[texhax] Thumbs.db in the MacTex distro??

Reinhard Kotucha reinhard.kotucha at web.de
Mon May 19 04:06:06 CEST 2014


On 2014-05-18 at 21:58:29 +0000, Karl Berry wrote:

 > Hi Olaf,
 > 
 > > /usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/doc/latex/latex-course/Graphics/Thumbs.db
 > > /usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/doc/latex/pdfwin/Thumbs.db
 > 
 > These two Thumbs.db files were provided by the authors of those
 > packages.  In principle, I'm not sure it's our place to remove them
 > in TL.  (Although I doubt anyone would miss them.)
 > 
 > The authors are Engelbert Buxbaum and Matthias M\"{u}hlich,
 > respectively, if you would like to ask them.

On CTAN the pdfwin package is in the "obsolete" directory:

  tex-archive/obsolete/systems/win32/fptex/0.7/package/pdfwin.zip

Do we need it at all if it's in the obsolete directory for years?  
There is no documentation, hence I can't believe that anybody but
the authors themselves ever used it.  

Regarding spurious files like Thumbs.db or backup files created by
text editors, I assume that it's not worth the time to think about
them unless they are large.  CTAN maintainers check carefully what
people upload and even if something is overlooked it's very likely
that it's detected at the next package update.  Thus the number of
such files will always be negligible.

Both Thumbs.db files are smaller than 26kB, hence not problematic.

Regards,
  Reinhard

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------



More information about the texhax mailing list