[tex-live] Identifying the cause of slow compilation

[Zdenek Wagner]

Hi Phil,

I do not work with Windows so I do not know its specific but in Linux
kpathsea finds the configuration as well as other files relative to its
executable. Setting TEXMFCNF in the environment is not needed and if not
done carefully, it may be a source of problems. Could you examine
enviropnment settins of all your machines, especially diferences in TEX*
environment variables?

Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz

2015-03-11 20:31 GMT+01:00 Philip Taylor <P.Taylor at rhul.ac.uk>:

>
> Many thanks to you both for your suggestions.  I am no closer to finding
> the cause, but I have now installed TeX Live 2014 in my VM as well as
> 2013, and the performance in the VM remains as fast as it was with 2013.
>  So, I have one system where it behaves like a dog in the host, yet
> flies along in a VM, and another where it flies in the host (I have no
> VMs on that machine).  And all are configured identically.
>
> But following on from your suggestions, I have tried using KPSEWHICH to
> investigate, and I have found something consistently odd in all three
> installations -- the expansion of TEXMFCNF.  Here it is from the VM in
> which I am typing this (all three are similar) :
>
> > C:\Users\Chaa006>kpsewhich -expand-var $texmfcnf
> >
> {D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/share/texmf-local/web2c,D
> >
> :/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/share/texmf-dist/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/shar
> >
> e/texmf/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/texmf-local/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/
> >
> win32/texmf-dist/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/texmf/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/b
> >
> in,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/share/texmf
> >
> -dist/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/share/texmf/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/texmf-lo
> >
> cal/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/texmf-dist/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/texmf/web2c
> >
> ,D:/TeX/Live/texmf-local/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014,D:/TeX/Live/2014/share/texmf-loc
> >
> al/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/share/texmf-dist/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/share/texmf/we
> >
> b2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/texmf-local/web2c,D:/TeX/Live/2014/texmf-dist/web2c,D:/TeX/
> > Live/2014/texmf/web2c}
>
> Now, here are my questions :
>
> 1) If one is mean to make local changes in \TeX\Live\2014\TeXMF.cnf, why
> is that so far down the pecking order ?  TeXdoc KPATHSEA says (in part) :
>
> > Kpathsea reads all texmf.cnf files in the search path, not just the
> first one found;
> > definitions in earlier files override those in later files.
>
> so surely \TeX\Live\2014 should be the first element, not the $n$th ...
>
> 2) What are the references to (e.g.,)
> "D:/TeX/Live/2014/bin/win32/share/texmf-local/web2c" ?  There /is/ no
> "share" directory under Win32.
>
> 3) Why does TEXMFCNF reference a hard-wired (e.g.,)
> "D:/TeX/Live/2014/texmf-local/web2c" ?  I have no such directory -- my
> TEXMFLOCAL is \TeX\Live\TeXMF\Local, declared as such at installation time.
>
> 4) What program is responsible for defining TEXMFCNF, and should I try
> over-riding it with a more sensibly valued environment variable of the
> same name ?
>
> ** Phil.
>
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