versioning TeXlive packages on CTAN

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Brook,

On Sat, 24 Aug 2019, Brook Milligan wrote:
> In the process of integrating TeXlive packages from CTAN into pkgsrc,
> I (and others) run into a persistent issue that creates difficulties.
> The main issue has two aspects: (i) TeXlive packages on CTAN do not
> reflect version information in the filenames, and (ii) the contents of
> the *.tar.xz files change periodically as a result of updates to the packages.

Yes, we are well aware of that problem for those distributions that do
not provide their own versions of the original sources (like Debian,
Ubuntu, RedHat etc), but rely on getting files that upstream provides.
We have had this discussion several times here, or on tl-distribution
mailing list.

Just recently on the FROSCON in Bonn I was discussing this with a
colleague.

You are proposing to add the version number into the filename, and add
links. This is indeed possible, but it will not help you (your users) in
any way, because the versions you have registered in the pkgsrc with
checksums might have already disappeared, making it impossible to
install the package.

Before we discuss any further steps, how do you plan/would you deal with that?

And no, keeping copies of every days changes is not possible due to
space reason. We are already grateful to CTAN for distributing all of
TL, so adding multiple copies of all packages is out of discussion.

All the best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
Accelia Inc. + IFMGA ProGuide + TU Wien + JAIST + TeX Live + Debian Dev
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