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<title>TeX Live</title></head><body>
<h2>Welcome to TeX Live</h2>
<p>The <strong>TeX Live</strong> software distribution offers a complete
TeX system for a variety of Unix, Macintosh, Windows and other
platforms. It encompasses programs for editing, typesetting, previewing
and printing of TeX documents in many different languages, and a large
collection of TeX macros and font libraries.
<p>The distribution also includes extensive general documentation about
TeX, as well as the documentation accompanying the included software
packages.
<p>For licensing information, please see the top-level <a
href="LICENSE.TL">LICENSE.TL</a> and <a
href="LICENSE.CTAN">LICENSE.CTAN</a> text files.
<h3>Where to start</h3>
<p>We strongly recommend that you read the TeX Live Guide before
undertaking the installation. It includes a description of the
top-level directories, specific installation information, and much more.
<p>English versions of the Guide are in the texmf/doc/tldoc/english
directory, in both <a href="texmf/doc/tldoc/english/live.html">html</a>
and <a href="texmf/doc/tldoc/english/live.pdf">pdf</a> formats.
Translations to other languages are also available under <a
href="texmf/doc/tldoc">texmf/doc/tldoc</a>.
<p>For a list of the most important changes in this year's release,
see the "Release history" section at the end of the documentation.
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<h3>Installation</h3>
<p>As of 2003, space limitations of CD-ROM format have forced us to
divide TeX Live into three distributions. You can tell which one you're
in by looking for a <tt>00<i>type</i>.TL</tt> file in this top-level
directory.
<ol>
<li><i>live</i> - a complete system on DVD; it is too large
for CD-ROM format. You can run programs directly from the mounted DVD;
see the live documentation for details. Or you can install
to disk by executing the script <tt>./install-tl.sh</tt> (Unix,
MacOSX) or <tt>AUTORUN.EXE</tt> (Windows). The live dvd also contains
a snapshot of CTAN in the <tt>ctan/</tt> subdirectory, which is
completely independent from TeX Live.
<li><i>inst(allable)</i> - a complete system on CD; in order to make it
fit, we had to compress everything we could. Therefore, it is not
possible to run TeX directly from the installable CD, you have to
install it to disk (hence its name). Do this by running
<tt>./install-tl.sh</tt> (Unix, MacOSX) or <tt>AUTORUN.EXE</tt> (Windows).
<li><i>demo</i> - a live system runnable directly from CD; in
order to make this fit, it lacks a few of the packages in the other
two, and has support only for Linux, MacOSX, and Windows. If you
don't care about the missing packages, you can install from this to
disk as well, also with <tt>./install-tl.sh</tt> and <tt>AUTORUN.EXE</tt>.
</ol>
<p>Under Windows, you should be automatically put into either the setup
program (installable disk) or the <tt>TeXLive.exe</tt> welcome program
(live and demo disks) when the disk is mounted. If not, just double
click the AUTORUN icon.
<p>You can also install individual packages into an existing system. On
Unix, run <tt>./install-pkg.sh</tt> to do this. Under Windows, use the
TeXSetup.exe program with the <tt>--maintenance</tt> option, which is
also accessible from the menu <tt>Start > Programs > TeXLive >
Maintenance > Add Package</tt>.
<p>CD format details: For Unix and Mac, the CD's use the Rock Ridge
extensions to the standard ISO-9660 format. For Windows, Microsoft
Joliet extensions are used. In either case, you should see the full
names after mounting. If you see truncated names, you cannot run
programs directly.
<p>Also, if you have plenty of bandwidth and know how to burn discs, the
<a href="ftp://tug.org/texlive/Images/">ISO images are available
online</a>. Also, the <a
href="ftp://tug.org/texlive/Contents/">contents are available for
browsing</a>.
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<h3>Documentation</h3>
<p>Most of the documentation can be viewed online, before the TeX system
is installed. To read it most conveniently, you will need to have a
browser (such as <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">mozilla</a>, the free
version of Netscape) for HTML documents, and a PDF reader (such as <a
href="http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~plass/gv/">gv</a> or <a
href="http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/">xpdf</a>, both free alternatives to
Acrobat) for PDF documents.
<ul>
<li><a href="texmf/doc/tldoc/english/live.html"><strong>TeX Live
documentation</strong></a> (html).
<li><a href="texmf/doc/html/">Links to included HTML documentation</a>.
<li><a href="texmf/doc/index.html">List of all documentation</a> in the
distribution, generated automatically.
<li>TeX FAQ's in the distribution: <a
href="FAQ/english/newfaq.pdf">English</a> (pdf), <a
href="FAQ/french">French</a>, <a href="FAQ/german">German</a>.
</ul>
<p>Related web pages, for your reference. These are not included in TeX
Live:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://tug.org/begin.html">http://tug.org/begin.html</a>
- if you are new to TeX and/or want introductory material.
<li><a href="http://tug.org/interest.html">http://tug.org/interest.html</a>
- general list of TeX web resources, including documentation,
systems, packages, fonts, and more.
<li><a href="http://tug.org/ctan.html">http://tug.org/ctan.html</a>
- one entry point into the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN),
which is an online repository of all things TeX.
<li><a href="http://tug.org/usergroups.html">http://tug.org/usergroups.html</a>
- list of TeX user groups around the world, with contact
information. We strongly encourage you to join the user group of
your choice.
</ul>
<h4>Happy TeX'ing!</h4>
<hr><small>$Date: 2003/09/16 $;
<a href="mailto:tex-live@tug.org">contact tex-live@tug.org</a>.<br>
TeX Live home page:
<a href="http://tug.org/tex-live/">http://tug.org/tex-live</a>.
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