package and package__doc may be out of sync

[edocevoli]

This issue separated from #844:

But there is still the issue that the documentation and the actual package may be out of sync if the documentation is installed later than the package proper. So I still think it would be useful to have an option to install (and update) the package and its documentation at the same time.

[user227621]

@edocevoli Could you reconsider this issue? I think the current handling of the __doc packages is suboptimal:

• If a package is installed on-the-fly, its documentation is generally not automatically installed. You have to install the documentation (i. e., the corresponding __doc package) manually afterwards, which is obviously error-prone, you could e. g. forget which packages were installed.
• If you update a package via the MiKTeX console and this package was not previously split, its documentation is no longer installed after the update. I. e., you lose the documentation by updating the package. This does not make sense.
• If you try to access a package documentation via texdoc which has not been installed before, the documentation is installed on-the-fly. However, if you don't do this immediately after the package was installed (but rather a few days later, for example), it is possible that an update for the package (and its documentation) has been released in the meantime. Then you have a documentation that may not match the installed package version, which is very dangerous. Users should be able to rely on the fact that the documentation found with texdoc matches their installed version.

Basically, I think the current handling of the __doc packages is not what most MiKTeX users expect. I agree with what @moewew wrote in his comment on the original issue #844:

I understand that there are users who have no need for documentation. But I think most users would benefit from getting the documentation and hard-disk space is probably not that much of an issue.

I would therefore like to suggest the following feature:

Add an option to the MiKTeX console (e. g. at MiKTeX console > Settings > Package installation) which does the following:

• Automatically install <package>__doc when <package> is installed on-the-fly or via the MiKTeX console.
• Automatically update <package>__doc when <package> is updated via the MiKTeX console.
• Automatically install <package>__doc when <package> is updated via the MiKTeX console and <package>__doc was not previously installed.

Set this option to true by default, i. e. make it the default to install <package>__doc alongside <package>.

This is basically what @moewew proposed in his comment. With this proposal, most normal users will get the useful documentation and space-conscious users can get rid of it when they want to.

[user227621]

@edocevoli I think this issue shouldn't be closed before evaluating whether the suggestion makes sense or not, right?

[user227621]

@edocevoli I think this issue shouldn't be closed before evaluating whether the above suggestion makes sense or not, right?