Re: [AUCTeX] 11.90.2.2017-07-25; TeX-search-files-by-type: No TeX trees available; configure ‘TeX-tree-roots’ error

[David Kastrup]

Ikumi Keita <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi Sivaram, thank you for your reply.
>
>>>>>> Sivaram Neelakantan <address@hidden> writes:
>>> 1. Have you been experiencing that problem since long before?  Or did
>>> that begin to occur recently?
>
>> Recently.  I use the elpa package system to install and so far had no
>> problems. 
>
>>> 2. What are the values of `TeX-kpathsea-path-delimiter',
>>> `TeX-tree-roots', `path-separator' and `system-type' in the buffer
>>> where the error occurs?
>
>> TeX-kpathsea-path-delimiter is :
>> TeX-tree-roots is nil
>> path-separator is ;
>> system-type is 'windows-nt'
>
>>> 3. On cygwin terminal, what does the command
>>> kpsewhich --expand-path='$TEXMF'
>>> output?
>
>> /usr/share/texmf-site:/etc/texmf:/var/lib/texmf:/usr/share/texmf-dist
>
> OK, I see that the primary reason of the error is the incompatibility
> between colon and semicolon.

Sigh.  It was autodetected before

commit 420ec0e6c7f5a51d3b994265d86d0c6aab72c767
Author: Ikumi Keita <address@hidden>
Date:   Mon Nov 13 23:41:18 2017 +0900

    Bug fix and code refactoring related to kpathsea
    
    * tex.el (TeX-kpathsea-path-delimiter): Use `path-separator' for
    default value.  Drop t from the candidates because auto detection
    sometimes fails for w32 platform.
    (TeX-tree-expand): Always use `TeX-kpathsea-path-delimiter' if
    non-nil.
    Disable subsequent use of kpathsea if kpsewhich causes error or
    returns non-zero exit value.
    Accept nil for PROGRAM argument.
    (TeX-search-files-kpathsea): Always use `TeX-kpathsea-path-delimiter' if
    non-nil.
    Use `TeX-tree-expand'.
    Don't signal error even if kpsewhich causes error or returns non-zero
    exit value.

threw out the code for autodetection.

> According to the lines
>> Emacs  : GNU Emacs 25.3.1 (x86_64-w64-mingw32)
>>  of 2017-09-17
> and
>> system-type is 'windows-nt'
> , you are using Emacs built as native w32 application, so Emacs and
> AUCTeX think that the path separator is semicolon ";" (w32 style).

Why would there have been autodetection code in the first place if it
would be sufficient to look at the system type?

> Now I realized that AUCTeX has to be extremely careful when choosing
> the path separator if it works on w32 platform.  It involves two
> factors: Is Emacs w32 native application or cygwin application?  Is
> kpsewhich w32 native application or cygwin application?

The Emacs application type has nothing to do with the kpathsea
separator.  And the preferred shell can be different, too.  That's why
there was a separate test and configuration variable in the first place.

> I will elaborate the method to determine the path separator in AUCTeX.
> Please wait for a while.

What was the commit removing all that functionality intended to fix?

-- 
David Kastrup