Creating a Chocolatey Package For TexLive

Naveen M K naveen at syrusdark.website
Wed Sep 16 11:48:14 CEST 2020


Hi,
 I started working on the choco aka chocolatey package. Soon, after doing some amount of content I will make a Github Repo.
Some questions:
1. What should be the Package id? And how many packages to create?
  Chocolatey states this,
> If the software is cross-platform, attempt to use the same id as the debian/rpm package(s) if possible.
  So what are the packages I should create/what is the id for it? ID is something people use with chocolatey like below
```cmd
choco install <id-here>
```

2. What should be the version? If I am right should it be 2020? How often it should change? I plan to include `install-tl.zip` inside the choco pack. So how often should I update it? And also the version?

3. What can be possibly the title name? I suggest `TexLive (Install)`.

4. What should be the authors' fields? Possibly `TeX Live Developers` or should I include some names? The maximum allowed here is 1500 characters.

5. What should be the Icon? Can I make a copy of this icon in my git repo where I maintain this package and hyperlink it?

6. What should be the Copyright?

7. What is the License URL? Is this https://www.tug.org/texlive/copying.html?

8. What is the docs URL for this? Should it be installation Docs?

9. Where are the release notes located?

10. Where is the bug tracker URL? Is it the mailing list?

Some Implementation I planned.
=========================

I plan to call the `install-tl` using `-no-gui` or `-text` mode and pass a profile. If we were to do a single package unlike Debian, I will allow the user to select the type of installation using a package parameter. https://chocolatey.org/docs/helpers-get-package-parameters. What can be defaulted to install? Possibly full? 

Chocolatey doesn't allow packages to write in the Program Files directory so it will write to Tools Directory located usually in `C:\tools\texlive`. Is that any problem? I will change it using the `TEXDIR` parameter in the profile. Anything else should I change in profile?

About Updating, what should be done before a user updates TexLive? Any directory to remove?

About Uninstalling TexLive, where is the uninstall script located? (Sorry for repeatedly asking). Is the uninstall script written in the Registry? (If yes, I can get it easily using https://chocolatey.org/docs/helpers-get-uninstall-registry-key and also what should be the name to search? Possibly `texlive*`).

Usually, all the executables (exe files) will be shimmed see https://chocolatey.org/docs/features-shim should this be disabled?
Also, should I need to create a shim for `tlmgr` https://chocolatey.org/docs/helpers-install-bin-file because it is a batch script right(This gets the least precedence in command prompt so possibly shimming to an exe file can solve that issue)?

I hope I will find answers to these.

Regards,
Naveen M K




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