Bug#539482: texlive-base-bin: bibtex should use the alternatives system
Hi everyone,
I was pushed to that bug and....
On So, 02 Aug 2009, Jakub Wilk wrote:
> * Vincent Danjean <vdanjean.ml@free.fr>, 2009-08-02, 01:11:
>>> There are currently at least 2 working bibtex implementations in Debian,
>>> i.e. nbibtex and TeX Live's one, and there's going to be more (see bugs
>>> #412085, #535116).
>>>
>>> Therefore, I believe it would be a good idea for TeX Live's bibtex to
>>> start using the Debian alternatives system, so that other
>>> implementations could be made available under the /usr/bin/bibtex and
>>> /usr/share/man/man1/bibtex.1.gz names.
>>
>> Does all the bibtex implementations have the same interface (ie the same
>> command-line options) ?
>> It is required if want to be able to use alternatives.
>
> All the implementations accept the most basic syntax, i.e.:
>
> bibtex AUXFILE[.aux]
>
> nbibtex supports the -min-crossref=N, -help and -version, but not -terse.
> Unfortunately, other implementations support none of these options.
> However, if you believe that it is essential to have all of them
> implemented (I don't think it's necessary), I am willing to contribute
> patches for pybtex and (possibly) pybliographer.
On Do, 10 Dez 2009, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> Bug #560376 [pybtex] pybtex: Should install symlink bibtex -> /usr/bin/pybtex
> Was not blocked by any bugs.
> Added blocking bug(s) of 560376: 539482
As said, there is *one* bibtex and that is the one from Oren.
If we install an alternative system then all the cmd line options
from the original bibtex have to be implemented in the other
bibtex-like implementations, *AND* (this is important) the
generated output *has*to*be*the*same*!!!
We don't want that suddently documents' bibs start looking completely
different although bibtex was called, only because it was some
different bibtex.
Please keep that in mind, otherwise there will be no alternative
system.
Best wishes
Norbert
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Norbert Preining preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan TU Wien, Austria Debian TeX Task Force
DSA: 0x09C5B094 fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76 A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
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