[tex-live] metapost and relative paths (labels fail)

[Taco Hoekwater]

Lars Madsen wrote:
> a bit more careful this time
> 
> assume a dir structure:
> 
> t2.mp
> sub/t1.mp
> 
> t2.mp:
> 
> beginfig(1);
> draw fullcircle scaled 3cm;
> label(btex $A$ etex, origin);
> endfig;
> end;
> 
> t1.mp:
> 
> verbatimtex
> %&latex
> \documentclass{article}
> \begin{document}
> etex
> input "../t2.mp"
> end;
> 
> 
> if I go to 'sub' and run
> 
> mpost t1.mp
> 
> I get the following error:
> 
> This is MetaPost, version 1.208 (kpathsea version 5.0.0)
> (./t1.mp (../t2.mp
>  >> t2.mp
>  >> t2.mpx
> ! Unable to make mpx file.
> l.3 label(btex
>                $A$ etex, origin);
> Transcript written on t1.log.
> 
> it seems the labeling feature want to create a mpx file for the included 
> file
> 
> this is a bit contrary to the way TeX handles input.
> 
> Is this a feature or a bug in mpost?
> 
> if t2.mp is moved to
> 
> sub/subsub/t2.mp
> 
> and we include that instead, I get a similar error.
> 
> Any ideas as to what have changed, and how this can be fixed?

A quick test indicated that the search for mp input (and generation of
mpx output) files for labels does not take the specified path into
account.

I'll apply a fix to the next metapost release, but for now probably
the only thing you can do is add '..' to the MPINPUTS search path.

Best wishes,
Taco