From Hans: untested extension: \currentcomponentpath
Thanks! Is the idea to use \currentcomponentpath in the directory={...}? I put those three \defs into core-job.tex and remade the formats (cont-en: ver: 2006.04.17 23:14 fmt: 2006.5.10). But I couldn't figure out quite how to use it. The abc-1.eps figure, referred to in the component and living in its directory, isn't found automatically though maybe I need to use \currentcomponentpath explicitly? [Meanwhile I'm using a workaround that Mojca suggested offlist: by hand put the relative component path in the directory={...}, which is mostly fine as I don't change the relative directory structure as much as I change the root.] But back to \currentcomponentpath. I put \show\currentcomponentpath in the component chap/1/c_ch1.tex to see what was going on. If I understand right, your intention is that \currentcomponentpath would be chap/1 inside chap/1/c_ch1.tex. But it ends up as "..". Here are the relevant lines from the texexec log: $ texexec onebook systems : begin file onebook at line 1 systems : begin file project_books at line 2 (./project_books.tex systems : begin file env_books at line 3 (./env_books.tex) systems : end file env_books at line 3 ) systems : end file project_books at line 2 systems : begin file chap/1/c_ch1 at line 3 (./chap/1/c_ch1.tex
\currentcomponentpath=macro: ->.. l.3 \show\currentcomponentpath
? figures : figure abc-1 can not be found floatblocks : 1 placed ) systems : end file chap/1/c_ch1 at line 3 [1.1] systems : end file onebook at line 4 ) And here is a .tgz file with all of these files in this structure: ./chap/1/abc-1.eps ./chap/1/c_ch1.tex ./project_books.tex ./env_books.tex ./onebook.tex