solrub

Build the student, solution and rubric PDFs of a LaTeX assignment.

One .tex source carries all three copies. \sol marks what only the answer key shows and \rub what only the grading rubric shows; each copy is a pdflatex run defining a different subset of them.

pip install solrub

Use

solrub quiz1a              # quiz1a.pdf, quiz1a_sol.pdf, quiz1a_rub.pdf
solrub quiz1*              # every version at once
solrub quiz1/              # every document in a folder

All three copies are the default, minus any that would come out empty: a document with no \rub anywhere in it gets no rubric copy, since that copy would only duplicate the answer key. It says so when it skips one.

==> exam1a.tex
    exam1a.pdf  exam1a_sol.pdf
    no \rub in it, rub copy skipped

The check follows \input through the whole tree, because the content macros usually sit in the problem files rather than the document. Where the tree cannot be read to the end — a missing file, or an \input whose path is built from a macro — it builds the copy rather than guess. --rub forces one, --no-rub refuses it outright, and the same pair exists for --sol.

If your repo calls the macros something else, name them in solrub.toml:

[macros]
sol = 'answer'
rub = 'rubric'

Arguments are files, globs or directories, with the .tex suffix optional. Globs are expanded by the tool rather than left to the shell, so quiz1* works the same on Windows. Two filters keep a wide pattern honest: sibling builds (quiz1a.pdf, quiz1a_sol.pdf) collapse onto the .tex they came from, and a fragment with no \documentclass is skipped.

The pdflatex transcript is hidden, leaving one line per document:

==> quiz1a.tex
    quiz1a.pdf  quiz1a_sol.pdf  quiz1a_rub.pdf

A failure prints the error pdflatex reported and keeps that document's .log, but does not stop the rest of the batch; the failures are listed at the end and the exit status is non-zero. -v restores the full transcript.

Counting points

-p sums the points per problem, using sum-pts: pip install "solrub[pts]".

solrub -p quiz1a

The default expects a bracket at the front of a \prob{...} title, and reads both spellings:

\prob{[20 pts (8, 12)]: Bayes Net}
\prob{[16 points (4 pts each)]: Ecology System}

If that is not your convention, a [points] table in a solrub.toml at your repo root overrides it for every document underneath. The keys are sum-pts' own parameters, so its documentation is the reference:

[points]
prefix = ' *\\question'
points = '(marks|pts?)'

When the patterns do not fit, solrub says so and links to docs/points.md, which explains each key and the traps. Points are read from the source, so -p still reports on a document that failed to build.

In the document

Three macros divide the source. \sol and \rub are hidden by default and revealed by their own build; \stud is the reverse, student-only content such as the blank space left for the work, dropped from both keys.

\newcommand{\sol}[1]{}
\newcommand{\rub}[1]{}
\newcommand{\stud}[1]{#1}

\ifdefined\showsol
  \renewcommand{\sol}[1]{#1}
  \renewcommand{\stud}[1]{}
\fi

\ifdefined\showrub
  \renewcommand{\rub}[1]{#1}
  \renewcommand{\stud}[1]{}
\fi

\stud{\vfill}
\sol{The boundary is $x = 3$.}
\rub{6 pts: correct slope.  3 pts if the intercept is off.}

The flags solrub defines are \showsol and \showrub, deliberately not \sol and \rub. A document cannot both define a macro and ask whether it is defined: \newcommand{\sol} would make \ifdefined\sol true on every build, so the student copy would silently print the answers.

Requires

pdflatex on the PATH, and Python 3.9 or newer.