Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm sorry - I missed the beginning of the thread and the original
> question, but I had exactly the same problem.
> 
> Can please someone explain me why on earth one needs
>     libkpathsea.a and tex-file.h
> in order to be able to install packages that depend on tetex (mostly
> in the sense that they need LaTeX in order to compile their
> documentation)? 

These two files are simply checked in order to find out whether you have
a complete tex installation. It is possible that for this particular
package (gnuplot) the developer parts of tex are not needed, but they 
are needed for other packages, and there is only one system-tetex 
package that fits all. One could imagine a more fine-grained
check and several system-* or virtual packages, but this would be a
nightmare to maintain. What with all the recent changes in the
i-installed tex systems where nobody knows any more where their tex 
trees are located, the current system-tetex package will probably soon 
have to be replaced by something else. Or maybe simply scrapped...

> At least I'm sure for gnuplot that it doesn't need
> libkpathsea in order to build properly, but lack of this file this was
> the main reason why I'm still unable to install gnuplot & wine under
> fink (compiling gnuplot manually outside of fink runs without any
> problems).

It runs for you, because you have a working tex installation. But Fink
needs an automatic way to check whether you do have one, or to propose
to install one if you don't. It is not clear what is the best way to do
so, but the current system-tetex package has served its purpose quite
well for many years.

> Or does anyone else have a better idea about what exactly these two
> files are needed for?
[]
> If you are using Gerben Wierda's distribution, you might be able
> to solve this problem by using the expert mode in i-Installer,
> and installing 'TeX Programs (developer extras)'.

As far as I can tell, this is still the correct advice. You can choose
between  "Basic", "Expert" and "Full" installations of tex.ii2, and you
need to choose "Expert". This gives you a list of packages to select
from, and there you have to activate 'TeX Programs (developer extras)'.

-- 
Martin


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