[tex-k] Font cache problem

[Anthony Stone]

I'm using tetex, running under SuSE 9.3.

Whenever I run latex or pdflatex I get font files ecrm1200.600pk,
ecrm1200.tfm and ecrm1200.mf generated in the current directory. I
have VARTEXFONTS set in texmf.cnf to /var/cache/fonts, and
mktex.cnf contains the line
: ${MT_FEATURES=appendonlydir:varfonts}
which I assume means that the varfonts feature is enabled. The
/var/cache/fonts directory is world-writable and contains
subdirectories tfm and pk and source that are also world-writable. 
Shouldn't the generated font files be placed in /var/cache/fonts, and
not regenerated on every run when they're not in the current directory?

I have now moved them there by hand (into the jknappen/ec/
subdirectories) and they no longer get regenerated, but shouldn't they
be put there automatically?

-- 
Anthony Stone                           www-stone.ch.cam.ac.uk
University Chemical Laboratory,         Email:  ajs1 at cam.ac.uk
Lensfield Road,                         Phone: +44 1223 336375
Cambridge CB2 1EW                       Fax:   +44 1223 336362