Question

I want to redefine the \part* command so that it automatically adds a contents line. This proves difficult since I want to reuse the original \part* command inside my starred version.

Normally (i.e. for unstarred commands) I would do it like this:

\let\old@part\part
\renewcommand\part[2][]{
  \old@part[#1]{#2}
  … rest of definition}

That is, I would save the original definition of \part in \old@part and use that.

However, this doesn’t work for starred commands since they don’t define a single lexeme (unlike the \part command in the example above). This boils down to the following question: How can I save a starred command?

Notice that I already know how to redefine a starred command itself, using the \WithSuffix command from the suffix package. This isn’t the problem.

Answer 1

There is no \part* command. What happens is the \part command takes a look at the next character after it (with \@ifstar) and dispatches to one of two other routines that does the actual work based on whether there’s an asterisk there or not.

Reference: TeX FAQ entry Commands defined with * options