[tex-live] install-info

[George N. White III]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
> Hi Bernhard,
>
> On Wed, 17 Dec 2008, Bernhard Kleine wrote:
>> I moved the /usr/local/bin/install-info to _install-info and everything
>> is o.k.
>>
>> Is this program really necessary on a linux system?
>
> The install-info from TeX Live is the original one. You are using Debian
> or Ubuntu and we (I am also Debian developer) ship another install-info
> script.

I think the reason debian didn't change the name is that Jackson's version
came first, so it is considered "original".  On Ubuntu (8.10) Jackson's
install-info is found in /usr/sbin, and there is also /usr/bin/ginstall-info.

> We are working on replacing the install-info from dpkg with the one from
> texinfo, but until this time you need to make sure that the install-info
> from /usr/bin is found FIRST on Debian/Ubuntu systems, otherwise
> installation will not work quite often.

This problem is a very old debian bug #18567 -- the decision
then was "wontfix" because the administrator is responsible for
ensuring that dpkg is called with the appropriate PATH setting.

I haven't encountered any problems with dpkg finding TL's GNU
install-info on my Ubuntu systems, where I generally use "sudo
aptitude...".  Ubuntu's default is for sudo to use "env_reset", so
it doesn't blindly pass on the user's PATH:

$ which install-info
/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux/install-info

but:

$ sudo which install-info
/usr/sbin/install-info

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia