[texhax] Hacking the log file

[Philip G. Ratcliffe]

> I use pdflatex in a production context with the  textmerge
> package to write
> letters to some 1800-2000 firms twice a year; in between I write - always
> with textmerge - far less letters (200-300 to urge people not
> responding to
> the bulks sending to reply) four times a year.
> If something goes wrong while running pdflatex, I can find the
> error but it
> requires some tedious work and checks.
> What I would like to do with while running pdflatex to merge
> letters is to
> write into the log file an extra information like, for instance,
> the name of
> the firm which, of course happens to be one of variables of textmerge
> (\Firm).

Somewhere after \Firm has been (re)defined issue something like the
following:

  \typeout{Firm: \Firm}

Cheers,  Phil