This 2.99.7 *is* the first release candidate of teTeX-3.0. I am still
waiting for the final texinfo-4.8 and I think that some points in the
documentation still need a little tweaking, but: HERE WE GO!

Well, this time, we have the new texconfig / fmtutil / updmap which have
changed the way they work. The TEXMF setting in texmf.in now is:
  TEXMF = {!!$TEXMFCONFIG,!!$TEXMFVAR,!!$TEXMFMAIN,$TEXMFHOME,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFDIST}

TEXMFHOME, TEXMFLOCAL and TEXMFDIST are ment to hold "traditional" texmf
stuff: fonts, macro packages and all that stuff. One tree for the local
user, one for the local administrator and one for the stuff from me.

TEXMFMAIN contains the pool files, tcx files and a few scripts installed
on "make install". The variables TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR are new. These
tell texconfig / updmap / fmtutil where to write changed configuration
data (TEXMFCONFIG) and cached variable runtime files (TEXMFVAR) such as
formats and generated map files. The default setting for TEXMFCONFIG and
TEXMFVAR is the same as $TEXMFMAIN, so all that data goes into one tree
be default.

The advantage now is: things can be separated if the need for it comes up
(e.g. to mount /usr readonly). This approach even allows regular (non-admin)
users to use the configuration tools by setting TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR
to some writable directory, e.g. (bash / ksh syntax):
  mkdir ~/.texmf-var
  export TEXMFVAR=~/.texmf-var

In contrast to the old texconfig, only changed configuration data will be
saved. This minimizes the effect that a new installation might get upset
by some copy of an old configuration file. The batch mode of texconfig is
implemented separately from the dialog-interface (the split is texconfig
/ texconfig-dialog). Since the batch mode is now very fast (it no longer
does nasty things at startup), the system is now open for other frontends
(hey, yes, that means that you can make a useful contribution if you
can make a nice frontend).

Lot of new script code is in this release. I hope that I have written the
scripts in a portable way, but testing *is* needed. Please, try texconfig
in batch and interactive mode. Make changes and look at the generated
config files (that's simple now that all data can easily be redirected).

You can also help a lot by looking at the documentation (e.g. NEWS,
ANNOUNCE-3.0, TETEXDOC) and let me know if I have made some stupid
mistakes or forgot to mentaion something.

As usual: please, send me feedback, even if it all just works :-)

Files (to appear soon):
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-src-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmf-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz
  ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmfsrc-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz
or
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-src-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmf-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz
  ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/tetex-texmfsrc-2.99.7.20041226-beta.tar.gz

Changes in the src area:
        * uniqleaf added, teTeX-faq updated, NEWS updated, ANNOUNCE-3.0
          added
        * update texconfig / updmap / fmtutil to new versions. These
          should behave much better in a multi-texmf environment than
          the old versions.
        * merge some web2c / kpathsea related changes from Olaf Weber
          into teTeX
        * update pdftex to 1.20b, xpdf 3.00pl2
        * texinfo 4.7.94 (pretest version)
        * mktexlsr creates each ls-R only once
        * remove files which did not really belong to texk/dvipng

Changes in the texmf area:
        * add scripts/uniqleaf/uniqleaf.pl
        * update xkeyval, pstricks-add
        * update l2tabu, l2tabuen, memoir/mempatch.sty, minitoc
        * update typeface.map
        * update fontinst (1.927 -> 1.928)
        * added (empty) directories
          fonts/{cmap,opentype,misc,sfd,type3,type42,truetype,lig}
        * improvements to metapost/base/mfplain.mp (send by Staszek
          Wawrykiewicz to tex-k list and approved by Taco)
        * update t2/misccorr.sty
        * update microtype, xkeyval
        * update doc/index.{html,php}

Happy testing + have fun!

Thomas