[tex-live] tlmgr testing

[Victor Ivrii]

Update at 2008-10-06 at 6:02

Riemann:victor101%sudo tlmgr update --all
Password:
tlmgr: installation location http://ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008
newalg (collection-science): removed package
bin-texlive: revision in http://ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008 is
less then local revision, not updating!
update: collection-science (10052 -> 10847) ... done
/usr/texbin/tlmgr: gene-logic not installed locally
update: ifxetex (10792 -> 10831) ... done
update: logic (7340 -> 10848) ... done
update: minutes (7340 -> 10832) ... done
update: oberdiek (10690 -> 10833) ... done
update: pax (10802 -> 10843) ... done
update: pax.universal-darwin (10802 -> 10843) ... !!!Error:
non-existent bin/universal-darwin/pdfannotextractor
done
update: pst2pdf (10791 -> 10835) ... done
texlive.infra: revision in http://ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008
is less then local revision, not updating!


My observations show that
1) newalg was really removed (change of tlmgr behavior)
2)  pax.universal-darwin: link was broken (it was to script
pdfannotextractor.texlua) now it is fixed to pdfannotextractor.pl
3) gene-logic which belongs if I understand correct to
collection-science had  not been installed and %tlmgr install
gene-logic was required (change of tlmgr behavior):


After update --all

tlmgr show gene-logic
Package:   gene-logic
Category:  Package
ShortDesc: Typeset logic formulae, etc.
LongDesc:  The package provides a facility to typeset certain logic
formulae. It provides an environment like eqnarray, an extended
newtheorem environment, and several macros.
Installed: No
Collection:collection-science

Only after %tlmg install gene-logic Installed: No changed to Yes (I
checked also looking at files)

So we see two big changes: actual removal and  not installing new
packages into installed categories. While I understand logic beyond
removal (keeping copies consistent) it may be a problem for those who
administrate texlive for a large group of people: in my Dept there are
few my esteemed colleagues with a very little knowledge and very big
mouths who will come screaming and yelling if their favorite package
disappears and manual installation to texmf-local in 5 minutes will
not serve as excuse!

Non-installation is even more problematic: it breaks consistency.

Victor

PS Having few computers to administrate I can verify my observations easily
PPS Agreeing (probably foolishly) to administrate TL and thus
associated texmf-local on our Dept server I am not afraid of big
mouths of some of my esteemed colleagues (who will probably use
coexisting tetex not being able to switch the path) but for real
sysadmins situation could by yucky

PPPS Now a bit unrelated: Imagine large Dept with a lot of machines
running TeXLive. Now one needs to install on all these machines some
package which cannot be included to TL. It would be very nice if
1) tlmgr had a sibling which would be able to do similar things but
using texmf-local as an installation and some local Dept server as a
source
2) It would require a public release of the packager for the packages.

I mean: TL team just drops these pieces of s/w (with instructions but
without responsibility) to the public which would be free to bork
their texmf-local  using a new tool

Victor








-- 
========================
Victor Ivrii, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
http://www.math.toronto.edu/ivrii