Very Computer

I have a question concering the way dvips works:
does dvips pull in the system-wide config.ps (installed in
/usr/share/texmf/...) *and* my own config.ps (installed in
~/texmf/dvips/...) ?
Or does it only read the first one it finds?

Looking at the output of dvips when I set KPATHSEA_DEBUG=32,
it seems to me that dvips reads only the first one ;-(

If that is true,
then how can I "add" some options to the config.ps without editing the
system-wide config.ps?

For instance, I installed a font in ~/texmf --
now I want dvips to know about it, so I want to add the appropriate line to
config.ps.
But, of course, I don't want to copy the complete system-wide config.ps,
because when a new teTeX is installed, dvips still would use the old
config.ps ...

I did a quick search of comp.text.tex, and I read the man page (again),
to no avail.

Any insights will be highly appreciated.
Gab.

PS:
I'm using dvips(k) 5.86 und teTeX 1.0.7

--
/---------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Unix ist zwar ein Mainframe-Betriebssystem (und damit obsolet)      |
| hat aber viele Anh?nger.                                            |
|      MCSE Training Guide -- Windows 2000 Server,                    |
|      Markt & Technik, 2001; Kapitel 2.6.3 "Zusammenspiel mit UNIX". |
|                                                                     |


\---------------------------------------------------------------------/

Quote:> I have a question concering the way dvips works:
> does dvips pull in the system-wide config.ps (installed in
> /usr/share/texmf/...) *and* my own config.ps (installed in
> ~/texmf/dvips/...) ?
> Or does it only read the first one it finds?

In miktex it use the first it finds but I can tell miktex that the
local tree should be search first.

Quote:> Looking at the output of dvips when I set KPATHSEA_DEBUG=32,
> it seems to me that dvips reads only the first one ;-(

> If that is true,
> then how can I "add" some options to the config.ps without editing the
> system-wide config.ps?

> For instance, I installed a font in ~/texmf --
> now I want dvips to know about it, so I want to add the appropriate
> line to config.ps.

You could put your extra settings in a config.local and call dvips with
the option dvips -Plocal, then dvips will read config.ps and
config.local.

(I'm not sure the option has the same name in your tex installation but
the manual should tell you the correct syntax.)

Ulrike Fischer

Thanks a lot for your response.
I realized that the man page is obsolete, and one should read the info file
(argghhh - i hate that kind of unnecessary confusion, and i like man pages
better then info files ... )

Just for the record:
under Unix, it seems that one should put your private dvips-config stuff in
~/.dvipsrc (at least when using teTeX).

TNX,
Gab.

Quote:>  > Looking at the output of dvips when I set KPATHSEA_DEBUG=32,
>  > it seems to me that dvips reads only the first one ;-(

>  > If that is true,
>  > then how can I "add" some options to the config.ps without editing the
>  > system-wide config.ps?

>  > For instance, I installed a font in ~/texmf --
>  > now I want dvips to know about it, so I want to add the appropriate
>  > line to config.ps.

>  You could put your extra settings in a config.local and call dvips with
>  the option dvips -Plocal, then dvips will read config.ps and
>  config.local.

>  (I'm not sure the option has the same name in your tex installation but
>  the manual should tell you the correct syntax.)

>  Ulrike Fischer

--
/---------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Unix ist zwar ein Mainframe-Betriebssystem (und damit obsolet)      |
| hat aber viele Anh?nger.                                            |
|      MCSE Training Guide -- Windows 2000 Server,                    |
|      Markt & Technik, 2001; Kapitel 2.6.3 "Zusammenspiel mit UNIX". |
|                                                                     |


\---------------------------------------------------------------------/

Gabriel Zachmann schrieb:

Quote:

> Just for the record:
> under Unix, it seems that one should put your private dvips-config stuff in
> ~/.dvipsrc (at least when using teTeX).

With teTeX on Linux, you should use the "updmap" tool
to install the map files for your private fonts.  

just my 2c
Walter

Quote:>  > Just for the record:
>  > under Unix, it seems that one should put your private dvips-config stuff in
>  > ~/.dvipsrc (at least when using teTeX).

>  With teTeX on Linux, you should use the "updmap" tool
>  to install the map files for your private fonts.  

Thanks a lot for your response.

But, at least in tetex 1.0, updmap can be used only, if you have can change
that script, which resides in /usr/share/texmf, in other words, it is a
system-wide thing.
If I could do that, I could also change the system-wide config.ps ;-/

Since I'm writing about this dvips-config stuff again,
I might as well remark that it is getting on my nerves a little bit.
Why is that?
Because in the mean-time, since my last post about all this,
I found that in the system-wide config-file there is the line

    p +myfonts.map

So I thought it would be cleanest to put a file 'myfonts.map' in my
~/texmf/dvips/config containing lines like

    p +pasx.map

But, of course, it doesn't work as expected!
Setting KPATHSEA_DEBUG=32 I found that dvips does find myfonts.map,
but it never actually tries to find pasx.map!

So, for now, I put 'p +pasx.map' back into ~/.dvipsrc.

Sorry for the rants. (Has nothing to do with you, Walter ;-)

Gab.

--
/---------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Unix ist zwar ein Mainframe-Betriebssystem (und damit obsolet)      |
| hat aber viele Anh?nger.                                            |
|      MCSE Training Guide -- Windows 2000 Server,                    |
|      Markt & Technik, 2001; Kapitel 2.6.3 "Zusammenspiel mit UNIX". |
|                                                                     |


\---------------------------------------------------------------------/

 Gabriel,

This one threw me for a loop too. It grabs the first one
it finds. This is important to know for things like setting
the default page size because dvips will default to the

dump what it knows about previous page sizes (say from config.ps)

library, so to "really get to" dvips path settings, you've got
to go through KPATHSEA.

IMHO, it is a mistake to ship teTeX systems with a default
configuration that does not allow users to override the
system-wide files.

Have another look at /usr/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
(or where ever your texmf.cnf file resides).

I recommend that the following changes be made to your
texmf.cnf (at least they work well for me on my Red Hat Linux
system. The original settings are retained as comments where
possible):

----

% it may not be a good idea (on every system) for executables
% to look for <texmf> using paths relative to their execute
% location - otherwise things can break if an executable
% is moved, say from /usr/bin to /usr/local/bin or if a
% user is running a local copy of an executable.
%TEXMFMAIN = $SELFAUTODIR/share/texmf
TEXMFMAIN = /usr/share/texmf

.
.

% enable local user trees in their home directories
HOMETEXMF = $HOME/texmf

.
.

% now search the user's local tree before the system tree
% The lack of a leading !! means that users will not have
% to run texhash on their ~/texmf after adding files to it.
% Generally this may be a good idea because it is likely
% that there will be far fewer files there than in the
% system tree - so it may not take so long for a disk search.
%TEXMF = $TEXMFMAIN
TEXMF = {$HOMETEXMF,!!$TEXMFMAIN}

.
.

% The new type1 xdvi needs this - let xdvi see any local
% config files as well as dvips' map files.
% XDVIINPUTS = /usr/share/texmf/xdvi
XDVIINPUTS = .;$TEXMF/{xdvi,dvips//}

----

Because $TEXMF itself looks first in the user's ~/texmf,
you will find that you can now override just about all the
system wide files (configs,*packages, fonts, etc.)
at will.

For instance, you can make files/directories like:

~/texmf/dvips
~/texmf/fonts
~/texmf/pdftex
~/texmf/tex
~/texmf/xdvi

mirrored in the same fashion of the system texmf tree, e.g.,

~/texmf/tex/latex
~/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps
~/texmf/fonts/tfm
~/texmf/fonts/type1

etc., and thus override the system defaults with your own private
copies.

 Hope this helps,

 Mike Shell

Quote:>>  > Just for the record:
>>  > under Unix, it seems that one should put your private dvips-config stuff in
>>  > ~/.dvipsrc (at least when using teTeX).

>>  With teTeX on Linux, you should use the "updmap" tool
>>  to install the map files for your private fonts.  

>Thanks a lot for your response.

>But, at least in tetex 1.0, updmap can be used only, if you have can change
>that script, which resides in /usr/share/texmf, in other words, it is a
>system-wide thing.
>If I could do that, I could also change the system-wide config.ps ;-/

>Since I'm writing about this dvips-config stuff again,
>I might as well remark that it is getting on my nerves a little bit.
>Why is that?
>Because in the mean-time, since my last post about all this,
>I found that in the system-wide config-file there is the line

>    p +myfonts.map

>So I thought it would be cleanest to put a file 'myfonts.map' in my
>~/texmf/dvips/config containing lines like

>    p +pasx.map

>But, of course, it doesn't work as expected!
>Setting KPATHSEA_DEBUG=32 I found that dvips does find myfonts.map,
>but it never actually tries to find pasx.map!

Map files shoul reference fonts, not other map files. Simply
create myfonts.map and append the conpents of pasx.map (and all
your other .map files) to it.

Quote:

>So, for now, I put 'p +pasx.map' back into ~/.dvipsrc.

That works, too.

Dan

--
Dan Luecking                     Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas           Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Quote:>  Map files shoul reference fonts, not other map files. Simply

well, ok, i didn't know that (and it's not obvius, is it? ;-)

Quote:>  create myfonts.map and append the conpents of pasx.map (and all
>  your other .map files) to it.

that's the way it should be?

I think from a software-engineering point of view,
duplicate information is a Bad Thing, especially if there is no *automatic*
mechanism in place that establishes consistency.

Oh well, I suppose TeX/LaTeX is the wrong place to start asking about
software-engineering practices ... ;-}

(no offense intended, i greatly appreciated all the wonderful work by all
the volunteers!)

cheers,
gab.

--
/---------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Unix ist zwar ein Mainframe-Betriebssystem (und damit obsolet)      |
| hat aber viele Anh?nger.                                            |
|      MCSE Training Guide -- Windows 2000 Server,                    |
|      Markt & Technik, 2001; Kapitel 2.6.3 "Zusammenspiel mit UNIX". |
|                                                                     |


\---------------------------------------------------------------------/

Quote:>>  Map files shoul reference fonts, not other map files. Simply

>well, ok, i didn't know that (and it's not obvius, is it? ;-)

>>  create myfonts.map and append the conpents of pasx.map (and all
>>  your other .map files) to it.

>that's the way it should be?

To fulfill the requirement of using only the myfonts.map hook, yes
it must be that way.

You can also put
  p +pasx.map
in config.ps, but I seem to recall you were having trouble with that
step.

There's also a dvips option: "dvips -u pasx.map ..."

There's also "dvips -P pasx ..." where config.pasx contains at least
the line "p +pasx.map".

Quote:

>I think from a software-engineering point of view,
>duplicate information is a Bad Thing, especially if there is no *automatic*
>mechanism in place that establishes consistency.

If duplication is your primary concern, concatenate all your map files
into one and delete the originals, or keep only the separate ones and
call them up when needed.

The automatic mechanism is updmap, which updates psfonts.map any time
you install a font's .map file.

Fonts are the most variable thing in TeX systems. The practises now used
evolved over the years and have to cater to systems that have few fonts
and systems that have thousands. The standard thing now is that a font
package XYZ comes with a xyz.map file which you can concatenate to a
central file (with updmap, perhaps) or use separately with dvips command
line options as above.

Dan

--
Dan Luecking                     Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas           Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701