[tldistro] unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5

[Norbert Preining]

Hi David,

> This answers my question; by specifying the repository I can point to a specific 'version' of TeX Live to install.

This is well documented in install-tl --help. You can also point it to a
local directory in case you want a defined installation source.

> But the install-tl has to be compatible with the TeX Live version that I want to install.

Yes.

> So currently because there is no "version" in the filename of the install-tl-unx.tar.gz package,
> you have to know that you have downloaded install-tl-unx.tar.gz from the given date.

Well, you can while downloading rename it
	wget -O install-tl-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz ....

> correct ?  Or is the install-tl from 2020/09/15 (as an example) also capable of installing the TeX Live from 2020/08/01 ?

Yes and Yes. In generally, within released (TL2020, TL2019) the
installer will be compatible, but still might change.
With the release of a new TL (2021) the installer will expect a tlnet
for 2021.

You can check the release version by
	grep '^\$ReleaseYear' tlpkg/TeXLive/TLConfig.pm

> ./install-tl: unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5

This has a different reason: There was a bug in the code that was later
fixed. It means that the signature of the repository is correct, but the
key is expired.

Later versions of the installer should work.

BTW, you should be able to install older releases with the newest
install-tl, the lowest release year that is possible can be found with
	grep '^\$MinRelease' tlpkg/TeXLive/TLConfig.pm
(Although again, I haven't actually tried ;-)

> So that's still the 'unexpected return value' error, which may be due to the webserver.
> The error 'unexpected' is by itself not a problem for me,
> I don't really want to install TeX Live from 2019, but I am trying to understand how the version of the tool works.

As said, this is a bug in the old installer, I don't want to dig
through the git log now searching for when it was fixed.

> What I find a little confusing about this is that I end up with always the same filename,
> install-tl-unx.tar.gz but depending on the date , it is a different file.

> install-tl-r15124.tar.gz as an example where <15124> is the revision number of the script.

Yes, we are doing this already for the update-tlmgr-latest which is a
link to the file with the revision in it.

As I said in the previous email, I will look into whether we can do the
same for the installer.

Best

Norbert

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