[twg-tds] storing scripts in the texmf tree

[Olaf Weber]

Paul Vojta writes:
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2004 at 09:43:41PM +0100, Olaf Weber wrote:
>> Paul Vojta writes:
>>> Of course, the logical next step would be a file system (kpsefs).

>>> :-)

>> :-P

>> One possibility I'm exploring is using a 'texmf.zip' for the texmf
>> tree.  We have again the issue that (like building the hash table from
>> the ls-R file) building the index into the zip will be a fairly
>> expensive operation, which could conceivably benefit from things like
>> daemonizing or sharing.

> Actually, when I wrote :-) I didn't mean that I was happy at the idea
> of a kpsefs; what I really meant was that I was joking.

I do realise that.  But .zip is a usefulful format for distribution
purposes and being able to use it directly would be useful.

>> It is also interesting to see just how large the datastructures have
>> become.  Take the ls-R file in texmf-dist of TeX-live:
>> 
>> texmf-dist$ wc ls-R
>> 53964  50188 643296 ls-R
>> 
>> (That's lines, words, and bytes)

> I'm continually dismayed at the amount of effort that goes into opening
> a few files.  (I'm one who likes short wide trees, not wide narrow ones.)

Of course the tds effectively mandates the latter, with all attendant
problems, inorder to avoid having directories with thousands of
entries.  Just to give an idea of how the trees are currently
populated:

texmf-dist$ for i in *; do echo -n "$i        " && ls -R1 $i | wc; done
aliases       1       1       8
bibtex      502     413    5415
chktex        1       1       8
context      51      46     546
doc       12749   11804  152581
dvipdfm       6       5      54
dvips       264     220    2616
eomega       15      11     138
fontname      2       2      19
fonts     19680   18891  232080
hbf2gf       17      17     180
index.html    1       1      11
ispell       10      10     177
java          2       2      15
ls-R          1       1       5
makeindex   100      80    1003
metafont     40      34     350
metapost    154     133    1462
mft           7       7      57
omega       344     321    4419
pdftex       14      11     147
perl          7       7      75
psutils       3       3      29
source     6259    5520   72355
tex        7826    6958   86608
tex4ht     2871    2673   35105
texdoctk      4       4      65
tpm        2926    2920   43163
ttf2pk       15      15     151
vtex         10       9      96
web2c        22      22     257
xdvi          2       2      11
texmf-dist$ cd fonts/
texmf-dist/fonts$ for i in *; do echo -n "$i  " && ls -R1 $i | wc; done
afm        1516    1422   20904
enc         198     172    1956
map         390     314    3947
misc         23      21     227
ofm          45      39     485
ovf          45      39     485
ovp          38      33     409
pk           31      26     290
source     5533    5382   59906
tfm        6919    6689   82412
truetype     46      42     466
type1      3096    3000   36846
vf         1773    1698   18919
texmf-dist/fonts$ cd ../tex
texmf-dist/tex$ for i in *; do echo -n "$i    " && ls -R1 $i | wc; done
alatex        5       4      41
amstex       16      14     151
context     424     419    5362
cslatex      27      27     289
csplain      26      26     306
enctex       46      46     610
eplain        3       3      30
fontinst     60      57     592
generic    1082    1024   12410
jadetex       7       7      84
latex      5553    4837   57559
latex3       39      33     401
mex          15      13     122
physe        10       8      82
phyzzx       13      11     123
plain       305     268    3107
platex        8       7      81
psizzl       25      23     306
startex      10       9     114
texinfo       6       6      77
texsis       46      44     514
xmltex       38      34     425
ytex         15      14     137

-- 
Olaf Weber

               (This space left blank for technical reasons.)