[tex-live] private "tl-bin" directory? (was: install-info incompatible ..)

[George N. White III]

Hartmut's post shows it is not only WIn32 where there are clashes
between TL and other executables, so it is worth implementing a
general strategy to reduce such conflicts.

On 2/16/07, Hartmut Henkel <hartmut_henkel at gmx.de> wrote:

> just had problems with installing some non-texlive debian package:
> [...]
> as here texlive/2007/bin/x86_64 is in the PATH, the
>
> # /usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/x86_64-linux/install-info --version
> install-info (GNU texinfo) 4.8
> Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>
> is taken instead of the original debian-provided one:
>
> # which install-info
> /usr/sbin/install-info
> # install-info --version
> Debian install-info 1.10.28.  Copyright (C) 1994,1995
>
> After removal of the texlive version of install-info, the package
> installation works without problems.

Certain names should be reserved for system-specific use.  Unlike
common programs like "ls"and "rm", these would abe allowed to have
system-specific behaviour.  Certainly "install" would be in the list,
and "install-info" would be a likely candidate.   In the absence of
such rules, Debian should use absolute paths in package installers,
but there is no reason TL can't play nicely by putting install-info in
a "private" bin directory, say "tl-bin", for use by TL scripts.   This
could also be useful for TL-supplied utilities (unzip, tar, sed, awk,
perl, gs, ruby, lua, etc.) on systems that don't commonly have them
(e.g., Win32).

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia