Problem changing TEXMFHOME setting

[Dan]

>>     tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME ~/path/to/tree
>>
>
> That should work, and is the recommended way ;-) Unless ....
>
>>  - OS LinuxMint 21.2 (Victoria)
>>  - tlmgr revision 60693 (2021-10-04 04:24:25 +0200)
>>  - tlmgr using installation: /usr/share/texlive
>>  - TeX Live (https://tug.org/texlive) version 2021
>>
>
> Something is messed up in the way Arch does TeX Live packaging.
>
My TeXLive distribution is made up of OS packages installed via the package manager. I have not added, removed or modified anything of the latex distribution.


> With upstream TeX Live in ~/tl/2023:
>
> $ kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME
> /home/norbert/texmf
> $ cat ~/tl/2023/texmf.cnf
> % (Public domain.)
> % This texmf.cnf file should contain only your personal changes from the
> % original texmf.cnf (for example, as chosen in the installer).
> %
> % That is, if you need to make changes to texmf.cnf, put your custom
> % settings in this file, which is .../texlive/YYYY/texmf.cnf, rather than
> % the distributed file (which is .../texlive/YYYY/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf).
> % And include *only* your changed values, not a copy of the whole thing!
> %
> TEXMFLOCAL = /usr/local/share/texmf
>
In my system, the file containing the definitions of the variables such as TEXMFHOME, TEXMFDIST and the like is "/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf"; the equivalent of your "~/tl/2023/texmf.cnf".
The root of the distribution is "/usr/share/texlive" (TEXMFROOT), while latex contents are in "/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist" (TEXMFDIST).


> $ tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME ~/lib/tex
> tlmgr: setting texmf TEXMFHOME to /home/norbert/lib/tex (in /home/norbert/tl/2023/texmf.cnf)
>
> $ kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME
> /home/norbert/lib/tex
>
> tlmgr conf texmf writes into TEXMFROOT/texmf.cnf
> This seems to not be writable, or it is in a strange place.
>
Yes, indeed, it writes to the file "texmf.cnf" in the root of the texlive distribution. In my case, it is not writable (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/texmf.cnf), so I must call the program with superuser privileges: either with "doas" or "sudo". This is how I do it
    $ doas tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME '~/texmf/texmf-custom'
This is the output in the terminal
    (running on Debian, switching to user mode!)
    (see /usr/share/doc/texlive-base/README.tlmgr-on-Debian.md)
    tlmgr: setting texmf TEXMFHOME to ~/texmf/texmf-custom (in /usr/share/texlive/texmf.cnf)
The variable is actually written to the file "/usr/share/texlive/texmf.cnf"
    $ cat /usr/share/texlive/texmf.cnf
    TEXMFHOME = ~/texmf/texmf-custom
Despite this, the actual value of the variable does not change
    $ kpsewhich -var-value=TEXMFHOME
    /home/my-user/texmf

For some reason the change made via tlmgr to the variable TEXMFHOME is ignored, and I cannot make out why.
For now I am setting the variable through an environment variable (in ~/.bashrc) and works, but I would prefer to manage any change via the tlmgr instead of adding environment variables.

Any ideas or suggestions on why this happens?
Thank you in advance.

Regards,


Dan.