bug: dpkg/dselect on latex

["G. Crimp" <ye416@freenet.victoria.bc.ca>]

I'm afraid I don't know exactly to whom to report this problem.  I hope I 
am in the right place.  If not please advise as to the appropriate 
exterminator.

I've recently installed Debian/Linux 1.1 on my Pentium 100, from the 
InfoMagic Linux Developer's Resource 6 CD set, Sept 1996 release. 

After having achieved a successful installation, I was dismayed to
discover that the Debian setup was ENORMOUS compared to my previous
Slackware 3.1 setup from the same CD.  So big in fact that any attempt at
the slightest of tasks was invariably thwarted by a "device full" error
message. 

Setting out to discover what was taking up the 530 Mb of my Linux 
partition I discovered the file "/usr/lib/texmf/ini/latex.log" which was 
occupying a whopping 410,399,744 bytes of disk real estate.  (At least I am 
fairly sure that "ls -l" in the Debian distribution is reporting bytes 
and not blocks or POSIX compliant whosit units that I do not readily 
understand.  The number of characters reported by a :w save in a vi test 
file was the same as the size of this test file as reported by "ls -l".)

The greatly abbreviated contents of this file were:


---------- beginning of exerpt -------------------------------
    This is TeX, Version 3.1415 (C version 6.1) (INITEX) 2 SEP 1997 13:49
    ** latex.initex
    (latex.initex (/usr/lib/texmf/tex/latex/base/latex.ltx
    (/usr/lib/texmf/tex/latex/config/texsys.cfg)
    ./texsys.aux found

    ***
    \@currdir set to:  ./.
    ***
    ***
    Assuming \openin and \input
    have the same search path.
    ***

    ***
    Defining UNIX/DOS style filename parser.
    ***
    catcodes, registers
    \maxdimen=\dimen10
    \hideskip=\skip10
    \p@=\dimen11
    \z@=\dimen12
    \z@skip=\skip11
    \voidb@x=\box10
     compatibility for TeX 2,  parameters,
    \normalbaselineskip=\skip12
    \normallineskip=\skip13
    \normallineskiplimit=\dimen13
    \interfootnotelinepenalty=\count23
    \strutbox=\box11


    ******************************************************************
    * You are attempting to make a LaTeX format from a source file
    * That is more than one year old.
    *
    * If you enter <return> to scroll past this message then the format
    * will be built, but please consider obtaining newer source files
    * before continuing to build LaTeX.
    *
    * LaTeX is re-issued every 6 months June and December.
    ******************************************************************

    !LaTeX source files more than 1 year old!.
    l.572 ...LaTeX source files more than 1 year old!}

    ? y
    Type <return> to proceed, S to scroll future error messages,
    R to run without stopping, Q to run quietly,
    I to insert something, E to edit your file,
    1 or ... or 9 to ignore the next 1 to 9 tokens of input,
    H for help, X to quit
    ? y
    Type <return> to proceed, S to scroll future error messages,
    R to run without stopping, Q to run quietly,
    I to insert something, E to edit your file,
    1 or ... or 9 to ignore thenext 1 to 9 tokens of input,
    H for help, X to quit
    ? y
     .                  .                     .                .
     .                  .                     .                .
     .                  .                     .                .
    ? y
    Type <return> to proceed, S to scroll future error messages,
    R to run without stopping, Q to run quietly,
    I to insert something, E to edit your file,
    1 or ... or 9 to ignore the next 1 to 9 tokens of input,
    to run without stopping, Q to run quietly,
    I to insert something , E to edit your file,
    1 or ... or 9 to ignore the next 1 to 9 tokens of input,
    H for help, X to quit
    ? y
     .                   .                .                 .
     .                   .                .                 .
     .                   .                .                 .
    ? y
    Type <return> to proceed, S to scroll future error messages,
    R to run without stopping, Q to run quietly,
    I to insert something, E to edit your file,
    1 or ... or 9 to ignore the next 1 to 9 tokens of input,
    H fo
------------------- End of excerpt ------------------------------------

I used grep on the file to see if there was anything aside from this
repeating paragraph.  There was nothing else.  It appears that the LaTeX
setup wanted a <return>, an S, R, Q, I, E, 1 through 9, an H or an X, but
only ever got a y. 

I never saw any of this during the install.  I don't know where the "y" 
came from.  What I saw during install was a series of "Setting up XXXX ..."
messages that lead up to :

    Setting up latex ...
    Building new latex format(s) using install-fmt-base(8)
    Rebuilding 'latex' format ...

The process seemed to stall at this last message.  I killed it with ^C 
after I don't know how long on one install attempt.  On another I let it 
go for over twelve hours before pulling out the carpet from under.  
Another time I waited nearly three hours and then decided I could do 
without LaTeX on my new Linux setup.

I now see what the hold up was.  I have since deleted the mammoth file 
and would like advice on how I can install LaTeX without relying on dselect.

Thanks for any help.

Gerald Crimp
ye416@freenet.victoria.bc.ca


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