Bug#267664: tetex-bin: 'latex' command will not run due to broken config files.

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Benjamin Redelings I <bredelin@ucla.edu> wrote:

> So, perhaps kpsewhich is messed up, or the mktexfmt script has not
> noticed that files have moves to /var/lib/texmf ?

No, it's not kpsewhich, it's probably your debconf answers. As a
temporary solution, run dpkg-reconfigure tetex-bin, and choose to manage
fmtutil.cnf and updmap.cfg through debconf. Also, you should make sure
that the commands

egrep '^VARTEXMF|^TEXMF ' /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf 
egrep '^VARTEXMF|^TEXMF ' /etc/texmf/texmf.d/05TeXMF.cnf

give the same output, namely

VARTEXMF = /var/lib/texmf
TEXMF = {$HOMETEXMF,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFOLDLOCAL,!!$VARTEXMF,!!$TEXMFMAIN}

If update-texmf does not achieve this, this means you have edited
/etc/texmf/texmf.cnf manually, and when ucf asked you upon upgrade, you
refused to accept the maintainers' changes. You need those two lines in
/etc/texmf/texmf.cnf - either edit it manually again, or you can:

# mv /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf texmf.cnf-save.copy
# ucf --purge /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf
# update-texmf
(now check again with egrep '^VARTEXMF|^TEXMF ' /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf)

and optionally 

# diff texmf.cnf-save.copy /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf
# $EDITOR /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf 

and make your changes again.

> P.S I have marked this bug as grave, because it makes latex unusable on
> my system.  If this is in fact NOT a problem for everybody, then please
> forgive my exxageration.

It's probably a problem for everybody who is not reading the diff's that
dpkg and ucf offer when a conffile is updated.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster, Biozentrum der Univ. Basel
Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie