Bugzilla Bug 221921

As discussed in
http://groups.google.com/group/linux.gentoo.dev/browse_thread/thread/bf2e58fe200c0676/b72be3596cd2eb31
and also recently in gentoo-dev, it is better to export
VARTEXFONTS="${T}/fonts" instead of addwriting /var/cache/fonts and its
subdirectories. The latter method will stop working anyway when
/var/cache/fonts will be not world-writable (bug #204433). Please update the
following ebuilds:

app-doc/doxygen
app-office/kletterwizard
app-text/noweb
dev-lisp/cl-mcclim
dev-python/pyopenssl
dev-tex/feynmf
dev-tex/memoir
media-gfx/asymptote
media-libs/t1lib
media-libs/allegro
sci-chemistry/moldy
sci-mathematics/pari
sci-visualization/pyxplot


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

I think that this is a step in the wrong direction, as not using the font cache
is a needless waste of cpu time.

> As discussed in
> http://groups.google.com/group/linux.gentoo.dev/browse_thread/thread/bf2e58fe200c0676/b72be3596cd2eb31
> and also recently in gentoo-dev,

You have opened this bug only 14 hours after your initial posting to -dev, so
you can't really say that the issue was discussed.

media-libs/allegro - tetex stuff was removed a while ago because the docs are
available in other formats and because I didn't like having the addwrites in
there. Just removed the old ebuild which still did this.

(In reply to comment #1)
> > As discussed in
> > http://groups.google.com/group/linux.gentoo.dev/browse_thread/thread/bf2e58fe200c0676/b72be3596cd2eb31
> > and also recently in gentoo-dev,
> 
> You have opened this bug only 14 hours after your initial posting to -dev, so
> you can't really say that the issue was discussed.
This was discussed in November last year, and there was not a single voice
against. Packages are already moving in this direction: app-text/jadetex,
dev-tex/listings made this change recently. I think having a world-writable
/var/cache/fonts is not a good idea, and possibly a security risk.

Alexis, please advise. There's gotta be some way to not bypass the sandbox
without incurring a penalty of wasted cpu cycles.

(In reply to comment #4)
> Alexis, please advise. There's gotta be some way to not bypass the sandbox
> without incurring a penalty of wasted cpu cycles.
> 

Quoting myself:
"""
Normally VARTEXFONTS is for writting fonts one needs to generate;
however, with the usual default configurations files I've seen,
overriding it will make the various apps needing 'em not see the
default font cache directory. I've committed a new tl-core ebuild with
default configuration files that will let it see the old font cache
directory even if VARTEXFONTS is changed, but will of course write to
VARTEXFONTS.
"""


(and btw I'm already on tex@g.o alias ;) )

Done:
sci-chemistry/moldy
sci-mathematics/pari
sci-visualization/pyxplot

can we not simply write into "${D}"/var/cache/fonts if the font is not already
cached?

Then these fonts will be a part of the package files. If the package is
uninstalled, they will be removed. If you produce a binary package, they will
be in the binary tarball. Your package and my package will have different sets
of files.

Surely you WANT fonts to be uninstalled when their package is uninstalled?

(In reply to comment #9)
> Surely you WANT fonts to be uninstalled when their package is uninstalled?
Fonts which we are discussing have *absolutely* nothing to do with any package.
We are discussing *.tfm and *.pk files generated on demand from metafont
sources. Suppose I used LaTeX on articles A,B, and C; and you used it on D and
E. Then I and you have different sets of fonts in out /var/cache/fonts
directories. When I and you emerge the same package foo, different sets of
fonts will be generated when latexing foo docs.
Any files in /var/cache/fonts (or even all of them) may be removed at any
moment (and *are* removed automatically if unused for too long). This will not
affect functionality of LaTeX, only its performance.
To stress the point: an accidental set of fonts generated by metafont when
emerging a package foo is *not* a part of foo, and should not be lumped
together with it in any form.

media-libs/t1lib done.

media-gfx/asymptote done

dev-tex/feynmf done.
I've also changed its install location from texmf to texmf-site.