DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: tetex and PassiveTeX in Red Hat

[Alex Lancaster <alexl at socrates dot berkeley dot edu>]

>>>>> "TW" == Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com> writes:

[...]

TW> Yes, I know.  I am looking at getting a newer teTeX package
TW> released as an enhancement/bugfix advisory soon.  In the mean time
TW> I'll see if I can rebuild the rawhide teTeX against a 7.2 build
TW> tree.

Yes, please!!  That would be great!  Thanks for the speedy response.

>> So is there any way to smoothly install the necessary tools to use
>> the XSL/FO/PassiveTex toolchain short of wholesale committing to
>> the entire (unstable) distro of Raw Hide?

TW> I have put everything except for teTeX here:
TW> <ftp://people.redhat.com/twaugh/docbook-pkgs/>.  It should work
TW> against 7.2 (I'm using those packages here on a 7.2 machine).  If
TW> there are dependencies I've missed, please let me know.

Thanks again.

>> It would also be nice to be able to upgrade the binary without
>> having to fiddle around manually with the ".cnf" files in tetex,
>> which are just completely opaque to me [not being a great
>> TeX-pert].)

TW> You shouldn't need to.  If you have modified the texmf.cnf file
TW> then you will find a texmf.cnf.rpmnew file after upgrade; just
TW> move the .rpmnew file over the .cnf file.

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear.  I have *not* had this
problem with the RPMs.  I meant that this would be what I would have
to do if I couldn't install an RPM of tetex at all (i.e. the current
situation).  By studying the patches in the spec file, I could
probably figure out what needed to change in "texmf.cnf" without
having to upgrade the binary, but I'd be bumbling through it, and if
there's one thing I've learned about TeX, is to stick with the tetex
RPM as much as possible, because if you don't know what you're doing
(which I don't with TeX) you can easily end up with a broken TeX
setup.

Alex