[tex-live] texmf.cnf problem for DevanagariTeX in Ubuntu904/Texlive

[Zdenek Wagner]

2009/10/28 P. P. Narayanaswami <swami at mun.ca>:
> I use Texlive that is bundled with Ubuntu 9.04 with the texmf root
> directory residing at /usr/share/texmf.  I wanted to install DevanagariTeX2.15,
> whose filesystem confirms to TDS.  The instruction that comes with the README
> file is  is to edit the texmf.cnf file (in web2c directory)
> and modify the TEXMF variable. Insert the line
>    DEVNAG = /path/to/velthuis
> and then modify the TEXMF definition as:
>    TEXMF = {!!$DEVNAG,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFMAIN}
> Rebuild the file database.
>
The readme file was written before Velthuis Devanagari was included in
TeX Live. Now you have to do it only if you wish to use the latest
package from CVS. I hope that all packages have been converted to
*.deb so that you should have everything. There are just some
improvements concerning Vedic accents that are not yet on CTAN and
thus not on TeX Live.

> When I do exactly as above, nothing happens and  kpathsea library is not finding
> the files. On looking at the texmf.cnf file in /texmf/web2c,
> I find the following precautions at the very beginning of the file:
>
> % This file is automatically generated by update-texmf
> % PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY. It is meant to be generated from
> % files in /etc/texmf/texmf.d/.
> % While changes made by users will not be overwritten, they will cause
> % you trouble. You will be shown the differences between the edited and
> % the newly created file. We will try to merge our and your changes, but
> % that might not always work, and you will probably have to edit again.
> % Therefore, if you want a smooth upgrade, please edit the files
> % in /etc/texmf/texmf.d,
> % or create an additional one (with the extension '.cnf'),
> % and invoke update-texmf.
>
> What does this mean?  Am I not allowed to edit and change the texmf.cnf
> file, and in that case, how can I accomplish the changes need to install
> DevanagariTeX?  Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz