Bug#594743: texlive-binaries: pdftex slow to generate sources when $HOME contains a trailing "/".

[Thomas Adam <thomas@xteddy.org>]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 06:10:20AM +0900, Norbert Preining wrote:
> Hi Frank,
> 
> >When parsing texmf.cnf (or its built-in paths, if $HOME expansion might
> >take place there?), it should treat the variable $HOME special and
> >remove the trailing slash
> 
> Yes.
> 
> >The change would have to be somewhere in expand.c - but I have to get up
> >early tomorrow and don't have time to dig into this.
> 
> Probably in variable.c, but why not discuss that with Karl ... it would
> be much better to ask his opinion first before we start to digress
> in Debian to something which will not be implemented upstream. I dont
> want different behaviour.

I don't mind taking a look (I am a programmer) if it's likely to be a simple
change (i.e., I wouldn't need to have a bunch of requisite knowledge about
TexLive and its infrastructure).  Point me in the right direction if it's
going to save you guys some time.

Also, is there a reason why such a fix wouldn't ever make it upstream?  Have
they already seen this and somehow dismissed it due to another reason?

Did I not also read in the merged bug which 594743 got put into, that tilde
expansion worked just fine in texmf.cnf, whereas $HOME still suffered?  Is
tilde expansion in place of $HOME outright not an acceptable solution then?
(I might need to go away and qualify this later on, in case I end up being
accused of talking nonsense.   :P)

-- Thomas Adam

-- 
"It was the cruelest game I've ever played and it's played inside my head."
-- "Hush The Warmth", Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.