[tex-k] Web2C 7.5.3

[Olaf Weber]

It looks like the web2c 7.5.3 sources have propagated to CTAN; look
for them in <CTAN:tex-archive/systems/web2c>.  These sources also
contain pdftex 1.20a, Omega 1.23.2.3 (a variant of 1.23.2), e-TeX 2.2,
and Aleph 1.15-21-rc4.  It is the same source tree used in the latest
TeX-live, and close to what the current teTeX beta releases use.  Note
that unless you want to roll your own TeX distribution, you're almost
certainly better off directly using teTeX or TeX-live.


Release notes for Web2C 7.5.3 / kpathsea 3.5.3.

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Important notes
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* Changed defaults.

The expected layout of the texmf tree has changed; this affects font
map files (.map) and font encoding vectors (.enc) in particular.
These are now expected to have their own directories texmf/fonts/map
and texmf/fonts/enc respectively.  This applies only if you use the
texmf.cnf from the sources, of course.

* New programs.

ctie, aleph, pdfxtex have been added.

ctie is a variant of tie that understands cweb's @i file inclusion,
and was written by Julian Gilbey.

aleph aims to combine Omega and e-TeX functionality; the version
supplied is based on Omega 1.15 and e-TeX 2.1.  Giuseppe Bilotta
created aleph from these parts.

pdfxtex is the experimental branch of the pdftex family.

* Incompatible format files.

Format files (.fmt, .base, .mem) are incompatible with previous
versions of Web2C-based TeX, MetaFont, METAPost and friends.

* Building libkpathsea as a shared library.

On some platforms libkpathsea can be built as a shared library, though
I cannot at present recommend that you do so.  But if you did so in
the past, note that a program linked against a 3.4.x version of
libkpathsea cannot use the 3.5.x version.  If you need to keep both
3.4.x and 3.5.x versions around, you're on your own as to how to get
this to work (for example by fiddling with the soname).

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Getting and compiling the sources
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* TeX, METAFONT, MetaPost, supporting programs.

To compile the basic programs, you need the WEB sources and the Web2C
tarball:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web.tar.gz
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c.tar.gz
Both of these must be unpacked in the same directory, as they
complement each other.

To get a working system you also need a texmf tree.  A barebones
version that should be sufficient for compilation can be found here
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/texmf.tar.gz
You're strongly encouraged to obtain a pre-prepared tree that is more
full-featured, for example the texmf tree used by the teTeX
distribution.  The texmf tree must be unpacked in a location where
you'd store shared program data files, like /usr/local/share.

  * The texmf.tar.gz file mentioned above is _old_ and hasn't been
  * tested with the current sources.  I wasn't joking when I suggested
  * using a different texmf tree.

(If you use teTeX's prepackaged texmf tree, note that it should be
unpacked in /usr/local/share/texmf, as it won't create the texmf
directory itself.)

Installation will write files in the "web2c" directory of the texmf
tree.

Out of the box, the sources will work well with a texmf tree but not
with the older style of storing the data files which didn't bundle
directories like that.  In such a case edit texk/kpathsea/texmf.in to
be correct for your site before building.


* Adding e-TeX

To add e-TeX, you need to add the following to the sources
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c-etex.tar.gz
It adds the e-TeX sources to the web2c source tree.  Unpack it in the
same directory in which you unpacked web.tar.gz and web2c.tar.gz.
This must be done before you run configure.

Also add the following to the texmf tree:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/etexlib.tar.gz
  * Beware: this set of files is old and untested.

This tarball adds e-TeX documentation the texmf tree:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/etexdoc.tar.gz

* Adding Omega

To add Omega, you need to add the following to the sources
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c-omega.tar.gz
It adds the Omega sources to the web2c source tree.  Unpack it in the
same directory in which you unpacked web.tar.gz and web2c.tar.gz.
This must be done before you run configure.

Also add the following to the texmf tree:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/omegalib.tar.gz
  * Beware: this set of files is outdated.

This tarball adds Omega documentation the texmf tree:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/omegadoc.tar.gz
  * Beware: this set of files is outdated.


* Adding pdfTeX

To add pdfTeX, you need to add the following to the sources
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c-pdftex.tar.gz
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c-pdftexlibs.tar.gz
The first tarball adds the pdfTeX sources, the second adds the sources
for libraries that pdfTeX requires, including a version of xpdf set up
to compile into a library.  Unpack them in the same directory in which
you unpacked web.tar.gz and web2c.tar.gz.  This must be done before
you run configure.

Also add the following to the texmf tree:
        ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/pdftexlib.tar.gz
  * Beware: this set of files is outdated.


* Adding Aleph

To add Aleph, you need to add the following to the sources
	ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/web2c-aleph.tar.gz
It adds the Aleph sources to the web2c source tree.  Unpack it in the
same directory in which you unpacked web.tar.gz and web2c.tar.gz.
This must be done before you run configure.  You will also need
the Omega sources for otangle.

-- 
Olaf Weber

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