[tex-live] texconfig conf

[Ernesto Posse]

Hello again. Below, I'm combining my answers and comments to the
multiple responses I've received.

To recap my problem: 'texconfig conf' is not reporting anything.

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Bob Tennent <rdt at cs.queensu.ca> wrote:
> Ernesto:  Do
>
>  env | grep TEX
>
> to verify your environment variables.
>
> Bob T.

Thanks. I have no TEX* environment variables set:

[eposse at flamenco:~] > env |grep TEX
[eposse at flamenco:~] >

By the way, I checked /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf and all the variables have
the default values, as I have not modified it and it is a fresh
intallation. Also, as I mentioned in my original post, kpswwhich
correctly reports the values for these variables, e.g.:

[eposse at flamenco:~/Tests/latex] > kpsewhich -expand-var='$TEXMF'
{/home/eposse/.texmf-config,/home/eposse/.texmf-var,/home/eposse/texmf,/etc/texmf,!!/var/lib/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf-texlive}

So I am puzzled as to why is texconfig not reporting them.

More below:

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
> On Di, 29 Nov 2011, Bob Tennent wrote:
>> I obtain no information, whether or not I run it as root.
>>                        ^
>> I obtain no information about whether or not I run it as root.
>>                         ^^^^^
>
> Honestly, I do NOT care.
>
> TeX Live 2009 is old (I know, it is my job to update it in Debian, but
> not enough time!)
>
> texconf is outdated (please use tlmgr).

I'm sorry, but I do care, as it is the standard distribution available
in the Ubuntu repositories. I think it is not unreasonable to expect
that a clean install of a stable release, even if it is two years old,
behaves as it has done in the past. Although it may be the new Ubuntu
version who is to blame for odd behaviour.

As for tlmgr, it is not available in Ubuntu, and after looking around
I only found the advice to use Ubuntu's package manager instead. And I
have to say that from the user and sysadmin perspectives, it is far
more desirable to have only one tool to manage all software packages,
rather than each new piece of software having its own manager. I know
that historically TeX distributions have always had their own
managers, but I do not see any fundamental reason for this, is there?

If texconfig is outdated, maybe that is the answer to my original
question, but it is still a bit of a mystery to me why it is is not
reporting anything.

Also, if texconfig is outdated, and tlmgr is unavailable, is there any
way to check the tex configuration?


On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:26 AM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
> On Mo, 28 Nov 2011, Ernesto Posse wrote:
>> I'm running it as root or as a normal user. I'm expecting to see the
>> values of the TEXMF variables. Isn't that what texconfig conf is
>> supposed to do?
>
> Probably there are no variables set?

I do not set any user-specific environment variables, but as I
mentioned above, texmf.cnf has the proper values, and they are
reported by kpsewhich.

> You switch to root with sudo/su or something, that might clear
> the environment completely.
>
> Why don't you provide the output for both running as root and as
> normal user?

I did in my original post. Here it is again:

[eposse at flamenco:~/Tests/latex] > texconfig conf
=========================== version information ==========================
[eposse at flamenco:~/Tests/latex] > sudo texconfig conf
[sudo] password for eposse:
=========================== version information ==========================
[eposse at flamenco:~/Tests/latex] > kpsewhich -expand-var='$TEXMF'
{/home/eposse/.texmf-config,/home/eposse/.texmf-var,/home/eposse/texmf,/etc/texmf,!!/var/lib/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf-texlive}

So as you can see, when I run it (texconfig conf), both as a normal
user, and as root, I get the same results, namely nothing, in spite of
the fact that according to kpsewhich the variables have the correct
values.


2011/11/29 Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com>:
> 2011/11/29 Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at>:
>> On Mo, 28 Nov 2011, Ernesto Posse wrote:
>>> I'm running it as root or as a normal user. I'm expecting to see the
>>> values of the TEXMF variables. Isn't that what texconfig conf is
>>> supposed to do?
>>
> [ $UID = 0 ] && echo root || echo user
> Is this enough?

Thanks, but as I clarified before, I am *not* trying to figure out if
I'm running thigs as root or user. I am trying to understand why is
'texconfig' not providing any information.