[tex-live] pretest: epstopdf overwrites existing files

[Robin Fairbairns]

Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org> wrote:

>     Or with option "append", it searches for PDF files first (and
>     doesn't trigger the conversion if the PDF file exists.)
> 
> Thanks very much for that.  I've changed prepend to append in
> graphics.cfg; that seems safer for the general TeX Live setting, while
> still providing the conversion functionality in the common case.

i hope you mean epstopdf.cfg

> FWIW, I did read the epstopdf documentation but did not figure out that
> this was the implication of 
> "Puts the extension .eps at the end of the graphics extension list".

after this thread started, i re-read the documentation (yes: printed it
out, given that i can hardly read typeset stuff on screen).  and i too
hadn't understood the implications of the default prepend when i first
read it when the package appeared in its present form.

> A few extra words of explanation in the documentation would be welcome.
> Even just "search" in front of "list".
> 
> (If you disagree, fine.  No need to reply. :)

i imagine that the "ordinary person" won't even realise the list has an
implied order; i don't believe it's obvious from the graphics pkg
documentation.  (it's easy to imagine all these things happen as if by
magic, which presumably means that some associative lookup engine
descends from the sky...)

a few sample .cfg files, with a description of their actual effect,
would be better than a single word change, i believe.  (i'll write
those, if it would help, heiko.)

robin