Re: ConTeXt on Debian: The wiki entry

["Frank Küster" <frank@kuesterei.ch>]

Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com> wrote:

> Frank Küster wrote:
>> 
>> Can you point me to the place where it is documented which calls are
>> needed to be called
>
> I was going to say: on the wiki, but that clearly wouldn't work
> this time.
>
> To actually update ConTeXt, assuming you already have a relatively
> modern context installed, you say
> 	
>    # ctxtools --update
>
> and that fetches the zip file(s) from the pragma site (or a mirror),
> unpacks them, and updates the various perl and ruby scripts that come
> with ConTeXt.

When this is done on a system where ConTeXt first came with a TeXlive or
teTeX installation, will this replace existing files, or will it put the
updated new files in TEMXFLOCAL or TEXMFHOME, respectively?  Ah, I think
you have answered this already below.

> You have to be root for this when you want to update the global install,
> otherwise you have a few extra caveats, see below.
>
> After a succesful update, you have to run
> 	
>   # texexec --make --all [--xetex | --aleph | --pdftex] <formats>
>
> Where <formats> are the desired formats to run. The accepted list
> at the moment is: the eight ConTeXt formats, in both long
> ("cont-en" etc.) and  short from ("en","nl","de","it","fr","cz",
> "ro","uk"), and "mptopdf", and the metapost mems "mpost" and "metafun".

So I guess this is the call that would also be needed if the update
itself goes via a package management, i.e. if one installs a new version
of the Debian ConTeXt package.

> This works fine if you are root, and had a previous context update
> done already. If you have not already and/or are not root, then you
> have two big problems:
>
> * TEXFORMATS as shipped with teTeX/TL is uncomplete: there is that
>    missing format-specific subdirectory. 

So I guess TeXlive (and the existing teTeX packages within
Linux/BSD/... distributions) should do that, so that modern ConTeXt just
works. 


If you are not root, then
>    you have to create a local texmf.cnf to overrule the default
>    texmf.cnf. I have:
>
>    TEXFORMATS    = .;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,}
>
>    because context's texexec pushes the $engine setting to the
>    environment, this works fine (Originally this was supposed to
>    be handled by kpathsea, but like I said, that never got off
>    the ground)

It might be possible by setting, in texmf.cnf,

TEXFORMATS.xetex = .;$TEXMF/web2c{xetex,}
TEXFORMATS.pdftex = .;$TEXMF/web2c{pdftex,}

and so on.  I'm not sure, however; this of course depends on which
progname ConTeXt uses (so it might need to be TEXFORMATS.cont-xetex or
whatever). 

>    Not using texexec is not a big deal in itself, as long as you
>    restrict yourself to using pdfetex and know how to edit the
>    fmtutil config file, I guess. That's why you sometimes see that
>    approach promoted on the wiki.

I think, with the TEXFORMATS.$engine setup working, it should be
possible to use both, fmtutil and texexec, and get the same formats -
texexec might still be better in doing other update tasks.

> * TEXFONTMAPS is also wrong: it makes pdftex (and dvipdfmx as well,
>    I guess) find the mapfiles for dvips before their own mapfiles
>    (those are shipped with ConTeXt).

This also sounds like a bug in TeXlive/teTeX.

> * Lastly, ctxtools --update does a kpsewhich on context.tex to find
>    where to install the updated files. That only works if  you have
>    write permission for that directory (i.e. you are root),  or if you
>    have done a private install already.

So this means -update will always try to overwrite an existing
installation, and not automatically search for a writable directory
that's earlier in the TEXMF path?  Even not as a fallback?  This sounds
as if this tool could be improved.

> I think that is all, but I may have missed something, so if you read
> this message and know a thing or two about updating, please double
> check my text. Thanks in advance.

I think it does help a lot, and we can work from there, testing with the
Debian ConTeXt package.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Dr. Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)