[tex-live] Bug in texlive/texdoc?

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:20:35AM +0100, Rowland McDonnell wrote:

> I have MacTeX 2008 installed.
> 
> I have just typed:
> 
> texdoc nfss
> 
> at the Terminal, and the following Web page opened:
> 
> <file:///usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-doc/doc/polish/tex-virtual-academy
> -pl/fonty/nfss.html>

What's the problem? It's the only file with basename 'nfss', and
texdoc finds it.

If you want that texdoc finds fntguide instead, then
texdoc needs clairvoyance abilities or manual help:
In the file texmf.cnf aliases can be defined:
  alias nfss = fntguide

BTW, texdoc.cnf isn't found by "kpsewhich texdoc.cnf".
texmf.cnf contains:
  TEXMFCNF = {$SELF[...]}{,{/share,}/texmf{-local,}/web2c}
But texmf.cnf is located at
  TLROOT:texmf/texdoc/texdoc.cnf

> I tried to use kpsewhich to find a file:
> 
> kpsewhich fntguide.tex

This is the source file for the documentation fntguide.pdf.
It's located in TDS:source/latex/base/

If you would add TDS:source// to your TEXINPUTS it would be found,
but adding "source" would be a bad idea, because it slows down
the TeX/LaTeX/... compilations. (Also it might add further
unique constraints violations.)

If you insist on finding source files, then you can try something like
  kpsewhich --path `kpsewhich --expand-path '$TEXSOURCES'` fntguide.tex
(tested with bash).

> find /usr/local/texlive/2008/ -name "fntguide.tex"
> 
> returned
> 
> /usr/local/texlive/2008//texmf-dist/source/latex/base/fntguide.tex
> 
> Can anyone provide information on what is wrong?

See above.

Yours sincerely
  Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>