[NTG-context] How can I make a Gentoo Linux package for ConTeXt LMTX?

[Max Chernoff]

Okay, I'm seeing a few separate issues here.

1. Gentoo expects to compile everything from source.

   This isn't an option here since LuaMetaTeX doesn't have any source
   available (yet). So for the time being, you'll need to use the provided
   binaries. These support pretty much every architecture, so this
   shouldn't really be a problem.

2. You want to install ConTeXt LMTX system-wide.

   This is doable with the standard Linux installer script. Just make sure
   to run the script as root and install the files in /opt/context. This is
   what I've done on my system, and it works quite well. 
   
      $ ls -l $(type -p context)
      lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 10 Jul 28 00:33 /opt/context/tex/texmf-linux-64/bin/context -> luametatex*
      
3. You want to install ConTeXt without any network access.

   The easiest way to do this would be to install on a system with
   internet, then just copy over the files. 
   
   If you want to use the "original" installer files, it shouldn't be
   impossible, but probably not too easy either. (All steps below are
   untested)
   
   The platform-independent stuff is all in one big zip, located at:
   
      http://lmtx.pragma-ade.nl/install-lmtx/texmf-context.zip
      
   Unzip this file as "<context root>/tex/texmf-context/".
      
   Then you also need to download all of the binaries. You will need to
   download all of the paths listed in this file:
   
      http://lmtx.pragma-ade.nl/install-lmtx/tex/texmf-linux-64.tma
      
   All of those files need to be placed in "<context root>/tex/texmf-linux-
   64/bin".
   
   Then to finish installing you'll need to run "mtxrun --generate" and
   "context --make". There are probably a bunch of other steps that I'm
   missing, but this should get you close.
   
   Again, probably easier to just use the regular installer.

4. ConTeXt is really picky about texmfcnf stuff.

   This is an issue that I've had too:
   
      https://github.com/latex3/l3build/issues/232
   
   Pretty much any modification of anything texmfcnf-related with ConTeXt
   will completely prevent it from running. There's a thread discussing the
   problem (but with no real solutions) here:
   
      https://tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2020-September/046099.html
      
   And a Wiki page here:
   
      https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Custom_Configuration
      
   I agree that this texmfcnf stuff makes it really difficult to install or
   use ConTeXt with any kind of custom paths. Does anyone know how to
   properly configure a texmfcnf with custom paths?
   
Hopefully this is of some help.
-- Max