Problem with texmf.cnf in ubuntu

Question

where do i have to place the texmf.cnf because i don't have a directory named /tex/2016 but four directory : texmf-config, texmf-dist, texmf-var, texmf-local, in my ubuntu 16.LTS thanks for the answer

Answer 1

The answer depends on several issues:

1. More on the topic is treated in the question here; the Wikibooks material here; one of several resources on kpathsea here, and in the TeX Live documentation here.

2. One should not just use locate blindly and arbitrarily change a file. For example, Ubuntu stores its system-wide config in /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf but manages that through scripts with some of its own TeX framework (tex-common) that will appear if one installs the texinfo package or lilypond or frescobaldi, even if one has a vanilla TeXLive 2016 install (or install-tl-ubuntu, which puts symlinks in /opt but does not change the locations below).

   The file /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf will not necessarily be found by kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFCNF using a vanilla TL or equivalent (as you see below) but it should be found when using the Ubuntu packaged version. Yet I have not run sudo dpkg --configure tex-common.

   So if you have the Ubuntu package version of TeX Live, or if texinfo, lilypond, or frescobaldi are installed, even if you have vanilla TL or equivalents on Ubuntu, locate will show at least the following:

   $ locate texmf.cnf
   /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
   

   If you do have vanilla TL or equivalents, you may get this:

   $ locate texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
   

   or this:

   $ locate texmf.cnf
   /etc/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
   

   The file in /etc/texmf/web2c is managed by Ubuntu and should not be changed because it will be overwritten. It says so in the file.

   There may be different ways to add or change the config in the Ubuntu packaged framework, but using a local change in your home dir allows deja-dup to back it up (see 3 below) and allows you to keep personal changes persistent over system upgrades, distro changes, and so on.

   The file in /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf is the master file if you have a flavor of TL2016 or equivalent and should not be changed. It also says so in the file.

   One could modify site-wide options in /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf.cnf if you have vanilla TL or equivalent. An extensive answer to that is the question here.

3. If you want a local texmf.cnf file under $HOME, do the following:

   a. Get the value of TEXMFCONFIG via kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFCONFIG.

   b. Create a child web2c directory under that parent directory if the child does not exist. For example, if the parent is something like

   $HOME/.texlive2016/texmf-config

   use

   mkdir -p $HOME/.texlive2016/texmf-config/web2c

   c. Put your local texmf.cnf in the child web2c directory.

   d. In your .profile do something like the snippet below. The variable substitution with the dollar sign and parens gets the result of the command inside the parens as an rvalue and assigns it to the the variable name. (Edit) The snippet below was modified to prevent errors, e.g., after changing distros or reinstalling, when kpsewhich is not found:

   ## Find local config file, if needed
   testpg=kpsewhich
   if which "$testpg" 2> /dev/null; then
     temp=$(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFCONFIG)
     if [ -e "$temp/web2c/texmf.cnf" ] ; then
         export TEXMFCNF=$temp/web2c:
     fi
   else
     echo "kpsewhich not found"
   fi
   

   Now kpsewhich -a texmf.cnf should find your local file, e.g.:

   $ kpsewhich -a texmf.cnf
   /home/username/.texlive2016/texmf-config/web2c/texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf.cnf
   /usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
   

   This is an expansion of the answer by Norbert Preining.