Bug#334713: [Florian Cramer] Re: tetex-bin: package doesn't install because of missing mfw binary

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr> wrote:

> Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr> wrote:
>
>> The following:
>>
>> cnf: /var/lib/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
>> mfw             mfw             -               mf.ini
>>
>> As said, the error happens when I install tetex from scratch.
>
> Maybe you think it is from scratch, but actually isn't? 

Yes, the entry in fmtutil.cnf that uses mfw must be either a local
change or (unlikely) from a buggy package.

> i.e., mfw does *not* appear in fmtutil.cnf.
>
> I don't know why (maybe this format is obsolete), but it explains why I
> don't get the error you reported.

mfw was the name of the mf binary with X11 support, mf-nowin is the name
without.  In 2.0, /usr/bin/mf was a symlink to /usr/bin/mfw, now it the
binary itself is called /usr/bin/mf.

I think this is an upstream change, but restoring the old behavior
probably won't hurt anybody.  We could also create the reverse symlink
(mfw -> mf), but then we get problems in case we want to split of a
tetex-bin-nowin package and want /usr/bin/mf to be managed with
update-alternatives. 

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer