[tex-k] -format/-progname

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> Hans writes:

    > Currently the -format needs a -progname as well,

    >    kpsewhich -format="other text files" -progname=context
    > texexec.pl

    > How about supporting

    >    kpsewhich -format="other text files" texexec.pl

    > as well. It's painfull to write general purpose scripts using
    > kpsewhich where one also has to provide a progname. (unless i
    > make my scripts context specific and forget about non context
    > users)

    > also, i think that you should support suffixes like: pl rb py
    > and pdf; there are definitely more obscure ones in the list of
    > supported suffixes -)

Unfortunately the suffix .pl is not unique.  It is unlikely that there
is a property list for a font named texexec, but in general some more
information is needed.

I must admit that I do not understand how kpsewhich works.

For instance,
    kpsewhich -format='other text files' -progname=doc readme.txt
returns
    /usr/local/dtp/share/texmf-fonts/doc/fonts/euro/readme.txt

The documentation says:
`--format=NAME'
     Set the format for lookup to NAME.  By default, the format is
     guessed from the filename, with `tex' being used if nothing else
     fits.  The recognized filename extensions (including any leading
     `.') are also allowable NAMEs.

If by default the format is guessed from the filename,  shouldn't it
be possible to omit the -format option in this case? 

     kpsewhich -progname=doc readme.txt

returned nothing.

The last sentence of the documentation says that I could say
    
    kpsewhich -format=.txt -progname=doc readme.txt

but it didn't return anything.

What does -format='other text files' really do?

Another question is what the -progname option does.  The documentation
says: 

`--progname=NAME'
     Set the program name to NAME; default is `kpsewhich'.  This can
     affect the search paths via the `.PROGNAM' feature in
     configuration files (*note Config files::).

This sounds like magic, but it seems that if I say

     kpsewhich -format='other text files' -progname=doc readme.txt

then it simply scans $TEXMFS/doc , or does it anything else?

Regards,
  Reinhard

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