[tex-live] Sorting out updmap/updmap-sys-troubles

[Siep Kroonenberg]

On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 11:43:33AM +0200, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
> Am Wed, 23 May 2012 07:40:44 +0900 schrieb Norbert Preining:
> 
> >> one recurrent problem with font installation is caused by mixed 
> >> calls of updmap and updmap-sys (or on miktex of updmap / updmap 
> >> --admin). 
> 
> [...]
> 
> > Please take a look at the first lines of an updmap-sys call to see
> > which updmap.cfg files are read.
> 
> Well I'm a miktex user. I don't have TeXLive. I can't look myself
> ;-). That's why I asked. 
> 
> Thanks for the informations (also to Reinhard). I will read them and
> try to assemble from them some "repair instructions". 
> 
> 
> But I already found a following question: While reading in the
> installation instructions of TeXLive 2011 I found this sentence:
> 
> "You do not need to be root (administrator on Windows) to install,
> use, or manage TeX Live. In fact, we recommend installing it as a
> normal user,..."
> 
> If the default installation is as normal user, why do the users have
> to bother with updmap-sys at all? On miktex with a single-user
> installation in a restricted account you only have to (can) use
> updmap.  

One reason for advising a user install is the vista/w7 virtual store
abomination, which makes a user think that he has installed
something under program files, while he has only installed it in a
fake program files directory; same for HKLM/HKCU registry entries.
You run into this when you run the installer with admin privileges
and then TeX Live manager without.  This can be avoided by not using
admin privileges at all, especially since most Windows machines are
single-user in practice.

The difference between a user and an admin install lies in
system integration (search path, file associations, menu shortcuts,
uninstaller registry entry): are either for the current user or for
all users. These features are non-essential, optional and
Windows-only. Other users can still use TL from the command-line by
adjusting the searchpath or by starting from the system tray thingy
(tl-tray-menu.exe).

There is no difference in the directory layout.

If you turn off system integration in install-tl-advanced then there
is no way your TL installation could interfere with your miktex
installation, and you will be able to answer a lot of questions
yourself.

-- 
Siep Kroonenberg