All the programs generally follow the usual convention for output files. Namely, they are placed in the directory current when the program is run, regardless of any input file location; or, in a few cases, output is to standard output.
For example, if you run `tex /tmp/foo', for example, the output will be in `./foo.dvi' and `./foo.log', not `/tmp/foo.dvi' and `/tmp/foo.log'.
However, if the current directory is not writable, the main programs
(TeX, Metafont, MetaPost, and BibTeX) make an exception: if the
environment variable or config file value TEXMFOUTPUT is set (it
is not by default), output files are written to the directory specified.
This is useful when you are in some read-only distribution directory,
perhaps on a CD-ROM, and want to TeX some documentation, for example.
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