[tlbuild] [tex-live] texlive install overwrites /usr/bin/man

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Bruce,

first of all, it is of *no* use to anyone if you write to me 
personally. THere is a dedicated list, as clearly indicated
on the web page I assume you have read:
	http://www.tug.org/texlive/build.html
namely the one I am cc-ing this message to. This is the place
to ask questions, and propose improvemnts.

On So, 20 Nov 2011, Bruce Dubbs wrote:
> It fails for me.  I don't have Xorg installed and ./Build does not seem
> to have a way to work around that without major hacking.  It does appear  

Could you provide details on where it fails?

ANd yes, if you don't have some parts installed, building TeX Live
will not work.

Maybe you should first state *WHY* you want to build it? It is a 
highly NON-trivial thing to build the TL beast, and that is
the reason we distribute binaries - meticulously prepared
by a few volunteers - that should run on most archs/oss.

> OK, I did.  The kindest thing I can say about your install procedure is
> that it is non-standard.  The vast majority of open source packages are  
> built with  ./configure && make && make install. Your Build wraps around  

Agreed, besides the fact that even if you do that, you have by far
a running system. These are bare bone binaries, without format dumps
or tex input files you cannot do anything, well, theoretically you
can do everything, but most people are not able.

>  --without-x is incomplete.  It does not disable xdvipdfmx which  
> requires x.  The problem with xdvipdfmx is not identified until well  
> into the make pahase.

The problem is the without xdvipdfmx there is no xetex which is an
integrat part of TeX Live.

Think about it: You want to compile the new space shooter, but don't
have the OpenGL libs installed. How should that work? If you want to
compile TL, then install the necessary dependencies for building.

If you just want to use TeX Live, isntall the binaries we provide, and
you do NOT need to install X or whatever, as long as you don't use
the respective programs.

>   ./configure does not honor many options, for example --datarootdir is   
> ignored.

Agreed, and nobody cares for that. The build system comes with several
README file that you might read.

>   The install process puts many files in unexpected places compared to
> other open source directories.  For example, using --prefix=/usr, the  

Yes, that is expected. And it *only* happens because you used
prefix /usr etc. That is not the way you are supposed to use it.
Please read the README files.

> /usr/bin directory has many links to ../texmf-dist/scripts/.  That  
> translates to /usr/texmf-dist/scripts/ which is not in compliance with  
> the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.  A more reasonable location for  
> scripts would be /usr/share/texlive/scripts or /usr/lib/texlib/scripts.

That is all wrong. You will NOT get a TeX Live installation from that
source build. You have to use the TeX Live installer, or put the support
files yourself in the proper places.

What you are looking at is *only* for compiling the binaries and *NOT*
(I repeat it NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT) for installation of TeX Live.

>   ./configure ignores --mandir.  Placing man files (with --prefix=/usr)  
> in /usr/bin/../texmf/doc/man is not only non-standard, but removes the  
> /usr/bin/man executable program.  The man program cannot find the tex  

Because you build it it the wrong way.

>      bdubbs at linuxfromscratch.org

I would have expected a user/admin/dev of linuxfromscratch to actually
*READ* the documentation that comes with the TL before blindly running
configure/make/make install?

Next time we put a root shell into that and overwrite /bin/sh? Are
you blindly trusting everything you download?

Best wishes

Norbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
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