Default Paper Size

[Richard Graham]

I'm wondering if someone with Fedora "package-fu" could create a
"fake" RPM that would "satisfy" all other Fedora TeX/LaTeX/texlive
dependencies.

Would that prevent `dnf` from installing the Fedora texlive package
and all its dependencies?  If it worked as hoped, if you have already
installed the full TexLive from TUG/etc., then everything would still
work and there would be no need to download the gigantic Fedora
texlive.

This seems like playing with fire but if it worked it sure would save
a lot of disk space.

On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 2:17 PM Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am not aware of "equiv TL packages" in Redhat based distros, maybe
> Jindřich Nový could know more (I am sending cc). Anyway, you have to
> install these packages because dnf/rpm dependencies requires it. On
> the other hand, when the installed tools call text binaries, they use
> whatever is first at PATH. Thus you can have TeX Live from TUG and the
> Fedora packages will never be used. I have both with TL from TUG at
> the beginning of PATH and usually I do not care that I have the Fedora
> packages because my disk is large enough but sometimes, e.g. on a
> notepad with a small disk, installation of TL packages consumes too
> much space. This is a problem of R-project. I am not an R programmer,
> I will never use TeX for typesetting R documentation, I only want to
> run trivial R programs written by someone else, yet I am forced to
> install the TL packages due to dependencies. And it is the same on a
> Mac if I need the R-project from macports. In fact I am not allowed to
> used the R-project on some of my computers because i have no space for
> TeX. Thus the ability of ignoring the dependences on TeX while
> accepting other dependences will be useful.
>
> Zdeněk Wagner
> http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
>
> čt 14. 4. 2022 v 2:20 odesílatel Norbert Preining
> <norbert at preining.info> napsal:
> >
> > Hi Troy,
> >
> > (also answering here, but please refrain from double posting, first try
> > one, then the other).
> >
> > first of all, I have no idea about Fedora's packaging of TL, but I know
> > how I did the packaging in Debian, and I know upstream TL quite well.
> >
> > > The command "tlmgr paper letter" does not seem to affect LuaTeX
> >
> > I don't think that tlmgr paper will work out of the box in Fedora.
> > tlmgr is a package manager, and making it work would mean interfering
> > with rpm/dnf/whatever fedora uses. Thus, I guess that your changes
> > didn't work.
> >
> > > > sudo tlmgr paper letter
> > > tlmgr: setting paper size for dvipdfmx to letter:
> > > /usr/share/texlive/texmf-config/dvipdfmx/dvipdfmx.cfg
> > > tlmgr: setting paper size for dvips to letter:
> > > /usr/share/texlive/texmf-config/dvips/config/config.ps
> > > tlmgr: setting paper size for pdftex to letter:
> > > /usr/share/texlive/texmf-config/tex/generic/tex-ini-files/pdftexconfig.tex
> > > tlmgr: setting paper size for psutils to letter:
> > > /usr/share/texlive/texmf-config/psutils/paper.cfg
> > > tlmgr: setting paper size for xdvi to letter:
> > > /usr/share/texlive/texmf-config/xdvi/XDvi
> > > tlmgr: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.
> >
> > It is strange that there is no other indication of what went wrong.
> > If you can reproduce this with
> >         tlmgr -v paper letter
> > (or even -v -v) and send me the output, I can take a look.
> >
> > > This is almost certainly a Fedora TeX Live packaging issue, and it could be
> >
> > Yes, so I suggest contacting Fedora about this. Nothing we here can fix.
> > The least this list (luatex), but even the main tex-live mailing list
> > wouldn't be perfect (although some fedora users might help you there).
> >
> > > resolved (I'm confident) by manually installing the binary TeX Live
> > > distribution directly from TUG (which I have done many times before).
> >
> > Yes, that is what I do, too.
> >
> > > However, this is an undesirable solution because it may cause other
> > > packages (that depend on TeX Live) to be "confused" and also would result
> > > in twice the storage used (having side-by-side installations of TeX Live).
> >
> > confusion comes from PATH setup. You have to make sure that the TUG TL
> > comes first in the PATH.
> >
> > Concerning storage size: In Debian you can use the "equivs" command to
> > create a package that *fakes* an installation, see
> >         https://www.tug.org/texlive/debian.html
> > under "Integrating vanilla TeX Live with Debian"
> >
> > I am pretty sure there is something similar for Fedora, too.
> >
> > >    - Is it possible to change the default paper size without having to use
> > >    tlmgr?  Does tlmgr call/execute a particular command that could possibly be
> > >    executed manually?
> >
> > Change the configuration files used. The question is where these files
> > are located in Fedora. Maybe in /etc/texmf ?
> >
> > Best
> >
> > Norbert
> >
> > --
> > PREINING Norbert                              https://www.preining.info
> > Mercari Inc.     +     IFMGA Guide     +     TU Wien     +     TeX Live
> > GPG: 0x860CDC13   fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0 ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13
>