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(kpathsea.info)Default path features

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Default path features
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  The purpose of having all the different files described in the section
above is to avoid having the same information in more than one place. If
you change the installation directories or top-level prefix at
`configure'-time, those changes will propagate through the whole
sequence.  And if you change the default paths in `texmf.in', those
changes are propagated to the compile-time defaults.

  The Make definitions are all repeated in several Makefile's; but
changing the top-level `Makefile' should suffice, as it passes down all
the variable definitions, thus overriding the submakes.  (The
definitions are repeated so you can run Make in the subdirectories, if
you should have occasion to.)

  By default, the bitmap font paths end with `/$MAKETEX_MODE', thus
including the device name (usually a Metafont mode name such as
`ljfour').  This distinguishes two different devices with the same
resolution--a write/white from a write/black 300dpi printer, for
example.

  However, since most sites don't have this complication, Kpathsea
(specifically, the `kpse_init_prog' function in `kpathsea/proginit.c')
has a special case: if the mode has not been explicitly set by the user
(or in a configuration file), it sets `MAKETEX_MODE' to `/'.  This
makes the default PK path, for example, expand into `.../pk//', so
fonts will be found even if there is no subdirectory for the mode (if
you arranged things that way because your site has only one printer,
for example) or if the program is mode-independent (e.g., `pktype').

  To make the paths independent of the mode, simply edit `texmf.in'
before installation, or the installed `texmf.cnf', and remove the
`$MAKETEX_MODE'.

  Note: mktex script arguments, for how this interacts with `mktexpk'.

  Note: TeX directory structure, for a
description of the default arrangement of the input files that comprise
the TeX system.  The file `kpathsea/HIER' is a copy of that section.