[tldistro] texlive.infra.r72854.tar.xz (and doc) missing from the mirrors

[Vincenzo Mantova]

Hi Florian,

> Depending on your preferred day, but the most recent is always a good
> thing, so
>         https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/2024/11/22/tlnet/
> would be a good starting point.
>
>
> (No I only hope that my server is not killed by all the users trying to
> download packages from it ;-)

We have been using this set up in Nixpkgs for a few years: we download
texlive.tlpdb from one of Norbert's snapshots, then download the
packages from CTAN and fall back to texlive.info when they don't
exist. It's been going well. As far as I know, we never killed
Norbert's server.

We build the binaries from the current snapshot (2024.2, i.e. revision
70897), which we fetch from GitHub, to make sure we didn't miss any
critical update.

Best,
Vincenzo


On Fri, 22 Nov 2024 at 15:45, Norbert Preining <norbert at preining.info> wrote:
>
> Hi Florian,
>
> On Fri, 22 Nov 2024, Florian Schmaus wrote:
> > Gentoo *always* uses the released source tarball for texlive-core
>
> Very good!!! Thanks!
>
> > We use a fixed and stable version of the tlpdb to generate the list of CTAN
> > packages along with their revision, which is sourced from the tlpdb.
>
> Good idea.
>
> > If I understand you correctly, then you refer to
> > https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb as "latest
> > tldpb". However, if I am not mistaken, this version is not, or at least not
> > always, equal to the latest version in texlive's source repository.
> >
> > The *only* reason we are using a tldpb from git is that it provides a stable
> > reference. Please correct me if I am wrong, but
> > https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb would be
> > different next years from this year. This would make it unsuitable for our
> > use case.
>
> Yes, those are different. In particular, the tlpdb in git contains the
> most current version, that is what goes into tlcritical.
>
> That explains why you suddently were searching for a version from
> tlcritial.
>
> > Maybe you could provide a URL to a tlpdb that is fixed to particular tl
> > release? For example
> > https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/20240311/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb
>
> Yes! I can ;-) You already use my services by using git:
> > Basically we take a commit from git.texlive.info/texlive to have a stable,
>
> So why not select
>         https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/YYYY/MM/DD/
> as the source? It is the exact copy of what was on tlnet CTAN on that
> day. The packages are there, the tlpdb is in sync.
>
>
> > In general, for downstream packagers it would be great to provide versioned
> > resources. Unfortunately, the tlpdb does not seem to be one of them (besides
> > via the detour over git).
>
> Yes, we are aware of that. Packagers like Debian distribute their own
> version of the sources, so they can make a checkout at "their time" and
> thus freeze the result.
>
> Some others do NOT provide their own frozen sources, but require
> download locations. CTAN does **not** provide for that. Thus I have set
> up the tlnet mirror ;-)
>
> > Which URL to a stable version of the tlpdb should I use for TexLive 2024 in
> > Gentoo?
>
> Depending on your preferred day, but the most recent is always a good
> thing, so
>         https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/2024/11/22/tlnet/
> would be a good starting point.
>
> (No I only hope that my server is not killed by all the users trying to
> download packages from it ;-)
>
> Best regards
>
> Norbert
>
> --
> PREINING Norbert                              https://www.preining.info
> arXiv / Cornell University   +   IFMGA Guide   +   TU Wien  +  TeX Live
> GPG: 0x860CDC13   fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0 ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13