[tex-live] initexmf

[George N. White III]

On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 8:55 AM, Siep Kroonenberg <siepo at cybercomm.nl> wrote:

> Trying to test some stuff, I ran into the following:
>
> My w2k test virtual machine still had MikTeX 2.7 installed. I didn't
> bother to uninstall it first.
>
> I installed TL08 from dvd image. In the dosbox, there were messages
>
> running post install action for texlive.infra
> running mktexlsr C:/Program Files/texlive/2008/texmf-dist C:/Program Files/texli
> ve/2008/texmf
> initexmf: This utility does not accept non-option arguments.
>
> How the hell did MikTeX's mktexlsr get invoked instead of the one
> from TeX Live, or how did MikTeX's initexmf.exe get invoked by TeX
> Live's mktexlsr?

I installed TL 2008 without problems on WinXP with MiKTeX 2.7, but I
cleaned the environment before starting the installer.   Some users
also set TEX.. variables for MiKTeX (e.g., TEXINPUTS), so it is best to
scan the environment for any mention of TEX or miktex.  After
TL is installed, you can restore miktex settings and create a
.cmd files to load a command-line environment for running
either package.   So far both MikTeX and TL have been working for
basic LaTeX tasks.

> When running with the -v option, the install-time path appears to be
> set correctly, except for forward slashes, but forward slashes seem
> to be ok for the searchpath.

I doubt forward slashes will work for all cases -- some Win32 programs
seem to do their own massaging of the PATH and may be confused.

> Is this another permission weirdness? Like w32 thinks TL08 is busy
> so it picks instead something from MikTeX, which is still on the
> searchpath? Does w32 somehow remember that mktexlsr is initexmf?  (I
> am clutching at straws here)
>
> I do remember a previous occasion where an old TL07 installation
> myteriously interfered.

Life is too short to work out all the foibles of WIn32, but I've installed
TL2008 on systems with existing TL2007 and MiKTeX 2.7 after removing
all traces of the existing packages from the environment.   In addition to
the PATH, check for things like PERL library paths and TEXINPUTS.

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