[tex-live] -var and -local [was:] install for compr...

[Karl Berry]

      - formats will always and up in VARTEXMF if this is set, else in
      TEXMFMAIN (I think that we all agree on this)

Yes.

      - config files are no longer copied automatically; I make this a
      step that the user (or the installation procedure) has to take
      explicitly

Ok, I guess.

      - I introduce a special variable TEXMFCONFIG (argh, this is close to
        TEXMFCNF and TEXCONFIG...), so people are not forced to use
        either TEXMFLOCAL or VARTEXMF for this. TeX Live's setup can use
        TEXMFCONFIG=$VARTEXMF is this is what everybody wants.

That sounds fine, but it would be even better if teTeX and TeX Live do
the same thing.  Would you be willing to have teTeX use VARTEXMF by
default also?

I can agree that "some users" might find it useful to keep the locally
changed config files, if they hand-edited them, but I think this is far,
far, less common than just installing the package, running texconfig,
and that's it, never hand-editing anything.

If the config file tree is settable from the cmd line, one way or
another, as I assume it will be, then users (or TL's install scripts)
can conveniently override the default, in any case, and we can document
the possibilities.

Thanks,
k