Improvements to path resolution in tlmgr and other scripts using kpathsea

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Daniel,

(intro: author of tlmgr and texlive infra, and maintainer of texlive-*
in Debian)

> We are currently attempting to package TeXLive in Homebrew: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/83738.

Interesting. I have written one recipe for homebrew/linuxbrew but never
tried to do that for TeX Live!

> kpsewhich –var-value SELFAUTOPARENT.  

We have the same problem in Debian, and we patch out the whole BEGIN
block and auto-switch to user mode in Debian, see:
https://github.com/debian-tex/texlive-nonbin/blob/master/texlive-base/debian/patches/debian-tlmgr-usermode
There are some other patches you might want to look into.
Our (Debian) layout is
	/usr/bin/*	binaries and scripts linked
	/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist	main tree

I can surely help you with the homebrew adaption (if testing is possible
on linux with linuxbrew, I don't have macs around). Feel free to ping
me.

Best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                              https://www.preining.info
Fujitsu Research  +  IFMGA Guide  +  TU Wien  +  TeX Live  + Debian Dev
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