[tex-live] Hook in kpathsea for files not found?

[Zdenek Wagner]

2013/2/22 Dr. Werner Fink <werner at suse.de>:
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 07:39:17AM +0900, Norbert Preining wrote:
>> Hi Werner,
>>
>> On Do, 21 Feb 2013, Dr. Werner Fink wrote:
>> > as I've been asked from users if it is possible to provide a message for
>> > each file not found, I'd like to asked for a feature in the kpathsea library.
>>
>> Do you want a hook into kpsewhich where you can plug in some other code,
>> or lets say at the end of the tex run a list of missing files?
>
> Yeah, indeed somehow in this direction.
>
>> I mean, TeX already tells you if a file is missing, what else is it
>> there?
>
> Yes I know, nevertheless many users do not know how to handle this.
>
>> I don't know about SuSE, but in Debian one could use the COntents file for
>> the respective archive and search for the file, and provide the correct
>> package name.
>
> This job is already done by a perl script generating the rpm spec files
> for the binaries packages, the TDS/FHS filesystem + scheme/collection packages,
> as well as the round about 6000 noarch packages.  All rpm packages include the
> provided as well as required packages generated by scanning texlive.tlpdb.xz.
> Beside this also all files and their names will be scanned to generated a list
> of provided and required files, e.g. a short example with a small package
> texlive-yhmath:
>
>   g231 /suse/werner> rpm -q --provides texlive-yhmath
>   tex(OMXyhex.fd)
>   tex(yhcmex10.tfm)
>   tex(yhcmex10.vf)
>   tex(yhmath.map)
>   tex(yhmath.sty)
>   tex(yrcmex10.tfm)
>   texlive-yhmath = 2012.60.svn15878-56.1
>
>   g231 /suse/werner> rpm -q --requires texlive-yhmath
>   /bin/sh
>   coreutils
>   grep
>   rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
>   rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
>   sed
>   tex(amsmath.sty)
>   texlive >= 2012
>   texlive-yhmath-fonts >= 2012
>   rpmlib(PayloadIsLzma) <= 4.4.6-1
>
> this list shows provides/requires written as `tex(...)' and the package
> resolver can handle this:
>
>   g231 /suse/werner> sudo zypper in 'tex(amsmath.sty)'
>   Loading repository data...
>   Reading installed packages...
>   'tex(amsmath.sty)' not found in package names. Trying capabilities.
>   'texlive-amsmath' providing 'tex(amsmath.sty)' is already installed.
>   Resolving package dependencies...
>   Nothing to do.
>
>> > Such a feature may provide the possibility to show messages how to install a
>> > missed package like texlive-colortab or a virtual dependency like
>> > `tex(colortab.sty)' and how to install them.  This would be useful for TeXLive
>> > upstream as well as for distributions providing TeXLive packages[1,2].
>>
>> There is some feature like that, and in principle one *could* implement
>> it already, as kpse lib calls mktex* scripts in case a file is not found
>> (if configured). THese scripts in turn *could* call tlmgr (on uptream TL)
>> or any other package manager to show a warning, or download the file
>> on the fly, or ...
>> http://tug.org/texinfohtml/kpathsea.html#mktex-scripts
>>
>> THe mktextex script is disabled by default, but enabling it cold help.
>>
>> Unfortunately, this will not help in all cases, I remember some LaTeX
>> \IfFileExists were problematics, but I cannot remember exactely.
>>
>> Yeah, so in principle everything can be done with the mktex* scripts.
>>
>> Does this help?
>
> Hmmm ... for messages like
>
>   LaTeX Error: File `multirow.sty' not found.
>   ! Font U/pzd/m/n/10=pzdr at 10.0pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found
>
> I guess it does not help, does it?  For bash there is a completion extension
> which can be used to give the user a hint how to install a missed package for
> the command which was not found in path.  Something similar for TeXLive would
> be nice to have :)
>
$ tlmgr search --global --file multirow.sty
tlmgr: package repository http://ftp.cvut.cz/tex-archive/systems/texlive/tlnet
multirow:
        texmf-dist/tex/latex/multirow/multirow.sty

$ tlmgr search --global --file pzdr.tfm
tlmgr: package repository http://ftp.cvut.cz/tex-archive/systems/texlive/tlnet
zapfding:
        texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/zapfding/pzdr.tfm

>
>    Werner
>
> --
>   "Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having
>           a peeing section in a swimming pool." -- Edward Burr



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