(kpathsea.info)Filename database

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5.5 Filename database ('ls-R')
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Kpathsea goes to some lengths to minimize disk accesses for searches
(Note: Subdirectory expansion).  Nevertheless, in practice searching
each possible directory in typical TeX installations takes an
excessively long time.

   Therefore, Kpathsea can use an externally-built "filename database"
file named 'ls-R' that maps files to directories, thus avoiding the need
to exhaustively search the disk.

   A second database file 'aliases' allows you to give additional names
to the files listed in 'ls-R'.  This can be helpful to adapt to "8.3"
filename conventions in source files.

   The 'ls-R' and 'aliases' features are implemented in the source file
'kpathsea/db.c'.

ls-R

The main filename database.

Filename aliases

Aliases for those names.

Database format

Syntax details of the database file.