[tex-live] Directory structure for package including files

[Zdenek Wagner]

Hi Urs,

first of all you should read the CTAN guidelines. CTAN itself is not
primarily used for installation, the contents must be easily
browsable. The maintainers require flat structure, everything in the
single directory. If the package is too complex, it is possible to
separate the files to a directory containing the macros, a directory
containing documentation etc. It is explained on CTAN. In addition,
you can upload a TDS zip file. In TDS (used in nowadays TeX distros)
the macros for your package will reside in
$TEXMF/tex/latex/your_package_name, hence it is not necessary to split
it to other directories unless you need different files for different
engines but having the same name. Anyway, even without the TDS zip
file the TeX Live maintainers can cope with it. As each package must
contain a README file, this is the best place where to describe the
structure of the package so that the distro maintainers know how to
install it.

Hope this helps.
Zdeněk Wagner
http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz


2016-06-27 1:06 GMT+02:00 Urs Liska <ul at openlilylib.org>:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm mentoring a GSoC student who will as part of his project produce a
> LaTeX package and upload it to CTAN. (As some background that is not
> directly relevant to the question: This package will take sets of LaTeX
> commands generated from annotations in LilyPond music scores and typeset
> a critical report from them.)
>
> The package will provide extensive configuration options for the visual
> appearance of the output, mainly implemented through \setkeys. As the
> definition of the *default* appearance will use a significant number of
> code lines the student suggested to move that to a separate file, e.g.
> `default-stylesheet.inp` (which I find good as it's also a good example
> file for end-users).
>
> The question is: Should we take any precautions regarding the directory
> structure when it comes to uploading the package to CTAN? Of course in
> the context of a CTAN package it's probably the most straightforward to
> just put it in the same folder as the .sty file. But is that also a good
> approach when we expect the package to be incorporated in distributions
> like tex-live?
>
> Best
> Urs
>