[tex-k] ls-R and ls-r

[Karl Berry]

Hi Yannis and Olaf (and all),

    Yannis wrote me:
    I have the following problem: it seems that kpathsea reads ls-R
    files twice, since it searches for ls-R (and finds it) and for ls-r
    (and finds it again since on the Mac there seems to be an
    equivalence between the two, even under X Window). So all files are
    read twice, and that takes a lot of time. Is there a way to
    configure kpathsea engine not to search for both ls-R and ls-r?

1) Indeed, I could reproduce the problem under Unix via
   ln ls-R ls-r
   kpsewhich --debug ls-R
   and observing that both ls-R and ls-r were fopened.

2) I agree it is not desirable to re-read the same file twice, but an
   immediate fix is not apparent to me.  Perhaps call same_file_p before
   opening the second one.  I don't see a way to configure this search;
   it's built into the code in cnf.c.  I hope Olaf will find a good
   solution.

3) I'm surprised that reading ls-R takes any appreciable time compared
   to everything else that has to be done.

Best,
Karl