I just checked in a fix. I was putting one too many levels of shell quoting around the file name (to protect against spaces in the file name) the other version of tex seemed to accomodate the quotes just fine but not xelatex. Thanks. I don't use xelatex at all so I'm glad you are giving it a workout.
Thanks Brad, that worked. But I am experiencing some more xelatex wierdness. The command seems to choke when the url package is loaded (see below for the error) with the result that I get garbage in the first page. This didn't happen with the old command; it doesn't happen when the document is typeset from the command line; and documents with the url package typeset fine when using pdflatex.
While I am at it, I have a UI question/comment. It seems odd that the option to configure the typesetting engine appears when you typeset a document. This makes switching engines cumbersome since you have to typeset the document with the wrong engine before configuring. (Though, of course, using the appropriate %!TEX directives solves this problem, but still...)
Here is the relevant part of the log:
/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:42: Undefined cont rol sequence. l.42 \Url@OTnonTT % more for any but typewriter /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:43: Too many }'s. l.43 }
/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:51: Undefined cont rol sequence. l.51 \do 젴hchar184 }} /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:51: Undefined cont rol sequence. l.51 \do젴hchar 184 }}
Latex Error: /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:51 Missing \begin{document}.
See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation. Type H for immediate help. ...
l.51 \do젴hchar1 84 }} /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:51: Too many }'s. l.51 \do젴hchar184 } } /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/url.sty:51: Too many }'s. l.51 \do젴hchar184 }}