[tex-live] asy & texmf v texmf-local

[Will Robertson]

Hi Norbert,

Shuffling around your comments...

>> Or should the order of the paths above in texmf.cnf be adjusted so
>> texmf-local is found first?
> 
> No, it is found *before* texmf-dist but *after* texmf, and that is fine.

Okay, that seems sensible. (I was just checking this order was definitely intentional.)

On 26/08/2010, at 5:10 PM, Norbert Preining wrote:

> Some things need to be clarified, the following is my interpretation:
> - because asymptote.sty and the binaries are closely linked, the .sty
>  file resides in texmf, not texmf-dist, so that it is *not* overridden
>  by a texmf-local file
> - those who actually *compile* a new asymptote should be apt enough to
>  understand that they have to replace the texmf/asymptote.sty file
> - the install process of the asymptote package assumes that there
>  is either no installation, or an old one from the package itself,
>  but not texlive package
> 
> Best would be if asymptote build system would recognize a texlive
> installation and offers to put the asymptote file into texmf/...
> instead.

Hmmm. From my point of view, it would be better if asymptote.sty was part of texmf-dist -- i.e., if it were a stand-alone CTAN package. (I'll talk to John about that but I won't hold my breath.)

I'm not very comfortable with writing a script to locate asymptote.sty correctly -- it seems like it will be a fragile process and I don't have the resources for testing it widely. For now, I think, I'll simply recommend that users compiling asy from source need to delete their TL-installed copies of asymptote.sty.

Thanks for the advice,
-- Will