[tex-live] Feature request for TL 2014 (or later): Easier?installation of local/experimental packages

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Ulrike,

> feature request. And while I can probably solve the first (my own
> system) by writing some scripts the second can't be resolved this

Or using the tlmgr invocations mentioned in this thread.

> "At second when I write a class or a package or prepare a font for
> someone else I would like to make installation easy. "

For TL you could easiy provide a "package" that people can install
with
	tlmgr install --file <your-package>.tar.xz
Of course you have to create the package, but that is easy if you have
a TDS tree already. You only have to create a <packagename>.tlpobj
file which is also trivial by looking at some examples of TL in your
texlive.tlpdb.

If you look into one of files in tlnet/archive you will see the structure.

The only thing you have to take care about is the "relocatable" flag
(texmf-dist included in path or not).

> It is easy. All users I did sent a zipped texmf tree with some files
> were able to add them through the GUI in miktex settings (which also
> shows a list of all trees and allows you to move them (to some
> extent) up and down. You only have to go to right tab, click on
> "add" and browse to the root of the texmf tree. 

You mean that every "package" would live in a *separate* TEMXF tree?

I can imagine a similar functionality in tlmgr that would (ab)use
the TEXMFPROJECT var for a list of additional trees.

What do you think?

Norbert

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PREINING, Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
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