Re: proper, debian location of latex files

[Andre Berger <uzscd5@uni-bonn.de>]

Giulio Morgan <mickle@panix.com> writes:

> What is the proper location in a debian system for files obtained from CTAN?
> Should there be a /usr/local/share/texmf tree in addition to the
> /usr/share/texmf tree, or should files obtained from sources other than debian
> be put in some logical place in the deb-package tree? files from
> /macros/latex/contrib/supported/ for example?
> 
> Also, once installed, what is the command for making tex/latex aware of these
> files? 
> 
> Thanks very much for your help
> -- 
> Giulio Morgan
> mickle@panix.com

I've set up a custom tree /usr/local/share/texmf/ with the same
structure as /usr/share/texmf/, yet only with custom or newer
packages. Be sure to mimic the structure (depth) of the original tree
in your custom tree; you just have to add the branches you need to
it.

Examples for a custom package installation path:
/usr/local/share/texmf/tex/latex/koma-script/[and the koma-files]
/usr/local/share/texmf/bibtex/bst/andre.bst

This is the beginning of my /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf [comments snipped]:

TEXMFMAIN = /usr/share/texmf
TEXMFLOCAL = /usr/local/share/texmf
TEXMF = {!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFMAIN}
SYSTEXMF = $TEXMF
VARTEXFONTS  = /var/spool/texmf
TEXMFDBS = $TEXMF;$VARTEXFONTS

[the rest unchanged]

Note that my custom packages are sourced before the ones that come
with tetex (see line 3), which also allows the use of newer versions
of packages without any changes in the default installation. Just run
'texhash' as root every time you've changed something.

-- 
Andre Berger                                [andre.berger@topmail.de]