Description of problem: The paths where texmf.cnf is searched are defined at compile time in /kpathsea/paths.h as #define DEFAULT_TEXMFCNF "{$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/share,}/texmf{-local,}/web2c}:/etc/texmf:/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c" /etc/texmf is wrong, it should be /etc/texmf/web2c. Moreover, /usr/share/texmf/web2c appears twice (actually thrice, since it's implied by SELFAUTOPARENT) Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): texlive-2007-24.fc8 Expected results: A local modification of texmf.cnf should go in /etc/texmf/web2c, not in /etc/texmf
Actually, the first definition: {$SELFAUTOLOC,$SELFAUTODIR,$SELFAUTOPARENT}{,{/share,}/texmf{-local,}/web2c} *should* not be there, since it implies that /usr/share/texmf/web2c is searched before /etc/texmf/web2c, making it impossible to override default values. It's debatable which should be the places for local modifications (I don't understand Fedora directory structure well enough to comment), but DEFAULT_TEXMFCNF should be set to sensible values like "/etc/texmf/web2c:/var/lib/texmf/web2c:.:/etc/texmf/web2c" (should also /usr/local/share/texmf/web2c be there?) (is . a security risk? it'd be useful for experiments) (should we look also in the user home directory?)
I agree with /etc/texmf/web2c (and I am certainly the culprit). For SELFAUTO stuff it is more problematic. If I recall well this is used because it is used in kpathsea because of a post-build run of some utilities, and for this post build run, the SELFAUTO stuff has to be present. I'll have a look at it once more, since Karl Berry said that it was not used, maybe we could avoid using it during the build. It is normal to have /usr/share/texmf/web2c appearing twice since it is $TEXMF/web2c;@web2c@ from upstream.
Created attachment 297691 [details] put web2c after sysconfdir and don't use share/texmf in SELFAUTO I didn't find anything better than only using texmf-local instead of texmf (and texmf-local). The texmf.cnf has to be installed in the texmf-local directory during the build for the texlinks call, it is also done in the patch.
Applied, thanks!