{"id":398,"date":"2011-01-15T19:15:26","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T19:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.readytext.co.uk\/?p=398"},"modified":"2014-07-23T12:46:58","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T12:46:58","slug":"a-minimal-luatex-setup-on-windows-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.readytext.co.uk\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"A minimal LuaTeX setup on Windows (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Parts 1<\/a>, 2<\/a> and 2a<\/a> I made reference to such things as “environment variables” and a file called texmf.cnf<\/code>. I this section of the tutorial I will try to bring these concepts together and get down to some practical details. But first we need to set the scene with a very important topic: Kpathsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kpathsea, what’s that?<\/h3>\n

The name Kpathsea originates from K<\/strong>arl’s path<\/strong> sea<\/strong>rching, named after the author of the library<\/a>, Karl Berry<\/a>. As discussed on the Kpathsea web pages, it was written to provide a number of programs with a unified method for path-searching: finding files and resources that those programs needed during the course of execution. TeX and related programs are designed to run on very many different platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac…) and one of the keys to doing this successfully is ensure that the underlying source code from which they are built is as platform-independent as is possible to achieve. <\/p>\n

So, in essence, Kpathsea is a path-searching library which is built into the TeX executable file (“TeX engine”) to provide unified methods for path-searching (finding files) that will work on many different computer platforms. When looking for font metric files, .tex files, .sty files, graphics and many other file resources, the “TeX engine” (e.g., LuaTeX) is using the Kpathsea library to find what it needs to typeset your document.<\/p>\n

LuaTeX offers an alternative: a primer<\/strong>
\nFor LuaTeX this is just one part of the story. With LuaTeX you can implement your own Lua code to replace the Kpathsea file searching methods via LuaTeX’s “callback” methods. That’s for another day, here we’ll stick to using Kpathsea. If you are interested to read more about the powerful LuaTeX callbacks, consult The LuaTeX Reference Manual<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kpathsea, texmf.cnf<\/code> and environment variables<\/h3>\n

So, at long last you may say :-), we’ve finally reached the point where the various components start to come together.<\/p>\n