TL5 from March 28th

Staszek Wawrykiewicz StaW@gust.org.pl
Thu, 30 Mar 2000 14:27:51 +0200 (MET DST)


SW>> BLU can hapilly start texconfig (great!) but his local automagically
SW>> created tree is full of formats because of previous steps.
SW>> Hardly acceptable!

SR> why not? his tree is full of formats that correspond to the
SR> sources he installed. if he does a basic install, it will try to build
SR> pdftex.fmt, and fail, rightly.

No, the sources were *installed by the admin*. And the whole stuff, in most
cases `Recommended' or even `Full' installation (also megabytes of formats)
is in $TEXMFMAIN.
Every BLU (normal user) *cannot* have another 20-30mb when starting
texconfig.

SW>> 1. do not touch fmtutil.cnf when copying it from the CD
SR> but then you'll never be able to build format files unless you edit it
SR> by hand

That's why we have texconfig and invoke it for administrative tasks.

Steps for the ADMIN:
1. he installs $TEXMFMAIN tree.
2. $TEXMFMAIN/web2c/fmtutil.cnf has 2 formats unblocked (as on CD)
3. During install $VARTEXMF tree is also created by default, OK.
4. $VARTEXMF/web2c/ can contain all formats regenerated and fmtutil.cnf
   accordingly prepared.

Steps for simple user (BLU):
1. he can run programs as installed by Admin
2. he can start texconfig which builds for him
   a _small_ $HOME/texmf tree with some configuration files
   (important when BLU has local printer, etc.)
3. he can add/generate private copy of really needed format,
   e.g. latex with some other hyphenation patterns, since all needed
   source files are in $TEXMFMAIN

Staszek Wawrykiewicz
email: staw@gust.org.pl