[tex-live] -var and -local [was:] install for compr...

[Karl Berry]

    should TL (or teTeX) be more friendly and
    easy to maintain for the admin or for the simple user? 

Well, we try to make everyone as happy as possible, you know that :).
Not that's possible.

    experiences that the admins just ignore (or not understand) the TeX
    world and install the TeX stuff _as is_

Certainly, that is what most people do.  

    easy for the user having (and maintaining) just one /home/texmf directory

That makes it simpler to do an installation in any single year, but it
makes updates basically impossible.  Thus I do not think we should
recommend that.

    The problem is to find an agreement which could satisfy both admins
    and simple users.

As I implied in my other msg, I don't see how admins benefit from having
texconfig-generated config files in TEXMFLOCAL.  I just want to go back
to the way we've always done it ...

    Anyway, if we're going to switch to the current bahaviour (*hot* files
    like formats only in VARTEXMF, config files in TEXMFLOCAL), we (who?)

Ultimately, I guess I am responsible for live.tex.  Not that I wouldn't
love to give it up.

k