So, assuming /opt/tex/texmf-linux/bin, it attempts the following directories, in this order:
[/opt/tex/texmf]/web2c % two parents up [/opt/tex/texmf-linux]/texmf/web2c % one parent up [/opt/tex]/texmf-local/web2c [/opt/tex/texmf-linux]/texmf-local/web2c
Shouldn't local have some precedence over texmf? (Maybe I'm wrong.) Just a side note: Here I have the cnf file under /usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.cnf The binaries are under /usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386-apple-darwin8.8.1 but I didn't test it on gwTeX yet. The main idea - cnf file will be overwritten by every update if it's only in texmf/web2c. The user needs to be able to put it either to texmf-local or to the top (at the same level where setuptex is), and that one needs to have precedence over the one in texmf. Unrelated - how exactly do I set TEXMFCACHE to be in texmf-cache alongside other texmf trees? I have tried (I know that this cannot work): TEXMFCACHE = '$TEXROOT/texmf-cache', but TEXROOT is probably unknown anyway Maybe it's still respecting the order in TEXMFCACHE = $TMP;$TEMP;$TMPDIR;$TEMPDIR;$HOME;$TEXMFVAR;$VARTEXMF;. from texmf.cnf, and $TMP doesn't exist on mac, so home is the first existing folder (where I hate to keep the cache - it should at least have a preceeding dot then). The only problem with mkii: basically works, but texexec --make puts formats under texmf-context and the kpathsea doesn't find them for some reason. If format is put under texmf-engine/web2c, everything works out of the box afterwards (with only path variable being set). Mojca