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In article <1992Nov7.172031.10284@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> fermat@fermat.dartmouth.edu (Michael Glenn) writes:
>After installing amstex and amslatex on my NeXT, I discovered several  
>additional files that were not needed.  Namely duplicate copies of files  
>that could easily be replaced with symbolic links.
>
>In /usr/lib/tex/formats:
>
>splain.fmt == slitex.fmt (576k)
>lplain.fmt == latex.fmt  (496k)
>plain.fmt  == tex.fmt    (288k)

You actually lost some disk space by doing this.  All of the files you
replaced with symbolic links were in fact hard links.  If you'd done
an "ls -i", you would have seen that all the duplicate files share the
same inode.

BTW, the same is true of /sdmach and /odmach.

			Dave


-- 
David M. Meyer                             Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
dmm0t@rincewind.mech.virginia.edu          University of Virginia
NeXTmail ok

Michael Glenn writes
-> 
-> My second attempt at posting this.  Dunno if this is old news, but...
-> 
-> After installing amstex and amslatex on my NeXT, I discovered several  
-> additional files that were not needed.  Namely duplicate copies of files  
-> that could easily be replaced with symbolic links.
-> 
-> In /usr/lib/tex/formats:
-> 
-> splain.fmt == slitex.fmt (576k)
-> lplain.fmt == latex.fmt  (496k)
-> plain.fmt  == tex.fmt    (288k)
-> 
-> In /usr/bin:
-> 
-> latex  == tex (184k)
-> slitex == tex (184k)
-> virtex == tex (184k)
-> 
-> /usr/bin/tex apparently looks at what command line command was used to  
-> execute it to determine which .fmt file is loaded in.
-> 
-> I've removed latex, slitex, virtex, splain.fmt, lplain.fmt, and plain.fmt,  
-> and replaced them with symbolic links, a total savings of 1912k, almost 2  
-> meg!
-> 
-> Does anyone else know of other such duplicate files that come with the 3.0  
-> packages?

Hmm, well, I looked and all of these files are already links! Jost not symbolic  
links vs hard links! 
There is no disk space savings.

if you had not blown them away ;-) you could do an ls -i /usr/bin/*tex and see  
that they all pointed to the same inode...the same is true of the formats  
files.


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    ________________________________________________________________________
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 /_______________________________________________________________________/

fermat@fermat.dartmouth.edu (Michael Glenn) writes:

>After installing amstex and amslatex on my NeXT, I discovered several  
>additional files that were not needed.  Namely duplicate copies of files  
>that could easily be replaced with symbolic links.

>In /usr/lib/tex/formats:

>splain.fmt == slitex.fmt (576k)
>lplain.fmt == latex.fmt  (496k)
>plain.fmt  == tex.fmt    (288k)

>In /usr/bin:

>latex  == tex (184k)
>slitex == tex (184k)
>virtex == tex (184k)

>/usr/bin/tex apparently looks at what command line command was used to  
>execute it to determine which .fmt file is loaded in.

>I've removed latex, slitex, virtex, splain.fmt, lplain.fmt, and plain.fmt,  
>and replaced them with symbolic links, a total savings of 1912k, almost 2  
>meg!

All these 'extra' files were hard links.  You managed to replace
them with symbolic links actually using for this slightly more
disk space then before.

They are there because of way TeX is configured on Unix.  If you
call it as 'latex' it executes 'virtex' with a format file 'latex.fmt'.
Similar deal is with other formats (you may make your own).
A default format is 'plain.fmt'.  Names like 'plain.fmt', 'lplain.fmt'
and so on are needed for compatibility with other installations.

If you search for savings in disk space in your TeX font installation
look rather at bitmap images of fonts in /usr/lib/tex/fonts/pk.
For example, if you have only 400dpi printer you may throw away
from your disk all 300pk fonts and their magnifications.   This will
cut disk usage considerably.  More radical step consist of throwing
away all pk's and generating fonts (NeXT TeX is doing that
automatically) only when they are needed.  After a while you will end
up only with bitmaps for fonts YOU are using.  Since this takes time
you may want to initialize the whole process running through TeX
as an overnight batch job a set of "typical" - for your installation -
texts and continuing from that point.

Other method consist of replacing all bitmap fonts with their PostScript
equivalents from Y&Y.

   Michal Jaegermann
   ntomczak@vega.math.ualberta.ca

fermat@fermat.dartmouth.edu (Michael Glenn) writes:


>My second attempt at posting this.  Dunno if this is old news, but...

Too bad you succeeded :-)

>After installing amstex and amslatex on my NeXT, I discovered several  
>additional files that were not needed.  Namely duplicate copies of files  
>that could easily be replaced with symbolic links.

[... gives example of tex,latex, slitex ...]

>/usr/bin/tex apparently looks at what command line command was used to  
>execute it to determine which .fmt file is loaded in.

It does.

>I've removed latex, slitex, virtex, splain.fmt, lplain.fmt, and plain.fmt,  
>and replaced them with symbolic links, a total savings of 1912k, almost 2  
>meg!

Oh the joys of UNIX!  In the original distribution they are HARD LINKS,
meaning several directory entries referring to the same inode (actual
file data).  How about a good introductory UNIX text?  :-)

Marcel

>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Glenn <fermat@fermat.dartmouth.edu> writes:


    Michael> My second attempt at posting this.  Dunno if this is old
    Michael> news, but...

    Michael> After installing amstex and amslatex on my NeXT, I
    Michael> discovered several additional files that were not needed.
    Michael> Namely duplicate copies of files that could easily be
    Michael> replaced with symbolic links.

    Michael> In /usr/lib/tex/formats:

    Michael> splain.fmt == slitex.fmt (576k)
    Michael> lplain.fmt == latex.fmt  (496k)
    Michael> plain.fmt  == tex.fmt    (288k)

    Michael> In /usr/bin:

    Michael> latex  == tex (184k)
    Michael> slitex == tex (184k)
    Michael> virtex == tex (184k)

    Michael> /usr/bin/tex apparently looks at what command line
    Michael> command was used to execute it to determine which .fmt
    Michael> file is loaded in.

At least, this modification costs you around 3 blocks disk space. On
my system TeX installed itself using links wasting no additional block
of disk space. Have a look at the link count:

	jodokus> ls -l *tex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  1 root       81920 Jul 23 22:20 bibtex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  1 root      188416 Jul 23 22:20 initex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  4 root      180224 Jul 23 22:20 latex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  4 root      180224 Jul 23 22:20 slitex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  4 root      180224 Jul 23 22:20 tex*
	-rwxr-xr-x  4 root      180224 Jul 23 22:20 virtex*
	jodokus> 

    Michael> I've removed latex, slitex, virtex, splain.fmt,
    Michael> lplain.fmt, and plain.fmt, and replaced them with
    Michael> symbolic links, a total savings of 1912k, almost 2 meg!

You should *NOT* remove the .fmt Files because they *are* different
unless you really know what you need ....

O.k. I removed slitex.fmt because i use this package *very* seldom...

	- ralf
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