Hi,
teTeX-3.0 has been in experimental for a while and will be uploaded to
unstable as soon as library transitions are allowed again[1]. This is a
major version step which includes quite some changes, see the release
notes for teTeX-3.0[2]
This means that you should take the opportunity now and test your
packages with the new version NOW if your packages fall in one of the
following cases:
* your package Build-Depends on tetex-{bin, base, or extra}
* your package Depends on teTeX
* your package provides additional fonts for use with TeX
* your package depends on libkpathsea
In case you have questions, you'll find helpful people on
debian-tetex-maint@lists.debian.org. All others, sit back and watch!
Here are the details:
- your package Build-Depends on tetex-{bin,base, or extra}:
Please try to build your package with the new version. Kurt Roeckx
has already done this with a some packages[3], and it revealed a
couple of bugs (in the packages, not in tetex) that are no longer
tolerated. Please keep in mind that some packages Build-Depend only
indirectly on tetex because they use a package that pulls tetex in.
Please also have a look at the documents generated, especially at
included pictures and at fonts and font quality. Font management has
changed a bit, and since TeX uses some emergency replacements you
might end up with not using the fonts you wanted.
- your package Depends on teTeX:
Likewise, you should do some tests in typical usage cases, you'll
probably know best yourself what these are. Please have a look at the
Debian TeX Policy draft in the tex-common package or at [5].
You should also know that an alternative to teTeX, TeX-live, will soon
be available as Debian packages. To start adding appropriate
dependency alternatives, and test for compatibility, please have a
look at the TeX-Live Debian support page [7] and the newly started
alioth project for TeX-Live [8].
- your package provides additional fonts for use with TeX
Please note the new font file placement according to TDS 1.1[4], and
the changes for font file management as outlined in the Debian TeX
Policy draft in the tex-common package or at [5], and in the new
manpage of update-updmap(1). If you don't do anything, your package
will simply stop working.
- your package depends on libkpathsea:
libkpathsea was never designed as a shared library. In teTeX 3.0 the
build environment was changed from klibtool (a web2c-specific
libtool-like hack) to libtool. As the author of web2c can't estimate
the impact of the change, upstream changed the soname. Have a look at
the README.Debian of libkpathsea4-dev[6] for a few more details.
If you have an active upstream (and an up-to-date package in
unstable), there shouldn't be a problem, since the new version is
around for quite a while.
Regards, Frank
[1] but not before I come back from my vacation ;-)
[2] online at http://www.tug.org/tetex/texmf/doc/tetex/TETEXDOC.pdf or
"texdoc TETEXDOC" if 3.0 is installed.
[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-tetex-maint/2005/08/msg00218.html
[4] http://www.tug.org/tds/tds.html
[5] http://people.debian.org/~frank/Debian-TeX-Policy/
[6] available at the usual place after the next upload, or at
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-tetex/tetex-bin/trunk/debian/libkpathsea4-dev.README.Debian?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[7] http://www.tug.org/texlive/debian.html
[8] https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-texlive/
--
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer
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