Prompted by recent changes in fontconfig's handling of
/usr/local/share/fonts, I noticed that tex-common's postinst has
an open-coded script to create /usr/local/share/texmf with Policy-compliant
permissions.

Please consider using dh_usrlocal(1) for this: that way, any implementation
bugs can be fixed centrally in debhelper, and they will take effect in
all packages that use dh_usrlocal at the next rebuild.

The procedure to do that is something like this:

1. create debian/tex-common/usr/local/share/texmf, for example in
   debian/tex-common.dirs or with some `install -d` in d/rules
2. make sure dh_usrlocal is run (normally dh will run it automatically)
3. remove open-coded logic in maintainer scripts to create and remove
   this directory
4. if the maintainer scripts have become empty, remove them (for example
   debian/prerm can probably be removed completely), or if not, make
   sure they still contain the #DEBHELPER# placeholder

With that done, dh_usrlocal should insert maintainer script snippets
generated from /usr/share/debhelper/autoscripts/ to create and remove
the directory when appropriate.

Thanks,
    smcv

Am 06.02.2026 um 10:38 schrieb Simon McVittie:

Hello,

Fix is on github. Thanks for the pointer.

Hilmar

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
tex-common, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1127099@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Hilmar Preuße <hille42@debian.org> (supplier of updated tex-common package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2026 22:16:36 +0200
Source: tex-common
Architecture: source
Version: 6.21
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian TeX Task Force <debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Hilmar Preuße <hille42@debian.org>
Closes: 1127099 1142467
Changes:
 tex-common (6.21) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Hand over creating and deletion of /usr/local/share/texmf to dh_usrlocal
     (Closes: #1127099).
   * Inform better, what is done during postinst call (Closes: #1142467).
 .
   * We are back on salsa.
   * Add debian/gitlab-ci.yml.
   * Install files a little more Debianish.
   * Lintian clean up.
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