Re: Recent Woody upgrade, TeTeX, XFree86, and Mozilla

[Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org>]

Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> writes:

> This package is recreating hash tables, if I understand things
> correctly,

Yes.  As requested by the config file.

> and is changing the contents, and possibly even the existance of files in
> /usr/local.

Only the ls-lR file.  I believe depending on configuration, texconfig
might also store config files it modifies there.

> Sysadmins rely on the sanctity of /usr/local to maintain any package or
> software program they wish, in any fashion they see fit, without the
> package management system comming in at unexpected times and mucking up
> the contents.

The purpose of this action is to allow the sysadmin to install local
tex macros which will not be affected by upgrades.  The purpose of the
hash file is so that it isn't terribly slow.

This is an important thing which many sysadmins want, so there should
be _some_ way to do this.  Perhaps the default texmf.cnf should have
the local texmf tree commented out, and then people who wanted this
behavior could ask for it.  (Or just install TeX Live.  8^)

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
It's hard to think of you as the end result of millions of years of evolution.