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xy

Member

Registered: 2015-04-08

Posts: 16

(Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

Hey archers,

I found an (highly likely) upstream bug in a big package (`texlive-core`), containing many other "sub-packages", let's call them "tools". I opened a bug report FS#59144 - [texlive-core] Wrong spacing..., but I would like to contribute further. How can I track what tool is creating the bug? I found the list of tools that `texlive-core` contains. But it's kinda longish and I don't know the (best) way to check what tool is responsible. Do I have to install the single tools by hand and always check if the bug occurs? Is there a better or even best way to do this? How would you install such a single "sub-package" in Arch that's not offered for itself in the repos? I haven't found a feature in pacman allowing one to install just parts of a package. How can I proceed? How do you track bugs in Arch Linux packages?

Thanks for your help

Last edited by xy (2018-07-06 13:05:25)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: (Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

It took me a bit to get what you were saying: packages don't contain packages.  Period.

In this case it kind of does, but you should not use the same work to mean multiple different things in the same discussion.  The arch linux package texlive-core bundles together several different LaTeX tools.  There is no generic answer to this for "packages within packages" because this is specific to this arch package.

But it should be pretty strait forward to find the culprit: what commands are you running, and what LaTeX tool/package does that command belong to?  And are you sure this is a LaTeX issue and not just a font configuration problem?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

xy

Member

Registered: 2015-04-08

Posts: 16

Re: (Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

Sorry for the ambiguity, I tried to improve the first post by editing it.  I thought it would be straight forward, too, but somehow I missed the track.  I am using the LaTeX class `curve.cls`, provided by another arch package `texlive-pictures`, but the bug is not introduced by that package.  I am just running `pdflatex` without loading any other latex packages.  Since `texlive-core` offers so many different tools and the names don't let me clearly allocate to what they are doing/providing, I was not sure about how to continue.

I assume it is not `pdflatex` itself, but one of the default style files by latex.

xy

Member

Registered: 2015-04-08

Posts: 16

Re: (Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

I have created a list with the (latex) packages used by `curve.cls`.  I have a file list with the corresponding files.  I have sorted out the files that are not in `texlive-core`.  I hope to find the bug that way, else it has to be in some of the passively used files.  I am not aware of which these are except for maybe `latex.ltx`.

How can I check whether the files are introducing the bug in the current version?  The only solution coming to my mind is stupid copy&pasting into my tex-mf directory.  Isn't there a better way?  Once I found the file, I might want to know how I can check to which tool/sub-package of `texlive-core` the files belong.

xy

Member

Registered: 2015-04-08

Posts: 16

Re: (Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

Alright, as stated in a comment of the bug report, I was able to
find the origin of the bug.  I could reproduce it and suppress
it by commenting out a specific part of code (line 218 of
`array.sty` has changed from `\def\@xargarraycr#1{\unskip` to
`\def\@xargarraycr#1{\unskip\gdef\do@row@strut`.  Commenting out or
deleting the new `\gdef\do@row@strut` I could either see the wrong
spacing, or I could not.

Then I wanted to see whether this has been fixed in the current
version, so I cloned the repo from https://github.com/latex3/latex2e,
build latex from there, and after that the bug just disappeared.

It's gone.  No way to reproduce it anymore.  I even reinstalled
`texlive-core` to see if it was my manual copy&pasting.  Nothing
changed, no more bug, no wrong spacing.  I am not sure what happened
here.  A miracle?  I am perplexed.

**edit** the bug occurs still if I switch the user account.   How?
How can the build of latex lead to that?  Some cache files?

Last edited by xy (2018-07-07 20:21:37)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,424

Website

Re: (Upstream-)Bugtracking in a package containing many other sub-packages

Please don't bump your thread: use the edit button.

Not an Arch discussuion, moving to Apps & DEs...

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