[tex-live] preview.sty / tlmgr vs AucTeX

George N. White III gnwiii at gmail.com
Mon Mar 8 15:24:39 CET 2010


On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 7:52 AM, Axel E. Retif <axel.retif at mac.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just noticed that tlmgr and AucTeX install preview.sty (et al.) in two different branches of the TeXLive tree (in Debian, but I guess it might be the same in other distros).

DId you install AucTeX using .deb package or by building from sources?


> I had done a tlmgr update of TeXLive a few days ago (24 Feb), and yesterday I updated AucTeX (from 11.85 to 11.86).
>
> tlmgr had installed preview.sty 11.86 (et al.) in
>
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/preview/
>
> whereas AucTeX installed it in
>
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf/tex/latex/preview/
>
>
> kpsewhich shows that the one used is
>
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf/tex/latex/preview/preview.sty
>
> that is, the one installed by AucTeX; both are, as said, v11.86. I think it would be better if both installers look into the same branch to do the updates.

I don't like the idea of a 3rd party package changing the contents of
the trees that are managed by tlmgr, but that is up to the 3rd party
package
developers.

Since AucTeX is a combination of emacs stuff and support files for
LaTeX, it doesn't make sense to have an AucTeX package for TeX Live
(except maybe on Windows), so the decision about what and where
support files are installed is up to AucTeX.   If AucTeX installs
support files, I'd prefer that they go in texmf-local, but it would be
nice if the AucTeX installer checked for the support files and only
installs them if they are not already present in the distro.

In any case, the AucTeX configure allows you to set the texmf path and
tex-dir, so at least you can ensure that preview.sty ends up in the
location of your choice.

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


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