SConstruct (http://scons.org) I use for building latex documents, featuring continuous build and auto SVG -> PDF conversion via inkscape.

SConstruct

from SCons.Script import VariantDir, Environment, \
        Builder, Depends, Flatten
import os

VariantDir('_build', src_dir='.')

env = Environment(ENV=os.environ)
inkscape = Builder(action = 'inkscape --without-gui --export-pdf=$TARGET $SOURCE')
env['BUILDERS']['Inkscape'] = inkscape
env['BUILDERS']['Latexdiff'] = Builder(action = 'latexdiff $SOURCES > $TARGET')

svgs = [ ]

pdfs = [env.Inkscape(target="_build/" + os.path.basename(svg).replace('.svg','.pdf'), source=svg)
        for svg in svgs]

lcfittex, = env.PDF(target='_build/lcfittex.pdf',source='lcfittex.tex')
#lcfittex_supp, = env.PDF(target='_build/lcfittex_supp.pdf', source='lcfittex_supp.tex')
Default([lcfittex])

#env.Latexdiff(target='diff.tex',source=['stored_lcfittex.tex','lcfittex.tex'])
#diff = env.PDF(target='diff.pdf',source='diff.tex')

Depends(Flatten([lcfittex]),
        Flatten([pdfs, 'lcfittex.bib', 'alphaplainnat.bst', 'defs.tex']))

#Depends(lcfittex, lcfittex_supp)

cont_build = env.Command('.continuous', ['lcfittex.bib', 'lcfittex.tex', 'alphaplainnat.bst'],
    'while :; do inotifywait -e modify $SOURCES; scons -Q; done')
Alias('continuous', cont_build)