Re: [PATCH v2 07/14] docs: conf.py: extra cleanups and fixes

[Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>]

Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@kernel.org> writes:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 09:01:03PM +0900, Akira Yokosawa wrote:

>> > 3) I got a corner case on one of the distros was using xindy to produce
>> >    indexes. This ended causing the build logic to incorretly try to use
>> >    T1 fontenc, which is not UTF-8 compatible.
>> > 
>> >    This patch adds:
>> > 
>> >         \PassOptionsToPackage{xindy}{language=english,codepage=utf8,noautomatic}
>> > 
>> >    to cover such case. It should be noticed that, as the config doesn't
>> >    have \usepackage{xindy}, this will be used only if latexmk ends
>> >    using xindy.
>> 
>> But I can't see how this macro (executed by XeTeX engine) would have any
>> effect on xindy (command) invoked from latexmk.
>> 
>> Can you elaborate on your theory of how it works?
>> And which distro runs xindy?
>
> I can't remember on what distro I saw the issue, but I got it during
> my builds, where, instead of running makeindex, it tried to run xindy,
> with failed because of utf-8 fonts.
>
> My theory is that, on one of the ditros, there is a /etc/latexmk
> or similar containing instructions to use xindy instead of makeindex.
>
> In any case, this rule is harmless on setups that use makeindex:
> it only affect setups where there is a latexmk or .latexmk file
> setting xindy as the default index builder: if this is used, 
> xindy will use utf-8 fonts instead of Type 1.

Can we try to get a handle on that and, if it's truly needed, document
why?  I will confess that I'm confused by it:

> \PassOptionsToPackage{xindy}{language=english,codepage=utf8,noautomatic}

As I understand it, the arguments are {options}{package}, right?  so I'm
not sure how this would work...?

Thanks,

jon  (who will be traveling and slow to respond for a bit)