[tex-live] Where is the root dir of my Tex Live installation

George N. White III gnwiii at gmail.com
Sat Nov 16 14:49:37 CET 2013


Zdenek's  six easy steps to installing CTAN TL assume expertise that many
users don't possess:

1.  using the shell in a terminal -- using man pages, running scripts,
changing directories, ls, permissions, setting an displaying environment
variables, etc.

2.  "root" -- which may not even exist in some platforms -- and the role of
sudo: Many linux forums suggest "sudo <command that is failing>".  This
results in many "user" configuration directories being owned by root, with
more and more commands working only when used with "sudo".  TL can get into
a muddle after a user does "sudo fmtutil ..."

3.  setting the PATH -- points of confusion include "I did PATH=<something>
in the terminal, but the editor can't find latex so I rebooted the system
and now the terminal can't run latex",   and "I added PATH=<something>  to
my ~/.profile and rebooted.  I can run latex in a terminal and the editor,
but when I use ssh it can't fnd latex".
My feeling is that these issues are why many users want to create links.

A very few people who encounter steps they don't fully understand will
undertake a program to fill in the gaps in their expertise, many will make
an attempt to run the step, google the error message, and apply the first
"fix" they encounter without taking the time to look for documentation.
 I find many Ubuntu users who are struggling with command-line tasks
benefit from reading relevant portions of the Debian Handbook (available as
an Ubuntu packages), in particular
<file:///usr/share/doc/debian-handbook/html/short-remedial-course.html>



On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 6:59 AM, Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com>wrote:

> 2013/11/16 Gerald Pechoc <ubuntu at pechoc.eu>:
> > Hi,
> >
> > first I thank you all for the many comments on my question.
> >
> > I see again, what I already knew, to install TEX is a very difficult
> thing.
> > And unfortunately I am still not a very educated Linux User so I have a
> lot
> > of problem with some difficult explanations on the web.
> >
> > Simply to find the ISO File for download need more time as I thought to.
> > But I found it, and will on monday download the file and prepare a DVD
> for a
> > new installation.
> >
> Installation from a DVD is even more difficult. You will not get
> updates, you will have to read the anual of tlmgr in order to find out
> how to change the installation repository.
>
> Network installation is the easiest thing:
>
> 1. unpack the network installer
> 2. start the installation script
> 3. look where it wants to instal TL and make sure this directory (or
> its existing parent, if it does not exist yet) is writable by you (it
> is better not to be root)
> 4. if the directory is not writable, either change the directory in
> the installer or opne another xterm, become root, create the parant
> directory (eg /usr/local/texlive) and chage its ownership by "chown
> yourname.yourgroup /usr/local/texlive". If you do not know what
> yourname and yourgroup are, try "ls -ld ~"
> 5. start installation, keep everything as default
> 6. set PATH according to the instructions displayed at the end of
> installation
>
> If you install from an ISO image, you can either mount the ISO image
> directly (via loop) or burn the DVD. You then follow these steps:
>
> A. make sure that the DVD or the ISO image is mounted without the
> noexec option (otherwise you will not be allowed to run the
> installation script)
> B. steps 2-6 from above
> C. set the installation repository to CTAN
> D. run "tlmgr update -self -all" in order to get possibly a few
> houndred megabytes of updates
>
> You see that installation from a DVD requires more steps, the main
> procedure is exactly the same and you heve to download much more data
> over the internet.
>
> > But here is the next problem: de-installation
> > I have seen I have some distracted directories dealing with TEX but not
> > being from  the Tex Live installation.
> >
> > Probably I have to search for all what seem to be a part of TEX ad
> delete it
> > manually. Or is there another possibility?
> >
> > After the new installation I will give you a report under the same
> subject
> > line.
> >
> > Many thanks for your helping comments!
> > Gerald
> >
> >
> > On 2013-11-16 03:38, Scott Kostyshak wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi Lars,
> >>
> >> Thanks for the comments. See my responses in-line.
> >>
> >> On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 5:59 PM, Lars Madsen <daleif at imf.au.dk> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Scott, I noticed that you mention on the Web page at it installs or at
> >>> least
> >>> links the installation where Ubuntu would have installed it.
> >>>
> >>> Then what when people want to uninstaller? Fx we do not really
> encourage
> >>> users to use the "link into usual places" feature because people tend
> to
> >>> forget they made them and end up in a lot of mess.
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm surprised that no one has put a feature request for an uninstaller
> >> yet. However, I don't see how the linking in particular poses a
> >> problem. The uninstaller would just delete the link. Let me explain
> >> more the purpose of the linking. I'm not trying to fool Ubuntu into
> >> thinking that TeX Live is in the same location as it would have been
> >> if installed from the repositories. I'm informing TeX Live (the manual
> >> install) of the location where many auxiliary LaTeX packages would be
> >> installed with an "apt-get". Please let me know if you want more of an
> >> explanation or if you have suggestions for how to improve things
> >> (perhaps you are suggesting that not doing the linking at all would be
> >> an improvement?).
> >>
> >> The following is what the linking does:
> >>
> >> dTEXMFLOCAL=""
> >>
> >> if [ "${LINK_UBUNTU}" = 1 ]; then
> >>      cd "$(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFLOCAL)/tex/"
> >>      ln -s "/usr/share/texmf/tex/" "UbuntuTexDir"
> >> fi
> >>
> >>> Other than that interesting idea.
> >>>
> >>> Please consider submitting some of this to the tl project to make life
> >>> easier for (some) users.
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm happy to work with anyone. However, I think that install-tl-ubuntu
> >> and the TeX Live project have different goals. My interpretation (and
> >> I wouldn't be surprised if I misunderstood something here) is that the
> >> TeX Live project wants to encourage users to have a non-automated and
> >> flexible TeX Live installation, which should be done after reading the
> >> TeX Live Guide, or perhaps only the Quick install guide. I think this
> >> is the correct approach and would not want things to be different.
> >> There are also the TeX Live packages in the Ubuntu repository but I
> >> don't know if those are encouraged or not.
> >>
> >> My goals with install-tl-ubuntu are automation and simplicity, at the
> >> cost of some hackishness and assumptions (although install-tl-ubuntu
> >> does provide a fair amount of options, doing a manual install is far
> >> more flexible). I think this approach is less "correct" but is liked
> >> by many users of Ubuntu who do not want to spend the time reading and
> >> understanding the installation steps and are just looking for
> >> something that pretty much works and that integrates with other parts
> >> of Ubuntu (e.g. apt); or are looking for something that can be put on
> >> autopilot.
> >>
> >> I am very interested in any feedback and suggestions. I know little
> >> about TeX Live and proper installation. Despite this lack of
> >> expertise, I continue to suggest the install-tl-ubuntu script as an
> >> option to consider because the feedback that I've gotten is that it
> >> has indeed made things simple for users.
> >>
> >> Thanks again for your comments,
> >>
> >> Scott
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Zdeněk Wagner
> http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
> http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz
>
>


-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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