(tds.info)Duplicate filenames

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2.4 Duplicate filenames
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Different files by the same name may exist in a TDS tree. The TDS
generally leaves unspecified which of two files by the same name in a
search path will be found, so generally the only way to reliably find a
given file is for it to have a unique name.  However, the TDS requires
implementations to support the following exceptions:

   * Names of TeX input files must be unique within each first-level
     subdirectory of `texmf/tex' and `texmf/tex/generic', but not
     within all of `texmf/tex'; i.e., different TeX formats may have
     files by the same name. (Section Note: Macros discusses this
     further.)  Thus, no single format-independent path specification,
     such as a recursive search beginning at `texmf/tex' specifying no
     other directories, suffices.  So implementations must provide
     format-dependent path specifications, for example via wrapper
     scripts or configuration files.

   * Many font files will have the same name (e.g., `cmr10.pk'), as
     discussed in Section Note: Valid font bitmaps.  Implementations
     must distinguish these files by mode and resolution.


   All implementations we know of already have these capabilities.

   One place where duplicate names are likely to occur is not an
exception:

   * Names of Metafont input files (as opposed to bitmaps) must be
     unique within all of `texmf/fonts'. In practice, this is a problem
     with some variants of Computer Modern which contain slightly
     modified files named `punct.mf', `romanl.mf', and so on. We
     believe the only feasible solution is to rename the derivative
     files to be unique.