From:  Richard Rauch <rauch@rice.edu>
	Date:  Fri, 24 May 2002 15:49:42 -0500 (CDT)

> (Question: Do you have your X fonts in /var?  If not, why the difference?
> Once you have the bitmaps of the TeX fonts generated, they become
> effectively permament parts of your system; they aren't transient unless
> you make a special effort to clean them out yourself from time to time.
> Just like X fonts, once the bitmaps are installed, they are there
> ``forever''.)
> 
> (Similar question, if you have installed, or were to install, programs
> like KDE that have numerous little clipart-icons and sound effects: Do you
> want those to go in /var?  If not, why not?)

The difference I see between the TeX fonts and the others is that the TeX 
fonts are generated at some random time by some random user when they *use* 
TeX rather than when a package is installed.

What I actually do in this case is have a local package that has the "common" 
fonts pre-generated and these get installed in /usr/pkg/share/texmf/fonts/...
so /var/spool/texfonts only kicks in to play when someone uses a font or size 
that isn't in the "common" set.  So for our systems /usr/pkg is identical, 
most have nothing in /var/spool/texfonts, and for those that do it tends to 
only be 1 or 2 MB's.

cheers
mark