fixing kpathsea

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Andrew,

> 1) I have used gentoo's package manager to install gentoo's texlive
> packages onto the system. I use gentoo's package manager to update those
> packages.

The binaries are in /usr/bin, I suppose?

> 2) I installed a TUG install of TL into my user subdirectory, which was
> /[$HOME]/tex-local/texlive/2017/ (despite that I keep updating it). This is

Thus the binaries are in /[$HOME]/tex-local/texlive/2017/bin/[ARCH]/

> a separate install, and I use this tlmgr to update this install *only*. I
> am uncertain why, but this local install uses root permissions, but only

What does that mean, uses root permissions? What are the permissions of
the files?
	ls -l  /[$HOME]/tex-local/texlive/2017/bin/[ARCH]/tlmgr

> updates its local subdirectory and packages. Nothing from the TUG install
> touches system directories or paths.


> 3) gentoo hasn't updated its texlive packages since 2017, but has now
> released new distribution packages. I am trying to install *these only*
> using gentoo's installer. They are failing with the below error.

Well, then the gentoo packages are broken, right? I guess they are 2018
or 2019, right?
They use the correct /usr/bin binaries, but the calls to fmtutil
don't work, because fmtutil needs mktexlsr.pl, and gentoo seems having
failed to install that one.

Looking at https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1098680-start-0.html
I see this is a common issue, and that means that either the gentoo
packages are broken (what I assume), or there is a misconfiguration.

Can you show me the content of
	/etc/texmf/texmf.d/05searchpaths.cnf
and the output of
	/usr/bin/kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFROOT
	/usr/bin/kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFMAIN
	/usr/bin/kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFDIST


Furthermore, **HOW** do you try to update the gentoo packages, as root
or using sudo?

In any case, send the value of $PATH for **root** when the update is
started.

To make this clear: You **MUST**NOT** have 
	/[$HOME]/tex-local/texlive/2017/bin/[ARCH]/
in the PATH of root!!!


> > That is a Gentoo bug. They have not patched tlmgr.pl so that it finds
> > the correct modules.
> >
> 
> gentoo's devs keep telling me that this is an error with my own kpathsea
> setup, and not with the packages. Further, they tell me to add the TUG TL

That is wrong, at 99% ...

> In short: I want to manage my user-directory TUG TL using its own tlmgr,
> but use the system packages to update the system TL, and not have them
> conflict, or interact in any way. How do I do this?

- ensure the PATH for root is correct (depends on whether you use
  sudo, sudo -E, su, su -, ...)
- ensure that the TEXMFROOT variable expands correctly.

Best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
Accelia Inc. + IFMGA ProGuide + TU Wien + JAIST + TeX Live + Debian Dev
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