[texworks] Project Management type stuff

[Paul A Norman]

Thank you very much Reinhard,

I think that has sorrted it all out for me.

When it is not approapiate for a package to be in the .tex files
directory, nor on CTAN then ...

It looks to me like an admin / education issue if someone can't get a
package to load thorugh a relative path, rather than an area where
TeXWorks could help, guidence on 1) placing packages in their local
system where their *TeX distro is then 2) told to find them.

Paul

On 16 October 2010 14:18, Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:
> On 16 October 2010 Paul A Norman wrote:
>
>  > Thank you Reinhard,
>  >
>  > This has been put forward to me on another forum...
>  >
>  > > Putting it more crudely, if you specify a relative, absolute, or
>  > > partial path in a \usepackage command, LaTeX will try to obey it,
>  > > and won't use texmf.cnf.
>
> Kpathsea is built into the binaries.  Thus, LaTeX can't avoid texmf.cnf.
> All \input, \openin, and \openout primitives are caught by kpathsea
> and access is granted if settings in texmf.cnf are appropriate.
>
>  > However from what you are saying, it would appear that a flag has to
>  > be set in  texmf.cnf?
>
> By default there is no restriction when *reading* files because
> openin_any is set to "a" (any).  You don't have to change anything if
> all you need is \input{../foo.tex}.
>
> If the administrator sets openin_any=p (p=paranoid) in texmf.cnf,
> you'l get the error message:
>
>  pdflatex: Not reading from ../foo.tex (openin_any = p).
>
>  ! LaTeX Error: File `../foo.tex' not found.
>
> Please note that the first error message comes from the engine
> (pdflatex/kpathsea) and the second one from LaTeX.  LaTeX doesn't see
> the file and even doesn't know why.
>
> Even if you allow to read files in dot-directories, you get a warning
> message when you are loading LaTeX macro packages via \usepackage.
>
>  (../parskip.sty
>
>  LaTeX Warning: You have requested package `../parskip',
>               but the package provides `parskip'.
>
>
>  > And I take it that texmf.cnf. is an essential part of all LaTeX
>  > distros?
>
> It's part of all Web2c based distros.  There is certainly something
> like texmf.cnf in MikTeX, though it might have another name and a
> different syntax.
>
>  > Is it concievable that a dedicated procedure in C++ level of
>  > TeXWorks could, if it proves necessary, alter these flags at a
>  > User's specific request?
>
> With TeX Live's default settings it's not necessary.  You can already
> read all files.  And if the admin sets openin_any=p, he might have a
> good reason.  There is always a tradeoff between convenience and
> security and I think that if the admin chooses a more restrictive
> setting, it shouldn't be circumvented by programs like TeXworks.
>
> It's easy enough, at least, to write a LaTeX file which includes your
> private ssh keys as a PDF attachment.  Yes, even granting read access
> to arbitrary files can be very dangerous.
>
> Regards,
>  Reinhard
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
> Marschnerstr. 25
> D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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