[tex-k] $SELFAUTODIR considered harmful

[Eddie Kohler]

Hi all,

I was just flummoxed for a while by $SELFAUTODIR in texmf.cnf.  In 
particular, I'm building a package that links with -lkpathsea, but is 
not part of web2c/teTeX.  I want lcdf-typetools to find the correct 
TEXMF directories, but I can't guarantee that it will be installed 
under teTeX's --prefix.  So, the default $SELFAUTODIR setup is exactly 
wrong!  I couldn't run otftotfm because it thought TeX was installed in 
its own build directory.

So, is there some way to tell kpathsea to look elsewhere for 
$SELFAUTODIR?  Is there any chance that the default teTeX install could 
use something other than $SELFAUTODIR?  In general it seems pretty 
tricky.

Thanks,
Eddie