[tex-live] Where is the master control switch?

Ken Brooks kenb at rpath.com
Mon Jul 31 15:34:36 CEST 2006


I have read the kpathsea manual, and the original texmf.cnf, and I am
left with a few questions.  I'm a little unclear on what has to take
place at compile time vs. what is established at runtime:

1. Does a texmf.cnf need to be available at compile time when the
various tex programs are built?  In general, does the texmf tree as a
whole need to be installed for best results before compiling tex programs?

2. There are so many choices.  I'm wondering about best practices for 
handling the numerous variables named in all-caps, found in texmf.cnf 
and elsewhere: TEXMFMAIN, TEXMFLOCAL, TEXMFDBS, VARTEXFONTS, etc.
Should these best be handled as
- command line parameters to "configure"?
- environment variables present when configure is run?
- entries in texmf.cnf (presuming that TEXMFCNF has been set already)
- or, environment variables present at runtime?

3. I have already observed that setting TEXMFMAIN as an environment
variable at runtime is inadequate.  How many such variables would need
to be separately set at runtime to make things work right, if the texmf
tree is not where it was expected to be at compile time?

Thanks,
Ken Brooks
rPath, Inc.

Thomas Esser wrote:
>> When I try to run an ill-configured tex I get:
>>
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt tex.fmt
>> /usr/bin/mktexfmt: line 331: /texconfig/tcfmgr: No such file or directory
> 
> In that ill-configured installation,
>   kpsewhich --var-value=TEXMFMAIN
> expands to the empty string.
> 
> In a better installation, a texmf.cnf file defines this variable to
> something that makes sense. There is a search path TEXMFCNF which defines
> where to look for texmf.cnf files. I guess that your installation does
> not even find a texmf.cnf file. To check, just
>   kpsewhich texmf.cnf
> 
>> Is it normal to have a /texconfig directory at root level?  Or are 
> 
> It is $TEXMFMAIN/texconfig/tcfmgr.
> 
>> need to do.  Where do I go for the documentation of its contents?
> 
> If you don't go the regular route, be prepared to read some documentation
> (e.g. the kpathsea manual) and to debug some scripts.
> 
> Thomas



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