Take the tour ×  Are there any precompiler options for latexmk I
can use inside my LaTeX source files? (For instance, to tell
latexmk to compile using XeLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX.) I know
how to do that with the .latexmkrc file, but it would be more
useful to me if I could do it within my source files.
share|improve this question I think you are searching for Arara
–  mhp Jul 23 '12 at 7:29 I think something like the arara
parsing should be easy to add to latexmk. Send an email to the
latexmk developer and suggest it, it is a useful feature. – 
daleif Jul 23 '12 at 8:20 @daleif: In my opinion, the current
approach, i.e. adapting the relevant rules in a local Latexmk
initialization file, is cleaner and, potentially, also more
secure. –  mhp Jul 23 '12 at 10:43 True, but anoying for editor
users who do not understand the various syntaxes for configuring
stuff. in that sense I like Emacs' concept of local variables to
be set inside the document and used to configure which engine
Emacs should use. –  daleif Jul