[tex-live] TL & TeX4ht

[Vladimir Volovich]

"CFR" == Clea F Rees writes:

 CFR> Is there an easy way of obtaining and installing the many
 CFR> scripts provided by TeX4ht to supplement the core installation
 CFR> included in TL?

 CFR> Note: I know it is possible to do it but I don't know an easy
 CFR> way of doing it. I did it by essentially preparing a full
 CFR> install of TeX4ht and then figuring out what was already in TL
 CFR> and deleting it. The rest I then installed as a
 CFR> supplement. Unfortunately, this process seemed to require
 CFR> installing at least symlinks in the main TeX tree which I wasn't
 CFR> terribly happy about. It was also a rather fiddly process. I'm
 CFR> looking for a method I could recommend to other people and I
 CFR> hesitate to suggest anything which requires (1) making changes
 CFR> to the main TeX tree or (2) involves this much messing around.

In the Debian system, only the following tex4ht executables are
provided in the /usr/bin/ directory (see below for more discussion):

  ht htlatex httex httexi mk4ht t4ht tex4ht

TeX Live adds on top of them the following:

  htcontext htmex htxelatex htxetex

Now, here is the explanation from the Debian's README.scripts file:

  From v.20011214-1, the main shell scripts (httex, htlatex and httexi) are
  provided in the usual /usr/bin directory.  The full range of other scripts
  provided with the package are stored separately, in /usr/share/tex4ht, so as
  not to conflict with any scripts or programs of the same names that might
  belong in other Debian packages. From version 20050216 onwards, the same
  command *names* can be used as arguments to a portmanteau script mk4ht
  which is placed in the /usr/bin directory. [...]
  The Debian versions of the scripts all set the PATH environment
  variable at their start, to find the other scripts in /usr/share/tex4ht, if
  not already set.  Scripts from /usr/share/tex4ht should not normally have to
  be called directly, although they can be if needed.

it seems highly preferable NOT to put the plethora of tex4ht's scripts
into the main bin directory, but, following Debian's approach, put
them in the texmf/scripts/tex4ht directory, and access via the
"portmanteau script mk4ht".

All functionality of tex4ht is available via the mk4ht script, and
there is no need to put the "full range of other scripts" into the bin
directory.

Best,
v.