[tex-live] texhash and dvips bugs

[Dan Luecking]

Hello:

I have written about these things on comp.text.tex but they have
generated no comments. I am not sure they qualify as bugs, but
certainly the behavior has changed and I'm not sure why. As no
one has offered explanations or work-arounds, I report them to you.

I use TeXLive2007 on a windows XP system.

1. Texhash and mktexlsr no longer produce the same ls-R file. The
former writes a different string at the head of the file. Then
fmtutil complains of the wrong "magic string" and won't make the
formats.

Also mktexlsr no longer accepts a directory argument (indicating
which directory's database to update). This was a useful shortcut
for use after adding files to only one tree.

2. dvips -z (for generating pdfmarks) now leaves temporary files
head.tmp and body.tmp after it is done. One supposes they should
be cleaned up (unless perhaps the -d option is used).

3. The installation program for windows will not go into install
mode if a previous TeXLive is present. It is not clear how much
(if any) of the previous installation needs to be removed. I found
that removing the binary directory from PATH helped, though I can't
say if that would be sufficient or even if it is always necessary.
It seems to me there ought to be an option to force install mode or
at least there should be some documentation of what needs to be
done (preferably something short of complete removal of the old
installation) to get the installation to proceed.

Now a wishlist:

1. More visible documentation of changes in default configurations
between TeXLive versions would be helpful. Something seems to
change with every upgrade. This time:
-- TEXMFLOCAL = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-local changed to to
    TEXMFLOCAL = $SELFAUTOPARENT/../texmf-local
-- fmtutil puts the formats in an $engine subdirectory.
-- fmtutil doesn't keep .log files by default
It might be believed (as live.pdf says) that some these changes
are "transparent" to the user, but they are not to all users.

2. Some utility in windows to read the files in the doc/man
directories (or alternate formats of this documentation--even
plain text). I have not yet succeeded in getting a man clone
working in windowsXP.

I must add that TeXLive2007 is still a wonderful packaging of TeX.
Thanks for the good work.

Sincerely,


Daniel H. Luecking
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own" --Adam Savage