Bug#396826: tex-common: Please make section 2.4 of TeX-on-Debian more precise about user settings
Hi Géraud, hi all!
Thanks for your suggestions. Can you comment on the following diff (if
you know how to read it), otherwise, please the other TeX maintainers
please comment:
Index: TeX-on-Debian.sgml
===================================================================
--- TeX-on-Debian.sgml (revision 1920)
+++ TeX-on-Debian.sgml (working copy)
@@ -410,6 +410,12 @@
The files <file>texmf.cnf</file>, <file>fmtutil.cnf</file>,
<file>updmap.cfg</file> and <file>language.dat</file>
</heading>
+ <p>
+ In the following we describe ways to configure these files
+ for the <em>system administrator</em>, i.e. one that has
+ write access to the <file>/etc/texmf</file> hierachy. In
+ <ref id="sec-user-config-files"> we describe a per-user
+ configuration.
<p>
These files contain configuration options from teTeX and/or
TeX Live, possibly from you, and from other TeX-related
@@ -422,22 +428,12 @@
<p>
<prgn>update-texmf</prgn> is only available for root; if a
user wants to maintain their own <file>texmf.cnf</file>,
- they can put it into <var>TEXMFCONFIG</var> and must
+ they can put it into <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/web2c</tt> and must
manually edit it. Since all <file>texmf.cnf</file> files
are read, with earlier definitions taking precedence over
later ones, it is best to keep only a minimal set of
- definitions in the user-specific file. The other
- configuration update programs also work with files
- in <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/updmap.d</tt>, <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/fmt.d</tt>
- or <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/language.d</tt>, combining
- files in these directories with the files in the system-wide
- directories &mdash naturally the user-specific ones take
- precedence if the names are equal
- (see <ref id="sec-user-specific-installation">). Note that
- changes to existing files made by packages updates will not
- be propagated to the user's files.
- </p>
-
+ definitions in the user-specific file.
+ </p>
<p>
In order to make updates smooth, you should <em>avoid
editing</em> system-wide files as far as possible, and
@@ -517,7 +513,10 @@
overwritten</strong>
by <prgn>update-fmtutil</prgn>, <prgn>update-language</prgn>
and
- <prgn>update-updmap</prgn>, respectively. Only the files in
+ <prgn>update-updmap</prgn>, respectively. Furthermore, there is
+ no built-in merge mechanism, these files are used on a
+ first-found-first-used basis.
+ Only the files in
<file>/etc/texmf/updmap.d/</file>, <file>/etc/texmf/fmt.d/</file>
and <file>/etc/texmf/language.d/</file> will be treated as
configuration files.
@@ -548,6 +547,39 @@
</p>
+ <sect1 id="sec-user-config-files">
+ <heading>
+ Per user configuration changes
+ </heading>
+ <p>
+ To override entries in the system wide configuration file
+ <file>texmf.cnf</file>, a user only needs to add lines to
+ <tt><var>HOME</var>/.texmf-config/web2c/texmf.cnf</tt>.
+ Please only add those lines which are absolutely necessary.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ In contrast to the above — TeX reading and merging all
+ <file>texmf.cnf</file> files — the <em>first</em> found occurrence of
+ one of the files <file>updmap.cfg</file>, <file>language.dat</file>,
+ <file>fmtutil.cnf</file> are used. Thus, the other
+ configuration update programs also work with files in
+ <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/updmap.d</tt>,
+ <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/fmt.d</tt> or
+ <tt><var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>/language.d</tt>, where
+ <var>TEXMFCONFIG</var> is usually
+ <file><var>HOME</var>/.texmf-config</file>, combining
+ files in these directories with the files in the system-wide
+ directories &mdash naturally the user-specific ones take
+ precedence if the names are equal
+ (see <ref id="sec-user-specific-installation">) &mdash and
+ dropping the respective config file into the user's
+ <var>TEXMFCONFIG</var>, effectively overriding the system-wide
+ config files. Note that
+ changes to existing files made by packages updates will not
+ be propagated to the user's files.
+ </p>
+
<sect>
<heading>Font caching</heading>
<p>
Best wishes
Norbert
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> Università di Siena
Debian Developer <preining@debian.org> Debian TeX Group
gpg DSA: 0x09C5B094 fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76 A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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