[tex-live] Peer-to-peer install ?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

Philip TAYLOR writes:
 > 
 > I'll return to the FP_Cache / extended TeX
 > threads later, but I now have a new idea :
 > 
 > is there any way of performing a peer-to-peer
 > install of TeX Live 2008 using the package
 > manager ?  Having performed a full install on
 > one of my (six or so) systems at home, I would
 > like to take advantage of that to reduce both
 > the load on the Cambridge CTAN node and on the
 > network delays that are inherent therewith.  So
 > is it now possible for me to install on a second
 > and subsequent home system(s), using the first home
 > systemeas the master repository ?

Hi Phil,
installing TeX Live takes an enourmous amount of time because
thousands of small files have to be downloaded/copied.  TeX Live 2008
already allows you to install it on a server and mount it to various
clients.  Siep provided a script which performs all the post-install
steps on the clients running Windows.  Don't remeber the name of the
script but hopefully it's mentioned in the documentation.

I'm aware that this is not what you want.  A peer-to-peer installer
doesn't make sense at all because if you are able to install TeX Live
on one machine, the most efficient way to install it on another
machine is to put the whole stuff into a big zip file and extract it
on the other machines.  This is significantly faster than everything
else.

Finally you have to run Siep's script on all machines in order to add
the bin dir to %PATH%.

So I don't see any good reason to change the installer.  Everything
you need is supported already.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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