[texhax] does TexLive mess with hard drive or any other part of computer?

[Christopher W. Ryan]

Thanks for the info.

Reason I ask is I am wondering whether my kids could use the TexLive DVD 
on computers at school.  They are Windows boxes, win2000 I think, with 
DVD drives.  School would frown on any software that altered their 
configuration, of course.

I'm not sure, but I think each child has a directory on the network 
server in which to store their data files:  H:\susie, or whatever.  Do 
you think that TexLive could use that directory for the .fmt files, etc? 
  Or does it have to be the C:\ that is the physical hard drive in the 
particular computer?  And are those files executables that could be 
potentially harmful?

I will, of course, discuss this with the computer people at school. 
Simplest solution, I know, is to persuade them to install Tex 
network-wide.  No reason not to install it, except fear of the unknown 
and institutional inertia.

Thanks.

--Chris
-- 
Christopher W. Ryan, MD
SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton
and Wilson Family Practice Residency, Johnson City, NY
cryanatbinghamtondotedu
GnuPG and PGP public keys available at http://pgp.mit.edu

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, 
divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the 
vast and endless sea."  [Antoine de St. Exupery]


Karl Berry wrote:
>     If I use the TexLive DVD in live, noninstalled mode, is anything on the 
>     computer's hard drive, or on any network that the computer might 
>     connected to, modified in any way?  
> 
> Unfortunately, even in live mode, TL requires a writable directory on
> local disk to store (at least) the .fmt files.  Also generated fonts
> and other files, but the .fmt's are the only thing which are absolutely
> necessary.
> 
> It would be theoretically possible to include fmt's in the distribution,
> but so far, we never have.
> 
> As for the network, TeX and friends don't know how to make network
> connections (by default, anyway).
> 
>     Is TexLive completely "isolated" 
>     from the rest of the system?
> 
> I wish it was the case.
> 
> Best,
> karl
>