[XeTeX] xelatex and geometry

[Jonathan Kew]

On 26 Mar 2008, at 6:04 pm, Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard wrote:

> Hum, my question is certainly stupid, but I can't help wondering:  
> if the file
> is in /tex/xelatex, when it is found we already know that we are  
> running
> XeTeX, aren't we? So, why the \@ifundefined{XeTeXversion}?

Files under $TEXMF/tex/xelatex may be found by other engines as well,  
so they should take precautions. In most cases, one of the last  
options in the path is $TEXMF/tex//, which searches everything under  
the /tex/ directory. The more format-specific directories within that  
are used to give preference to different subtrees when using  
different formats, but it would be risky (at best) to assume they'll  
never be found by "foreign" formats.

So if there's a geometry.cfg somewhere under $TEXMF/tex/latex, for  
example, that will be used by latex; but if the only one in the  
entire tree is the xelatex version, everyone will use that.

JK