[tex-live] Re: Bizarre perforce situation

[Thomas Esser]

>     % The tree containing the runtime files closely related to the specific
>     % program version used:
>     TEXMFMAIN = @texmf@
> 
>     % The main distribution tree:
>     TEXMFDIST = @texmf at -dist
> 
>     ...
> 
>     TEXMF = {$HOMETEXMF,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!TEXMFDIST}

A $ is missing before TEXMFDIST and one line needs to be added to
texk/kpathsea/Makefile.in:

--- old/Makefile.in   Sat Feb 15 14:55:19 2003
+++ ./Makefile.in       Sat Feb  7 22:54:57 2004
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@
 # likely to have been mangled as well.
        echo '/^ *TEXMFMAIN[ =]/s%\$$TEXMF%$(texmf)%' >>$@
        echo '/^[% ]*TEXMFLOCAL[ =]/s%\$$TEXMF%$(texmf)%' >>$@
+       echo '/^[% ]*TEXMFDIST[ =]/s%\$$TEXMF%$(texmf)%' >>$@
        echo '/^[% ]*VARTEXMF[ =]/s%\$$TEXMF%$(texmf)%' >>$@
        echo '/^[% ]*TEXMFCNF[ =]/s%\$$TEXMF%$(texmf)%' >>$@
 # And fill in the last clause of TEXMFCNF with an absolute path.

I just have tried this setup with teTeX and I am *very* pleased with the
result. It *enourmously" eases updates to the distributed texmf trees
for our users. E.g. a regular teTeX user just can update his system
by replacing texmf-dist with a new tree (and eventually rebuilding
all formats).

This was *far* more difficult before. And, if you call texconfig,
you get copies of your config files from texmf-dist to texmf, so that
the distributed files remain unchanged and the modification are stored
separate from the distributed files.

I love it!

Thomas