument to lyx should not include paths.

You could try to cd into the directory inst\doc and run the export command to see whether it makes any difference.

>    3. The msep_num.lyx file is in inst/doc/ because of a git mv (and then later a git restore when it got deleted) not git add, and the check is specific to add.

Can you describe in more details the exact file movement via git add/mv you are doing before/after the lyx export command?

> If I execute that code directly from RStudio it works fine.  But if I trigger a check from RStudio, which builds the whole package, it fails as described above.

Current directory might be different for those two cases?

> I don't know why LyX is bothering with git at all,

It tries to detect whether the files is under version control. Not important for commandline usage, but if you run with GUI it sets the version control icon bar accordingly.

> and even if it has problems I wouldn't have expected them to delete files and directories.  

At the moment I don't see anything in the lyx code that would cause deletion of the file (or even the directory) itself.
Unless it is some sideeffect of running of "git ls-files" which I strongly doubt...

We only delete directories in temporary directory (like C:/Users/rdboylan/AppData/Local/Temp/3/lyx_tmpdir.PEIeNMGadmvT/)
so another option coming to my mind is that you are operating inst\doc\msep_num.lyx inside the temp dir?

Pavel