Re: no /etc/texmf directory created

Hello,

Dr. Werner Fink wrote:

>It would be a great win if teTeX would fulfill the FHS[1], in
>short all configuration should be placed in /etc/texmf/,
>all variable data in /var/lib/texmf/ (beside the fonts which
>should go to /var/cache/fonts/), binaries depending on
>the local architecture should go to /usr/lib/texmf/, and
>the sharable rest may go to /usr/share/texmf/ ... this because
>accordingly to FHS[1] /usr can be mounted read only ;^)
>  
>

On one hand you're right, it would be feasible to make teTeX conform to 
FHS. This is especially true for distribution maintainers.

On the other hand, it is imensely great to have a directory structure as 
it is now. For at least two reasons:
1. if one does not use a pacaging system to maintain installed software, 
it's really nice to have everything installed under one directory point. 
It's really easy to un-install such software: "rm -rf directory/" does 
the trick.
2. I always enjoyed the possibility to install teTeX on one NFS-shared 
directory and do it for different hardware platforms. And only maintain 
one single configuration instance for the whole package. Plus share the 
'temporary' files, such as .pk files (this was more important in times 
when CPU speed was much lower as it is today).

Perhaps this could be a compile-time option? Something like:

old style: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/teTeX

new stlye: ./configure --with-fhs


Best regards,
  Metod