Bug 429682 – install scripts for dev-libs/kpathsea, app-text/dvipsk, and dev-tex/luatex must check for presence of app-text/texlive-core before attempting to run texmf-update or fmtutil-sys

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Dave Kemper 2012-08-03 16:33:02 UTC]

I just installed media-sound/lilypond, which depends on various TeX packages, none of which were previously installed.  Some of the prereqs that emerge pulled in, in the order that it pulled them, are:

dev-libs/kpathsea-6.0.1_p20110705
app-text/dvipsk-5.991_p20110705-r1
dev-tex/luatex-0.70.1
app-text/texlive-core-2011-r6

The first two of the above-listed packages both generated the error:

 * Cannot run texmf-update for some reason.
 * Your texmf tree might be inconsistent with your configuration
 * Please try to figure what has happened

/usr/sbin/texmf-update is part of app-text/texlive-core, which was not installed until after those two packages.

Similarly, luatex generated the error;

 * Cannot run fmtutil-sys for some reason.
 * Your formats might be inconsistent with your installed luatex version
 * Please try to figure what has happened

/usr/bin/fmtutil-sys is also part of texlive-core.

So an error-free installation of the first three packages above depends on texlive-core being installed before them.  (Or, if this is the proper order to install these packages based on other considerations, then the first three should check for the presence of texlive-core before attempting to run texmf-update or fmtutil-sys.)

[Comment 1 Dave Kemper 2012-08-03 17:03:16 UTC]

Due to a non-intuitive peculiarity of Bugzilla's search, I didn't find any existing bugs about this before opening mine.  But I see now that the problem with one of the three packages (dev-libs/kpathsea) has been reported twice already.

Bug 380671 comment 2 indicates that it is correct for kpathsea to be installed before texlive-core.  I would suspect that the same is true of dvipsk and luatex.

This means that the installation scripts for these packages need to check for the presence of texlive-core before attempting to run texmf-update or fmtutil-sys.

[Comment 2 Alexis Ballier 2012-08-14 14:57:43 UTC]

there is no error, these are just warnings....

[Comment 3 Dave Kemper 2012-08-14 17:38:46 UTC]

It is not clear from the message text that it is just a warning.

Further, a user who does not know the internals of TeX, trying to install a TeX-related package, should not be told "Please try to figure what has happened" for something that is a complete non-issue.  The package maintainer has already figured out what has happened, and could very easily add a simple test to prevent the message from popping up at all, thus saving every user who installs one of these packages from having to duplicate this figuring.

A basic tenet of good software design is that warnings should only be emitted when there is something legitimate to warn about.  If app-text/texlive-core does not exist on the system, there is nothing requiring a warning when installing the other packages.  (If app-text/texlive-core DOES exist, and texmf-update or fmtutil-sys cannot be run for some reason, then there is legitimate cause to warn.)

[Comment 4 Alexis Ballier 2012-08-14 17:47:38 UTC]

(In reply to comment #3)

yes, i agree with that :)

[Comment 5 Alexis Ballier 2012-10-17 13:20:56 UTC]

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> 
> yes, i agree with that :)

warnings should be gone now if you dont have texlive-core installed