Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: tetex-bin
Login as normal user
set TEXINPUTS to something non-standard.
synaptic
select and install tetex-bin (or also texlive)
Result: during the install, the post-installation script will search the
system for config files. The TEXINPUTS variable will apply and it will
not find some important file, such as dvips35.map. This will leave the
package half-configured and the user wholly confused.
Why care about the user's environment: the environment may be set in a
config file such as .login or .cshrc that the user brings to Ubuntu from
another distro that has the TeX distribution files in another location
from Ubuntu's (such as Fedora used to and may still). The person will
not expect these user variables to affect installs by root, and in fact
won't even be thinking about them when the install breaks. For example:
export TEXINPUTS=.:/home/jh/lib/texmf/tex//:/usr/share/texmf/tex//
How do they get set: The person has them in .cshrc or .login or
.bashwhatever and then does a sudo synaptic or su and run synaptic. The
variables propagate through all those steps to the post-install script.
Solution: post-install script should unset all relevant environment
variables.
--jh--
** Affects: tetex-bin (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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user's environment variables may break install
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/127306
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