General:
* The \input primitive in all TeX engines, including tex, now also accepts a
group-delimited filename argument, as a system-dependent extension. The usage
with a standard space/token-delimited filename is completely unchanged. The
group-delimited argument was previously implemented in LuaTeX; now it is available
in all engines. ASCII double quote characters (") are removed from the filename,
but it is otherwise left unchanged after tokenization. This does not currently
affect LaTeX’s \input command, as that is a macro redefinition of the standard
\input primitive.
* New option –cnf-line for kpsewhich, tex, mf, and all other engines, to support
arbitrary configuration settings on the command line.
* The addition of various primitives to various engines in this and previous years
is intended to result in a common set of functionality available across
all engines.
epTeX, eupTeX: New primitives \Uchar, \Ucharcat, \current(x)spacingmode, \ifincsname;
revise \fontchar?? and \iffontchar. For eupTeX only: \currentcjktoken.
LuaTeX: Integration with HarfBuzz library, available as new engines luahbtex
(used for lualatex) and luajithbtex. New primitives: \eTeXgluestretchorder,
\eTeXglueshrinkorder.
pdfTeX: New primitive \pdfmajorversion; this merely changes the version number
in the PDF output; it has no effect on any PDF content. \pdfximage and similar
now search for image files in the same way as \openin.
pTeX: New primitives \ifjfont, \iftfont. Also in epTeX, upTeX, eupTeX.
XeTeX: Fixes for \Umathchardef, \XeTeXinterchartoks, \pdfsavepos.
Dvips: Output encodings for bitmap fonts, for better copy/paste capabilities.
20190410:
Kpathsea: More consistent brace expansion and path splitting; new variable TEXMFDOTDIR instead of hard-coded . in paths allows for easily searching additional or sub-directories (see comments in texmf.cnf).
epTEX, eupTEX: New primitives \readpapersizespecial and \expanded.
LuaTEX: Lua 5.3 now used, with concomitant arithmetic and interface changes. The homegrown library pplib is used to read pdf files, thus eliminating the dependency on poppler (and the need for C++); Lua interface changed accordingly.
MetaPost: r-mpost command name recognized as an alias for invocation with the –restricted option, and added to the list of restricted commands available by default. Minimum precision now 2 for decimal and binary mode. Binary mode no longer available in MPlib but still available in standalone MetaPost.
pdfTEX: New primitive \expanded; if new primitive parameter \pdfomitcharset is set to 1, the /CharSet string omitted from the PDF output, since it cannot feasibly be guaranteed correct, as required by PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3.
XeTEX: New primitives \expanded, \creationdate, \elapsedtime, \filedump, \filemoddate, \filesize, \resettimer, \normaldeviate, \uniformdeviate, \randomseed; extend \Ucharcat to produce active characters.
tlmgr: Support curl as a download program; use lz4 and gzip before xz for local backups, if available; prefer system-provided binaries over binaries provided with TEX Live for compressor and download programs, unless the environment variable TEXLIVE_PREFER_OWN is set.
install-tl: New option -gui (with no argument) is the default on Windows and Macs, and invokes a new Tcl/TK GUI (see sections 1.3 and 3.1.6).
Utilities:
cwebbin (https://ctan.org/pkg/cwebbin) is now the CWEB implementation in TEX Live, with support for more language dialects, and including the ctwill program to make mini-indexes.
chkdvifont: report font information from DVI files, also from tfm/ofm, vf, gf, pk.
dvispc: make a DVI file page-independent with respect to specials.
MacTEX: x86_64-darwin now supports 10.12 and higher (Sierra, High Sierra, Mojave); x86_64-darwinlegacy still supports 10.6 and newer. The spell checker Excalibur is no longer included, since it requires 32-bit support.
Platforms: removed sparc-solaris.
look for print/texlive/*.mk files for help.
Now documentation regarding TeX packages for pkgsrc MAINTAINERs and
developers is easily accessible via the "help" target.
ok wiz@
