[tex-live] TEXMFLOCAL

Lars Madsen daleif at imf.au.dk
Sat Nov 22 21:34:11 CET 2008


Karl Berry wrote:
> Hi Lars,
> 
>     No i instructed the installer to install in the same directory as I was 
>     installing from, basically telling it that the installation dir is .
> 
> In case of continuing problems, I suggest specifying the absolute path
> to . rather than ".".  I at least have never tested specifying relative
> paths to the installer.
> 
>     Tough on my system I'd actually like texmf-local to be in 2008/, we use 
>     our own texmf tree for local stuff that.
> 
> You can explicitly set the texmf-local location in the <d>irectory menu,
> but then you likely already knew that.
> 
> Best,
> Karl

I just donwloaded install-tl-unx.tar.gz

unpacked it and ran

./install-tl/install-tl

in it I chose the smallest latex installation (we are doing a test so 
that is fine)

under TEXDIR I specified '.'

Then it clearly states that

<1> TEXDIR:       .
      support tree: ./texmf

  <2> TEXMFLOCAL:     ./texmf-local
  <3> TEXMFSYSVAR:    ./texmf-var
  <4> TEXMFSYSCONFIG: ./texmf-config

  <5> TEXMFHOME:      ~/texmf

and I ran the installation.

This installs everything inside install-tl

install-tl]$ ll
total 460
drwxr-xr-x  3 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:02 bin
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif 300559 Nov 18 03:46 doc.html
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif    930 Aug  9 01:41 index.html
-rwxr-xr-x  1 daleif daleif  51995 Nov 20 13:15 install-tl
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif  28955 Nov 22 21:05 install-tl.log
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif   2098 Sep 28  2006 LICENSE.CTAN
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif   6214 Oct  6 01:53 LICENSE.TL
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif    183 Aug  9 15:39 README
drwxr-xr-x  2 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 readme-html.dir
drwxr-xr-x  2 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 readme-txt.dir
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif    250 Aug  9 15:39 README.usergroups
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif    360 Sep  3 11:50 release-texlive.txt
drwxr-xr-x 13 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 texmf
-rw-r--r--  1 daleif daleif    402 Nov 22 21:05 texmf.cnf
drwxr-xr-x  2 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:02 texmf-config
drwxr-xr-x 11 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 texmf-dist
drwxr-xr-x  4 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 texmf-doc
drwxr-xr-x  8 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:02 texmf-local
drwxr-xr-x  6 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 texmf-var
drwxr-xr-x  5 daleif daleif   4096 Nov 22 21:05 tlpkg

but here is the kicker, it didn't write the 'alternative' TEXMFLOCAL in 
the texmf.cnf that is at the installation root, it is all comments.

Specifying a full path then the root texmf.cnf do get a new line with 
TEXMFLOCAL, but not when one specified TEXDIR as '.'

Since '.' will give you a valid path and it actually installs, it might 
be a good idea to note this somewhere

Another interesting test: I made a subdir 'test' of the created 
'install-tl' directory (from untarring the installer), if TEXDIR is 
specified as this subdirectory (aka a relative path), the installer 
cannot run at all.

tar: test/temp/ams.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

it might be an idea to mention in the istaller that it is strongly 
recommended to specify full paths, not relative ones.

I don't think it is necessary to do more than that.

/daleif





























-- 

/daleif


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