Bug#488038: texlive-base-bin: kpsewhere weirdness

[Frank Küster <frank@kuesterei.ch>]

reopen 488038
thanks

[Resending, instead of moving to the Cc field to remove the -done part,
I sent the mail]

Ralf Stubner <ralf.stubner@web.de> wrote:

> rfstubne@nb-rfstubne:~$ kpsewhere --format='web2c files'  fmtutil.cnf
> /home/rfstubne/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
> /var/lib/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
> /usr/share/texmf-texlive/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
>
> I also don' think that it is surprising that setting TEXMF does not
> alter the texmf.cnf file found. AFAIK TEXMF is not used when looking
> for texmf.cnf. Instead a compile-time path is used for texmf.cnf and
> all other *.cnf files.

I agree, and I was so sure that I tried what you showed, but you are
right. I know that I also tried other duplicate files when I looked at
the code in kpsewhere and tried to debug it, but here something else hit
me. It's not a TeX-related problem, just that my shell knowledge is too
small:

This code

#!/bin/sh

IFS=':'
kpsepath=$(kpsewhich --expand-path='$TEXMF')
for path in $kpsepath
do 
  eval FOO=\$path echo $FOO
done

Just echo's nothing, and therefore, if we replace "echo $FOO" by a
kpsewhich call and the assignment to FOO with one to TEXMF, nothing
changes. In some strange way, however, it works in kpsewhere.

What I don't understand that --format has such an effect. Without it,
libkpathsea assumes I'm looking for a cnf file, and finds one of the
three, eight times. With it, it assumes I'm looking for a web2c file,
and finds

- the very same file it found as a cnf file

- plus two files at the exactly same relative path in a TEXMF tree

Why doesn't it find the same in all cases?

> PS: Congratulations to the new inhabitant.

Not yet, congratulations are too early!

Regards, Frank

-- 
Frank Küster
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)