[tex-live] porting a TeXLive-Installation to another PC

[Siep Kroonenberg]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 01:38:37AM +0100, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
> Siep Kroonenberg writes:
>  > On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 01:49:23AM +0100, Reinhard Kotucha wrote:
>  >> I think that copying an installed system and ask people to run Siep's
>  >> script is the easiest way in this case.
>  > 
>  > This script was intended as a proof-of-concept script to give users
>  > on a LAN access to a pre-installed system to which they didn't have
>  > write access.
>  > 
>  > It would probably work, but please review the code first: do you
>  > want a file association tying psview to .[e]ps, are you going to use
>  > xetex, what manuals deserve menu shortcuts? And, most importantly,
>  > add a shortcut to tlmgr and make sure it works.
>  > 
>  > Also, how important is it really that the system is up to date? You
>  > could just give them the DVD as-is, and most people would be happy
>  > with it.
> 
> ....
>
> If you install a customized version of TeX Live on your local machine
> and then create a ZIP file containing the whole tree, it will probably
> fit on a CD.  A CD is cheaper than a DVD.  This helps the German
> government to save money.  They are currently in shortage of money.
> The magic formula is not to invest into education.  Yes, a lot of
> money can be saved, but....
> 
> Siep, IMO your script is very useful.  Maybe feedback from users can
> help to improve it, if necessary at all.  Unfortunately it's hidden in
> the doc tree and my poriferous brain is unable to remember the name of
> the script or its location.  It would be nice if your script could be
> more eye-catching.
> 
> It would be nice if more poeple are aware of it.  It's definitely a
> good thing.
> 
> Regards,
>   Reinhard

It is mentioned in chapter 4, `Network installations', of the TeX
Live manual. But of course nobody reads the documentation...

If somebody want a companion cd/dvd to their LAN installation, there
is probably quite a bit of customization so a ready-to-run script
would be inappropriate.

In our case, I wrote a single script which tests whether it is run
from the LAN installation or from the ISO.

I went about it as follows:

- create the installation under Linux, using the TL installer
- create a Samba share for this installation
- write a Windows installer along the lines of the sample client
  script
- test with a Windows virtual machine as samba client
- package into a zip for unpacking on the real network, and into an
  ISO for private installation

I put the ISO into the root of the final installation, since
distribution of physical cds would have been a bit of a hassle.

-- 
Siep Kroonenberg