Bug#390349: TeX font cache in /tmp (was: Bug#388399: FTBFS problems on alpha, mips[el]: Please help debugging)
[now in the new bug about the fontcache in /tmp]
Thiemo Seufer <ths@networkno.de> wrote:
>> If the admin chooses to create an empty /tmp/texfonts hierarchy without
>> write access for users that need the font cache, that's equivalent to
>> him creating an empty /var/cache/fonts/... without users having write
>> access, in the old setup. You're allowed to shoot yourself into the
>> foot.
>
> AFAIU any user on the system could create /tmp/texfonts and break
> mktexmf that way.
I wasn't sure about that myself, but I checked now: No, it will not
break that way. An unlimited number of users can use the cache in
/tmp/texfonts. All directories are created with permissions drwxrwxrwt,
and there's no need to remove files.
As far as I can see, there is no bug, no problem at all with a fontcache
in /tmp except that it doesn't persist during boots or cleanup cron
jobs. Which is just inconvenient, and the price to pay for TeX users
without a home directory. And IMO it's much better than the old
situation, where the font cache was in /var/cache/fonts/, and equally
writable for everyone.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
Reply to: