[tex-live] Re: TeX Live UNIX shell scripts

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On Fri, Apr 19, 2002 at 03:08:09PM +0400, Vladimir Volovich wrote:
>  SR> sorry, I am always aware that someone may burn a CD and *really*
>  SR> test it...
> 
> hmm... does testing the CD depend on presence of up-to-date
> source.tar.bz2?

it might, if you want to reassure yourself that the binaries
come from the source.

its also a matter of keeping track of the space used on the CD.
I dont want to get a nasty surprise if the .tar.bz2 gets 0.5Mb larger.
  
> diff -r alpha-linux alphaev5-osf4.0d | grep -v Binary
> 
> i will not put here it's 100K output... ;-)
> 
mine says

[spqr]/texlive/Master/bin:diff -r alpha-linux alphaev5-osf4.0d | grep -v Binary
Only in alphaev5-osf4.0d: mktexfmt
[spqr]/texlive/Master/bin:

>  SR> I don't agree. If the source is stable, and everyone recompiles,
>  SR> the the scripts are all the same, with no doubts.
> 
> but the practice shows that this is not the case.

thats because the CD is not ready for release.
 
> i'm sure that all releases of TeX Live which were ever made, did not
> contain the same versions of scripts on all unix platforms.

I am afraid that is true...

>  SR> and I'll have to worry about other things instead! like changing
>  SR> all documentation and scripts to add an extra directory to $PATH.
> 
> that is a one-time change.
> but maintaining the same versions of scripts on all unix platforms
> requires permanent activity.

no, it just requires someone to rebuild from source each time
the source tree changes.  but that is needed whether it is a Perl, sh, or C
file.

-- 
Sebastian Rahtz      OUCS Information Manager
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431