Re: ConTeXt on Debian: The wiki entry

[Sanjoy Mahajan <sanjoy@mrao.cam.ac.uk>]

> http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Debian_installation

> Are some of the people around who wrote this? 

I wrote some of it (hangs head in shame) by typing in all the steps I
had to use on my Debian stable/testing system to get a newer ConTeXt
to work with tetex 3.0 as the basis.  I agree, it is confusing and I
hope it can be improved.

In the previous discussion, the issue came up of whether ConTeXt
should be installed per user or for the whole system.  The
Debian_installation instructions on the wiki are for a per-user
install, because I couldn't figure out a robust way of having an
easily updatable installation that goes in TEXMFLOCAL.  

A system-wide installation, if done cleanly, would be much easier (as
plink pointed out).  If you (or 'texexec --make' to generate the
formats) ask kpathsea where to put the format files, it'll give you a
directory in TEXMFHOME, so a per user install.  But how do you ask
kpathsea the correct question so that it'll tell you where they should
go for a system-wide install?

-Sanjoy

`Never underestimate the evil of which men of power are capable.'
         --Bertrand Russell, _War Crimes in Vietnam_, chapter 1.