[tex-k] Re: web2c-7.5.4, tetex-2.99.10-beta -- patches and problem

[Thomas Esser]

Oh, well, call me mad or whatever... I have now come up with the
following setup:

  TEXMF = {!!$TEXMFCONFIG,!!$TEXMFVAR,$TEXMFHOME,!!$TEXMFSYSCONFIG,!!$TEXMFSYSVAR,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFDIST}

TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR are still the "write pointers" for my
tools. TEXMFSYSCONFIG and TEXMFSYSVAR are new variables. These indicate
where system wide changes should be stored. TEXMFHOME has the right
priority now.

Defaults:
  TEXMFVAR = $HOME/.texmf-var
  TEXMFCONFIG = $HOME/.texmf-config
  TEXMFSYSVAR = @texmf at -var (@texmf@ is $TEXMFMAIN at build time)
  TEXMFSYSCONFIG = @texmf at -config

When my tools are run in "make global changes" mode, then the values of
TEXMFSYSCONFIG and TEXMFSYSVAR are assigned to TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR
resp. Currently, this mode is invoked by running a wrapper script
(texconfig-sys, updmap-sys, fmtutil-sys).

Well, I could have used TEXMFMAIN as a fixed location instead of using
TEXMFSYSCONFIG / TEXMFSYSVAR. But, I think that users will appreciate
that it becomes very easy to seek for changed configuration files or
to rebuild the var-area: "rm -rf $HOME/.texmf-var; texconfig init". If
these files are mixed with TEXMFMAIN, one can no longer throw these
directories away...

> Hardwiring $TEXMFMAIN is certainly OK, if "make install" does the same.

It no longer does... It uses TEXMFSYSVAR.

> (a) The default TEXMFVAR=TEXMFCONFIG=TEXMFMAIN
> (b) TEXMFHOME coming too late (after all three of the above)

All solved now.

> And I would very much prefer to have
> 	: ${MT_FEATURES=appendonlydir:varfonts}
> the default in mktex.cnf.

Done.

If people want a "no globally writable area", they can even have this now
(by using texmfvar instead of varfonts).

Thanks Peter + Eddie + Karl for suggestions in this thread.

Are we all happy with the solution as described?

Thomas