[tex-live] install-tl: fall back to lzma binaries in $PATH

[Jukka Salmi]

Karl Berry --> tex-live (2008-10-31 17:22:37 -0500):
> Hi Jukka, 
> 
>     what about changing install-tl to search for lzma binaries in $PATH 
> 
> Thanks, but I don't think it's a good idea because random versions of
> lzma will likely fail in mysterious ways, due to changes in the format
> and bugs in the utilities.  (Which is not the case for wget.)

Hmm, but the situation right now is:

  o If there are lzma tools for the user's platform available on the
    DVD they are used.
  o If they are not available, install-tl fails.

The patch changes this to:

  o If there are lzma tools for the user's platform available on the
    DVD they are used.
  o If they are not available, install-tl still has a chance to succeed
    by trying tools possibly found in $PATH. This means it's possible
    for the user to provide working lzma tools without changing the
    (read-only) installation media. Thus the user is the culprit if
    installation fails in mysterious ways ;-)


> It seems to me the best thing to do is get the netbsd support into the
> distribution instead of trying to work around it.  Can we do that?

By just adding NetBSD lzma tools to the TL installation media, or by
adding NetBSD binaries from a compelete TL build?

However, I don't think this is worth trying: currently there are 15
supported machine architectures, 3 supported ways to run X11 and 2
supported OS release versions at any given time; providing the needed 30
lzma bundles or the 90 TL binary bundles probably doesn't make sense.
And even if it did, those who use local TL patches would still not use
them.


Regards, Jukka

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