tex live 2021 installation question

[Bob]

Hi Karl,

I went back through the installation instructions, and I could not find 
any place where you recommended using the native TL installer instead of 
the linux distribution's package manager.  This may have been a 
prejudice based on something I had read in the past.  Also, some years 
ago I installed TL using the package manager in Linux mint.  I remember 
that there were problems with that installation, and I switched to using 
the native TL installer.  I apologize for putting words in your mouth 
about preferring one to the other.

I think the installation instructions are excellent.  The only part that 
I found confusing was having permission to write to /usr/local/texlive 
(which I previously solved by being too generous with write 
permissions).  The suggestion by several, especially by Zdenek, of 
changing the ownership of /usr/local/texlive was quite helpful.

All the best to you, too!

--Bob

On 2021-08-18 5:48 p.m., Karl Berry wrote:
> Hi Bob,
> 
>      Similarly, tug.org recommends using their installer---not the
>      linux distribution's package manager.
> 
> I don't exactly "recommend" using the native TL installer. Do I?
> Have I forgotten what I wrote? If you can tell me where you saw this,
> I'd like to review it.
> 
> What I intend to say in this regard is that 1) if you use the distro
> version, please don't expect our instructions and descriptions to apply,
> and 2) often distros are not up to date (but sometimes they are).
> 
> In general, plenty of people use TL as packaged by their distros, and
> that's perfectly fine. I'm happy when anyone uses TeX in any way they
> wish :).
> 
>      install Tex Live into their home directory by resetting TEXDIR.
> 
> Where "TEXDIR" is a setting that only exists inside install-tl.
> It's not an environment variable that you can set and will magically
> change everything. At least not in upstream TL. (And I'd be quite
> surprised if any distro supports such a TEXDIR envvar, but what do I know.)
> 
> Thanks for the nice summary, in any case. --best, karl.
>