2012-10-30 John Devereux:
It looks like \usepath is the key to what I want, thank you.
Yes, combine \usepath with the \startmodeset syntax that Wolfgang suggested and you should have a clean solution.
I don't quite understand your overall structure.
You're right. Without file names it's hard to follow, especially with the mistake I made.
Is the "*" a literal "*" with some special meaning, or are you using it as a placeholder for something?
It is a literal `*`. That means that the file name will be used as a component (or product) name.
I am not using the project/product/component system, perhaps I should look into it again.
Hmmm, alpha.tex defines component "a", beta.tex defines "b", is that right?
No, that's my fault. Of course they have to match. Marco