Arch Linux

ttoirrah

Member

Registered: 2015-01-29

Posts: 61

tweak TeX Live's texmf.cnf

$ locate texmf.conf
/etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
$ ls -l /usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
... /usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf -> /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf

- in that configuration file max_print_line = 79 is the default, which I can increase for a compile like this: max_print_line=4000 xelatex <aLaTeXFileToCompile> .

(export max_print_line=4000 doesn't work.)

I'd like to have this be my default, so, following the instructions (in texmf.cnf) to put my additions two directories up, I created (a symlink to) /usr/share/texmf.cnf containing just max_print_line=4000, but it has no effect. Any ideas?

dtbaumann

Member

Registered: 2015-07-03

Posts: 28

Re: tweak TeX Live's texmf.cnf

kpsewhich texmf.cnf

should tell you which texmf.cnf is actually read and interpreted.

Going 2 directories up from /usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf would get you into /usr/share (or /etc), which is probably not what you intended and where texlive will be looking.

Changing /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf should be the right thing. I guess pacman will preserve these changes across updates (maybe as a .pacsave file)

Stefan Husmann

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-08-07

Posts: 1,391

Re: tweak TeX Live's texmf.cnf

Not sure if this is correct, but in alll examples I always find exaples where the syntax is

name = value

(with blanks around the = ).

Last edited by Stefan Husmann (2022-04-12 18:06:26)

ttoirrah

Member

Registered: 2015-01-29

Posts: 61

Re: tweak TeX Live's texmf.cnf

dtbaumann, yes,

$ kpsewhich -a texmf.cnf
/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf

I agree going up to /usr/share/texmf.cnf is odd, but the instruction right at the top of texmf.cnf is precisely to go up two directories...
(I also dumbly tried, without success, placing my tweak two directories up from the source, at /etc/texmf.cnf, an equally odd place, and I tried going up just one directory instead of two /usr/share/texmf-dist/texmf.cnf.)

Yes, this works:

sudo sed -i 's/^max_print_line = 79/max_print_line = 4000/' /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf

and I can just rerun it when /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf gets renewed by Pacman, but instead I've defined in my bashrc

x () { max_print_line=4000 xelatex $1; }

Stefan Husmann, contrary to what I'd written in my first post, I did actually have those spaces in my additional texmf.cnf, but still I've just tested your hypothesis, and removing those spaces around the "=" doesn't matter (they're not needed).

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,321

Re: tweak TeX Live's texmf.cnf

and I can just rerun it when /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf gets renewed by Pacman, but instead I've defined in my bashrc

pacman will not overwrite that file, as it is marked as a backuup/configuration file. It will create a .pacnew file with the new contents instead and notify you during the upgrade. Then you'll have to merge the new things.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … nd_Pacsave

Last edited by progandy (2022-04-19 09:22:39)

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