[tex-live] More on texlive configuration

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Ken" == Ken Brooks <kenb at rpath.com> writes:

  > gnwiii at gmail.com wrote:
  >>> 2. SELFAUTO* won't work for any purpose at all, so I should
  >>> customize texmf.cnf and change every SELFAUTO entry therein, to
  >>> something more definite.
  >>> 
  >>> Does this sound right?
  >>  Well, SELFAUTO* could be used.  RH Fedora Core 5 teTeX uses (the
  >> redundantly redundant) compile-time default:
  >> 
  >> TEXMFCNF =
  >> {$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/share,}/texmf{-local,}/web2c};$TETEXDIR;/usr/share/texmf/web2c;/usr/share/texmf/web2c
  >> 
  >> 
  >> which seems to miss /usr/local/share/texmf/web2c.  There aren't
  >> any uses of SELFAUTO* in the effective parts of the texmf.cnf
  >> 
  >> Something like:
  >> 
  >> TEXMFCNF =
  >> {$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/local/share,/share,}/texmf{-local,}/web2c}
  >> 
  >> 
  >> would support a site-specific
  >> "/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf".
  >> 

  > Let's see if I understand this right.  If the executable is in
  > /usr/bin, then SELFAUTOPARENT will resolve to /usr, and the above
  > path will include /usr/local/share/texmf,
  > /usr/local/share/texmf-local, /usr/share/texmf, and
  > /usr/share/texmf-local among others, giving my downstream user all
  > redundant sorts of places in which to put his customizations
  > without changing /usr/share/texmf/<anything>.

  > Now, why the desire for .../texmf-local if /usr/local/share/texmf
  > is already available?

There is no UNIX program I know which is provided by the distribution
and expects any files in /usr/local.

/usr/local should be empty after you installed the system and no
program provided by the distribution should expect any file there.

/usr/share/texmf-local is similar as /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp or
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl.

None of them have /usr/local in their search path.  If people want to
have local stuff in /usr/local they should replace these directories
by symlinks.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-4592165
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