diff --git a/make/tex.mk b/make/tex.mk
index 5be5b1cf..ed6ea538 100644
--- a/make/tex.mk
+++ b/make/tex.mk
@@ -85,10 +85,10 @@ DOCUMENT_CLASS = article
 endif
 
 define mangle_tmpl
-	@echo $< \-\> $@
+	@echo "+ generating $< -> $@"
 	@if [ $(suffix $@) = tex ];  then echo -e $(TEX_WARN_DONT_EDIT)  > $@; fi
 	@if [ $(suffix $@) = html ]; then echo -e $(HTML_WARN_DONT_EDIT) > $@; fi
-	cat $< | sed -e "\
+	@cat $< | sed -e "\
 		s%__DATE__%$(DATE)%g; \
 		s%__AUTHORS__%$(AUTHORS)%g; \
 		s%__TITLE__%$(TITLE)%g; \
@@ -130,7 +130,8 @@ define mangle_tmpl
 		linenum=$$1;                                   \
 		print start linenum rest                       \
 		} else { print $$0 } }                         \
-	' >> $@
+	' >> $@.tmp
+	@mv $@.tmp $@
 endef
 
 first_target: dirs $(ALL)
@@ -275,9 +276,8 @@ $(OUT).html.zip: $(HTMLDIR)
 
 $(OUTPUT).pdf: $(GENERATED)
 	@echo "-- creating pdf file"
-	# for i in 1 2 3 ; do echo "============================ pass $$i"; pdflatex $(MAIN).tex 2>&1 | grep -ve "Underfull\|Overfull"| grep .;  done
-	for i in 1 2 3 ; do echo "============================ pass $$i"; pdflatex $(MAIN).tex || exit 1;  done
-	mv $(MAIN).pdf $(OUTPUT).pdf
+	@for i in 1 2 3 ; do echo "================================================================== pass $$i: running pdflatex $(MAIN).tex"; pdflatex $(MAIN).tex || exit 1;  done
+	@mv $(MAIN).pdf $(OUTPUT).pdf
 
 $(OUT).pdf.zip: $(OUTPUT).pdf
 	zip $@ $<