[tex-live] local/personal fonts

[Bob Tennent]

 >|From preining at logic.at  Wed Jul 20 21:39:42 2011
 >|Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:31:51 +0900
 >|From: Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at>
 >|To: Bob Tennent <rdt at cs.queensu.ca>
 >|Cc: tex-live at tug.org
 >|Subject: Re: [tex-live] local/personal fonts
 >|
 >|On Mi, 20 Jul 2011, Bob Tennent wrote:
 >|>  >|>       $TEXMFLOCAL/web2c/updmap-local.cfg \
 >|>  >|>       $TEXMFCONFIG/web2c/updmap-local.cfg \
 >|[...]
 >|> But would it not be possible for tlmgr then to append *both* of the
 >|> updmap-local.cfgs to get the local and personal deltas in priority
 >|> order?  It does this for TEXMFLOCAL and you give instructions for
 >|> doing it with TEXMFCONFIG; why not both?
 >|
 >|Why do you need *two* updmap-local.cfg?
 >|
 >|Only the one in $TEXMFLOCAL will be automatically included by tlmgr.
 >|What is the need of the one in $TEXMFCONFIG?

TEXMFLOCAL (typically under /usr/local) is for system-wide additions or
changes to the distribution defaults.

TEXMFCONFIG (typically ~/texmf) is for personal additions or changes
to the system-wide defaults. For example, commercial fonts licensed
to a single user on a shared system. Fontconfig has a similar policy:
there is a fonts.conf for the defaults, a local.conf for local
additions/changes, and any user can set up a ~/.fonts.conf for personal
additions/changes.

The two downsides/caveats described in 

http://tug.org/fonts/fontinstall-personal.html

arise because one must currently choose *either* local *or* personal,
but not both. But both are useful.

Bob T.