Issue with updmap-sys use of symlinks in cross platform installation

Karl Berry karl at freefriends.org
Mon Mar 18 22:37:58 CET 2024


Hi John,

    I would like to propose that it also use copy when the windows
    platform is installed, even when updmap.pl is being run under
    another OS.

Reasonable, but updmap.pl doesn't have any easy way to know if windows
binaries are installed (it doesn't read tlpdb), though I guess something
could be hoked up for the native TL case. (E.g., see if
<bindir>/../windows exists.)

    Perhaps there are other situations when copy is needed instead of making 
    symlinks, but updmap-sys does not detect the need.

In theory, if (under Unix) the tree is mounted on a filesystem that
doesn't support symlinks, for one. Clearly doesn't happen often in
practice or we would get bug reports.

Anyway, I wonder about simply using copy unconditionally. Do we gain
anything (apart from saving a tiny amount of disk :) by using symlinks?
I can't see what. Norbert? --thanks, karl.



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