Re: texinfo-6.7.92 pretest

[Norbert Preining]

Hi,

(just for clarity, I am managing TeX Live together with Karl, so wrt TL
I can give quite qualified comments)

> I actually don't really understand why we couldn't just install the files
> automatically under TEXMFLOCAL but I am taking the word of previous

For automatic installation I think the better way would be to install it
into
        $prefix/share/texmf
where the prefix is the one determined by one of the configure magic
incantations. That would be the most common and "correct" way. Plus
adding an option to configure to override the texmf tree.

> documentation that trying to install automatically is fraught with
> difficulties.  I suspect that TEXMFLOCAL hasn't always existed or doesn't
> exist everywhere.  I found old emails discussing whether to use TEXMF or

Yes, that might be the case that the directory does not exist. But the
texmf.cnf variable I think existed at least in the last 20+ years ...

> TEXMFMAIN along with a program called "texconfig" (this was in the context
> of tetex which isn't developed anymore).

texconfig is still present in TL, but we strongly advise against it (or
didn't we even remove it? Forgot that one ;-) It is not really portable,
doesn't work anymore with changed layouts. Nowadays if you want
something TL specific, then tlmgr is the correct choice.

But that should not be necessary only to install TeX files. Thus, I
remain with the two suggestions, either use kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFLOCAL 
or use $prefix/share/texmf, the later one being the one preferred by
distributions (I am also Debian responsible of TL and texinfo).

Best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                              https://www.preining.info
Fujitsu Research  +  IFMGA Guide  +  TU Wien  +  TeX Live  + Debian Dev
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