Bug#627171: texlive-binaries: mktexpk (and mktexnam) don't cope with unset $HOME
Package: texlive-binaries
Version: 2009-8
Severity: wishlist
Hi!
Some buildds now have $HOME unset and this leads to breakages in the compilation
of various bits of documentation on the buildd; it may be a combination of
reduced permissions on the buildd as well as $HOME being unset that causes
font selection problems.
On buildds where $HOME is defined, when using "latex" and then "dvips", a
warning is emitted, but font selection works fine, falling back to /tmp:
---------- 8< ----------
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag 1+264/600 --dpi 864 bbding10
mkdir: cannot create directory `././home/buildd': Permission denied
mktexpk: Running mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1+264/600; nonstopmode; input bbding10
....
mktexpk: /tmp/texfonts/pk/ljfour/public/bbding/bbding10.864pk: successfully generated.
---------- 8< ----------
On buildds where $HOME is not defined, the same situation leads to an unwanted
font substitution:
---------- 8< ----------
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag 1+264/600 --dpi 864 bbding10
mkdir: cannot create directory `././.texmf-var': Permission denied
mktexpk: /usr/share/texmf/web2c/mktexdir /.texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/bbding failed.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
dvips: Font bbding10 not found, using cmr10 instead.
---------- 8< ----------
In the case where pdflatex is used, font substitution leads to an error:
---------- 8< ----------
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+264/600 --dpi 864 bbding10
mkdir: cannot create directory `././.texmf-var': Permission denied
mktexpk: /usr/share/texmf/web2c/mktexdir /.texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/bbding failed.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
LaTeX Font Warning: Some font shapes were not available, defaults substituted.
(see the transcript file for additional information)
!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file bbding10): Font bbding10 at 864 not found
==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
---------- 8< ----------
It's possible to work around this by creating a writable directory in
debian/rules and then exporting HOME pointing to that directory prior to
commencing the build. Doing so causes the following files to be created when
building the documents shown above:
---------- 8< ----------
..texmf-var/fonts
..texmf-var/fonts/pk
..texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour
..texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public
..texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/bbding
..texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/bbding/bbding10.864pk
---------- 8< ----------
For reference, these logs come from the buildd failures of pyxplot 0.8.4-2
when building the documentation; while the documentation ends up in an arch:all
package, building it also acts as a test suite. The complete logs are available
at:
https://buildd.debian.org/status/logs.php?pkg=pyxplot&ver=0.8.4-2
While this problem is clearly quite unlikely to ever hit a regular user of
latex or pdflatex, it's a nuisance on the buildds (and quite hard to debug too),
so better handling of this situation would be great.
many thanks
Stuart
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