[texdoc] problem with texdoc and finding manuals on Debian

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2012-08-06 at 04:30:29 +0900, Norbert Preining wrote:

 > Hi Manuel, hi all,
 > 
 > (please keep the Cc, thanks)
 > 
 > Here on Debian a strange thing happens, namely that texdoc does
 > not find the pgfmanual. But first some explanations:
 > 
 > On Debian:
 > * most of TeX Live is installed into /usr/share/texlive/{texmf-dist,texmf}
 >   (ie TEXLIVEROOT is /u/s/texlive)
 > * some packages that are packaged separately in Debian install into
 >   another tree /usr/share/texmf which is called TEXMFDEBIAN and
 >   added to the TEXMF var>
 >   TEXMF = {$TEXMFCONFIG,$TEXMFVAR,$TEXMFHOME,$TEXMFSYSCONFIG,!!$TEXMFSYSVAR,!!$TEXMFDEBIAN,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFDIST}
 > * one example is pgf, which is packaged separately, and ships pgfmanual.pdf
 >   as
 > 	/usr/share/texmf/doc/pgf/pgfmanual.pdf.gz
 >   (note the compression!)
 > * texdoc is configured to search/use compressed docs, too
 > 
 > Now, in this setup, texdoc pgf or texdoc pgfmanual does not show
 > the pgfmanual at all, not even as option.
 > 
 > BUT, as soon as I uncompress the pgfmanual.pdf.gz to .pdf only,
 > run once more mktexlsr on the directory (so that the proper file
 > is listed), then
 > 	texdoc pgf
 > shows me the right manual.
 > 
 > Now, according to the original submitter that *was* working before
 > in Debian with the TeX Live packages of 2009. But then, the tree names
 > were different, so I wouldn't be surprised.
 > 
 > No I have no idea why this happens, that is the reason I ask. It 
 > *might* have to do with the dumped tlpdb texdoc is using? But 
 > honestly I don't know.
 > 
 > If anyone has an idea, please let me know

Hi Norbert,
I don't know why this happens, but I see other problems with
compressed PDF files.  I suppose that texdoc de-compresses the file
supposed to be displayed in a temporary directory before a viewer is
started.  Some PDF files contain hyperlinks to other PDF files on the
file system.  Since hyperlinks are evaluated by the viewer, I suppose
that they don't work.

You can try "texdoc vntex" and click on one of the blue links on the
first page.  Are those hyperlinks supported by Debian?  

BTW, since TL enables object stream compression by default now, I
don't expect a significant decrease in file size when compressing them
again.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
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