Bug#100332: New package splitting scheme for teTeX in Debian
On Thu, Oct 27, 2005 at 03:56:21PM +0200, Frank K?ster wrote:
> Julian Gilbey <jdg@polya.uklinux.net> wrote:
> > Hmmm. These are small binaries with very little in the way of
> > dependencies. Could probably lose them to tetex-bin-extra or
> > tetex-bin-litprog, though.
>
> That was all I was talking about: Creating a list of executables that
> are not needed in the new tetex-bin-core which is intended as the
> canonical build-dependency.
>
> What I have in mind is a tetex-bin-core package that contains everything
> that is needed to run latex, pdflatex, tex, bibtex, makeindex. Nothing
> more, nothing less.
Ah, I had not quite understood your thinking. I had been thinking
more like the tetex-bin-core package would be adequate for the
majority of users; users with special requirements could install the
-extra package.
Is it really necessary to reduce the package as much as necessary for
the buildds? Wouldn't a more useful goal for a larger number of users
be to break the package into a "core" package, which is the "common"
stuff (somewhat arbitrarily defined), which would include what you
have said plus (pdf)e(la)tex, mf(-nowin), metapost and maybe a small
amount of other stuff, and an -extra package for everything else. The
difference to the buildds would be very minor, but for the users could
be significant. (Note that I'm not advocating things which would
bring in extra package dependencies.)
Then reread the rest of my comments in this light.
But you may, of course, feel free to disregard these ideas.
> >> /usr/bin/pktogf (convert packed font files to generic font files)
> >> /usr/bin/gftopk (and back)
> >
> > This is used by mktexpk!
>
> So we should keep them in -core. I just checked whether we distribute
> any gf files, and since this is not the case, it seemed not necessary to
> me. But we should keep in mind that add-on font packages might have .gf
> files.
Metafont generates gf files, so if someone asks for a font which is
only present on the system in Metafont source, mktexpk will call
mf-nowin to make a GF file, which will then be converted into a PK
file by gftopk.
Whether you include ps2pk and gsftopk depends on the final decision
as to the purpose of the -core/-extra split - I can't remember the
exact situations in which they might be executed.
Incidentally, if we get it wrong first time round, we can always move
stuff from -extra back to -core without a problem (as long as we
version things correctly).
> In order to keep tetex-bin-core as small as possible. Not because of
> disk space, but in order to keep it simply. I don't think that any sane
> mind will call allcm in debian/rules before running latex over their
> documentation. Am I insane myself?
Quite - same question as above, though.
Julian
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