Problem changing TEXMFHOME setting

[Dan]

Hello,

I want to set the variable TEXMFHOME to a different directory from the default, but I can't manage to do it by means of tlmgr.

I have tried using this command
    tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME ~/path/to/tree
but it does not work, although it should as far as I understand from reading the documentation (https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/texlive-en/texlive-en.html sections 7.1.1 and 7.1.2).
In short: it sets the value of the variable in a file read before the default conf file, hence it overrides the value set in the default conf file.

I know it does not work because
    kpsewhich -var-value=TEXMFHOME
and
    tlmgr conf
still show the default value of the TEXMFHOME, not the one I set.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

What does work instead is setting the TEXMFHOME as an environment shell variable (bash in my case). The change is inmediately taken into account; it can be checked by running any of the last two commands above.

Just for the record and in case it matters:
 - OS LinuxMint 21.2 (Victoria)
 - tlmgr revision 60693 (2021-10-04 04:24:25 +0200)
 - tlmgr using installation: /usr/share/texlive
 - TeX Live (https://tug.org/texlive) version 2021

I would appreciate any help. Thanks.


Kind regards.