[tex-live] Better ways to find packages and documentation

[Norbert Preining]

Hi all,

On Don, 05 Jul 2007, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
>  > >   Where will I find the various tlpdb files on the installed system?
>  > 
>  > This is not specified till now. We have not agreed on this for now.
> 
> texmf/web2c is supposed to contain system-specific stuff.  Any objections? 
> But I think that it is sufficient to have only one file there.

I thought more on TEXLIVEROOT because the texlive.tlpdb is:
- nothing which is searched by any kpathsea program
- describes the full installation
But I don't care.

> I assume that there is a texlive.tlpdb file on the DVD and a
> compressed one on the CD and on the server.

Right.

> on the server.  The tlpdb file on the server will be updated if
> necessary (though binaries will be updated only once a year).

Right.

>  > What one COULD imagine is that for category Package and category
>  > Documentation we remove the texmf-dist and texmf-doc, resp., prefix.
>  > I don't see an immediate advantage, but it is doable.
> 
> I don't remember the reason for having texmf and texmf-dist.  It makes
> much sense in the repository but on an installed system I don't see

Stop, it is NOT about removing these trees, that is, as Karl says:

On Don, 05 Jul 2007, Karl Berry wrote:
> Anyway, I don't want to change this.  It seems like a huge hassle.

I agree. Let's leave it like it is. It was ONLY about what is
written in the tlpdb for "category package".

> Merging texmf-doc/doc into texmf certainly requires to change the

No.



On Don, 05 Jul 2007, Karl Berry wrote:
>     texmf/web2c is supposed to contain system-specific stuff.  Any objections? 
> 
> texmf/web2c might not be writable.  How about $TEXMFVAR/web2c?

On Fre, 06 Jul 2007, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
> If the directory is not writable I fear that it's impossible to
> install TeXLive at all.

Here I agree with Reinhard. It is about the installer/update procedure
which needs to write stuff anyway.

Best wishes

Norbert

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at>        Vienna University of Technology
Debian Developer <preining at debian.org>                         Debian TeX Group
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