Re: proper, debian location of latex files

[Giulio Morgan <mickle@panix.com>]

Andre Berger <uzscd5@uni-bonn.de> writes:

> 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]

Thanks to all who replied, certainly I will set up my own separate tree.
-- 
Giulio Morgan
mickle@panix.com