AUCTeX: Run Compile Command n-times

Question

I'd like to have a function that asks for a number n and executes the default compile command n-times afterwards. That is to say unlike C-c C-c (i.e. TeX-command-master) I don't want to be asked which command to run, it should select the default compile command based on the AUCTeX settings. Naturally if any error occurs the execution should stop.

I know about TeX-texify, however, this doesn't statisfy my needs because sometimes I just want emacs to run pdflatex five times indepent of what the AUCTeX parser thinks is adequate.

Any help is much appreciated!

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Edit: I have looked into this a little further and using code from the above reference I have started writing a function that does this. However, it has one major flaw. Let me first give you the code:

(defcustom TeX-MultiTeX-Command "LaTeX" "Default MultiTeX command" :type 'string :group 'TeX-command)
(defun TeX-MultiTeX (n)
  "Run TeX-command n-times"
  (interactive "nRun TeX/LaTeX how many times: ")
  (while (> n 0)
      (TeX-command TeX-MultiTeX-Command 'TeX-master-file)
    (setq n (- n 1))))

As you can see, I have implemented a config variable for selecting the correct compilation command. Now let me present the problem:

The compilation of the LaTeX document takes some time, however, my function instantly calls the second (and following) executions of the compile command. Maybe someone can provide help in finding a solution that checks whether compilation has finished successfully prior to executing (TeX-command TeX-MultiTeX-Command 'TeX-master-file), then executes said function or prints some error message if compilation finished with an error.

Answer 1

With the help of the code of the TeX-texify function I have developed a function that does what I want, the code is given below.

I'd like to thank user4815162342; although this solution is not based on his suggestion, I think his solution might be of use for a different problem. Also I'd like to thank TN, the author of TeX-texify, I shamelessly took and adapted his code for my problem. ;)

(defcustom TeX-MultiTeX-Command "LaTeX"
  "Default MultiTeX command"
  :type 'string :group 'TeX-command)

(defun TeX-MultiTeX-sentinel (&optional proc sentinel)
  "Non-interactive! Call the standard-sentinel of the current LaTeX-process.
If there is still something left do do start the next latex-command."
  (set-buffer (process-buffer proc))
  (funcall TeX-MultiTeX-sentinel proc sentinel)
  (let ((case-fold-search nil))
    (when (string-match "\\(finished\\|exited\\)" sentinel)
      (set-buffer TeX-command-buffer)
      (unless (plist-get TeX-error-report-switches (intern (TeX-master-file)))
        (TeX-MultiTeX TeX-MultiTeX-num-left)))))

(defun TeX-MultiTeX (n)
  "Run TeX-command n-times"
  (interactive "nRun TeX/LaTeX how many times: ")
  (when (or (called-interactively-p 'any)
        (null (boundp 'TeX-MultiTeX-num-left)))
    (setq TeX-MultiTeX-num-left n))
  (if (>= TeX-MultiTeX-num-left 1)
      (progn
    (TeX-command TeX-MultiTeX-Command 'TeX-master-file)
    (setq TeX-MultiTeX-num-left (- TeX-MultiTeX-num-left 1))
    (setq proc (get-buffer-process (current-buffer)))
    (setq TeX-MultiTeX-sentinel (process-sentinel proc))
    (set-process-sentinel proc 'TeX-MultiTeX-sentinel))))

Answer 2

It seems that you need a synchronous way to run TeX-command. I haven't word with TeX-command, but if it uses the compilation API, it can be made to wait for the compilation to finish, although it's not exactly obvious how to do that. Here is an example that uses compilation-finish-functions to achieve the desired effect:

(require 'cl)  ; for lexical-let

(defun compile-and-wait (compilefun)
  (interactive)
  (lexical-let ((done nil) finish-callback)
    (setq finish-callback
          ;; when the compilation is done, remove the callback from
          ;; compilation-finish-functions and interrupt the wait
          (lambda (buf msg)
            (setq compilation-finish-functions
                  (delq finish-callback compilation-finish-functions))
            (setq done t)))
    (push finish-callback compilation-finish-functions)
    (funcall compilefun)
    (while (not done)
      (sleep-for .1))))

EDIT
AUC TeX is not using compilation mode to spawn TeX, so the above cannot work. Since it's still useful for other compilation buffers, I'm leaving it in the answer. Another way to implement TeX-MultiTeX is by binding TeX-process-asynchronous to nil, which should ensure that AUC TeX waits for the command to finish.