TEXINPUTS = .;$TEXMF/{tex,pdftex}/{generic,}// I agree with Seb that we shouldn't make the change now. I agree with Gerben that the change is desirable -- I'll put it on the wishlist I'm keeping for next year. Actually, I think suggestion #2, changing pdftex to not use TEXINPUTS to find pdftex.cfg, makes even more sense.