[tex-live] compiling problems

[Karl Berry]

    Looking up the sources I see the `--enable-tetex-build' variable.

It is supposed to be enabled by default, when configuring in TL.  I
can't remember all the details.  My wild guess is that by starting the
configure in the texk/ subdir, its enabling got omitted.

    This is completely undocumented...

The TL build process as a whole is pretty much undocumented, except for
the Build script and the tiny README files I've sprinkled around.  One
day, I hope ...

    Since TeXLive doesn't contain libkpathsea 

I don't understand ... it certainly gets built (and used).  How about
doing a normal build and copying it to wherever you want it?

    I strongly suggest to add documentation for this flag to
    kpathsea's (or whatever's) README.

But what if you don't want it for your standalone library?  
And anyway, if what you want is libkpathsea, why configure in texk?
Personally, I'd try configuring in kpathsea itself.  (I have no idea if
it will work or not.)

The whole concept of building single parts of TL is even more
problematic than building the whole thing.  The best thing would be if
kpathsea/web2c/dvips/etc. still had separate releases, but this does not
seem like it's going to happen.  There's only so many hours in the day.

Sorry,
k