Passing parameters to a document

Here's a hacky way, probably this is the wrong way :).

Instead of passing a filename, you can pass a sequence of commands. So in particular, you could do something like

pdflatex "\def\ishandout{1} \input{foo.tex}"

which defines the macro \ishandout (to be 1) and then reads foo.tex. And then, inside foo.tex, you can check whether \ishandout is defined:

\ifdefined\ishandout
  \documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\else
  \documentclass{beamer}
\fi

I used to do it like in Neil Olver's answer, but found a better way:

Instead of:

pdflatex "\def\ishandout{1} \input{foo.tex}"

with a manual \ifdefined\ishandout statement, you can use:

pdflatex "\PassOptionsToClass{handout}{beamer}\input{foo}"

if you only want to set the a class option (use PassOptionsToPackage for package options).

In the case of beamer you can then also use the following statement in the main file:

\mode<handout>{%
    <code>
}

if you want to use different settings in that mode.

Have the target in your Makefile clobber a file that is \input by your Latex document, which, say, sets or resets a \newif conditional.

For example, let the Makefile run echo "\handouttrue">flags.tex; latex manuscript on the handout goal. Then manuscript.tex might begin:

\newif\ifhandout
\input{flags}
\documentclass...

in document:

\ifhandout
...
\else
...
\fi

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