Building TeX Live (2015)

Short Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Building TeX Live (2015)

For an overview of this manual, see Introduction.

1 Introduction

This manual (dated May 2015) corresponds to the TeX Live 2015 release.

This manual is aimed at system installers and programmers, and focuses on how to configure, build, and develop the TeX Live (TL) sources. The sources can be acquired in a number of ways; see http://tug.org/texlive/svn.

This manual does not duplicate the (primarily user-level) information found in other TL documentation resources, such as:

• The TeX Live web pages: http://tug.org/texlive.
• The web page with an overview of how to build the binaries which are distributed with TeX Live: http://tug.org/texlive/build.html.
• The TeX Live user manual: http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html, or run texdoc texlive.
• Other TeX-related Texinfo manuals (see Web2c, Kpathsea, etc.): http://tug.org/texinfohtml/, or check the ‘TeX’ category in the GNU Info system.
• Package documentation: http://tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/doc.html, or the doc.html file at the top level of the installed TL.

As an exception, the full documentation for install-tl and tlmgr is included here, just because it is convenient to do so. The same text is available online (linked from http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html, or by invoking the program with ‘--help’ (or look at the end of the source file).

2 Overview of build system

The TeX Live build system was redesigned in 2009, consistently using Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool. Thus
   configure && make && make check && make install
or the basically-equivalent top-level Build script suffice to build and install the TL programs. The make check clause performs various tests of the generated programs—not strictly required but strongly recommended. Running configure --help will display a comprehensive list of all configure options.

The main components of the TL build system are:

libs/lib

Generic libraries.

texk/lib

TeX-specific libraries in subdirectories, notably lib=kpathsea. (The other one is texk/ptexenc.)

texk/prog

TeX-specific programs (that use Kpathsea).

utils/prog

Other programs (that don’t use Kpathsea).

The primary design goal of the build system is modularity. Each program and library module (or package) specifies its own requirements and properties, such as required libraries, whether an installed (system) version of a library can be used, configure options to be seen at the top-level, and more. An explicit list of all available modules is kept in only one, central, place (m4/kpse-pkgs.m4).

A second, related goal is to configure and build each library before configuring any other (program or library) module which uses that library. This allows checking for properties and features of a library built as part of the TL tree in much the same way as for a system version of that library.

All generic libraries and several programs are maintained independently. The corresponding modules use (most of) the distributed source tree and document any modifications of that source.

All this is for the sake of simplifying both upgrading of modules maintained independently and integrating new modules into the TL build system. (Not to say that either task is trivial.)

3 Prerequisites

Overall, building the TeX Live programs, when using all libraries from the TL source tree, requires only C and C++ compilers and GNU make. (If make from your PATH is not GNU make, you can set MAKE in the environment to whatever is necessary.)

Indeed, GNU make is required only because of some third-party libraries, notably FreeType; all the TL-maintained directories (and Automake/Autoconf output in general) should work with any reasonable make.

However, a few programs in the tree have additional requirements:

web2c

requires perl for some tests run by make check.

xdvik

xpdfopen

require X11 headers and libraries, often in “development” packages that are not installed by default.

xetex

requires fontconfig (again both headers and library).

xindy

requires GNU clisp and in addition perl, latex, and pdflatex to build the rules and/or documentation.

Lacking the required tools, building these programs must avoided, e.g.,
configure --without-x --disable-xetex --disable-xindy

Modifying source files induces more requirements, as one might expect:

• Modification of any .y or .l source files requires bison or flex to updatete the corresponding C sources.
• Modification of the sources for .info files requires makeinfo.
• Modification of any part of the build system (M4 macros, configure.ac, Makefile.am, or their fragments) requires GNU M4, GNU Autoconf, GNU Automake, and GNU Libtool to update the generated files. See Build system tools.

If you haven’t modified any source files, and infrastructure tools such as autoconf or makeinfo are still being run, check your timestamps—notably, use-commit-times must be set to yes in your Subversion configuration (see Build system tools). Barring buggy commits, no infrastructure tools are needed to do a normal build.

4 Building

The top-level Build script is intended to simplify building the binaries distributed with TeX Live itself—we call this the “native” TL build. It configures and makes everything in a subdirectory of the main build tree (default Work/), installs everything in an other subdirectory (default inst/), and finally runs make check. The exact directory and command names can be specified via environment variables and a few leading options. All remaining arguments (assignments or options) are passed to the configure script. Please take a look at the script itself for more information; it is not complicated.

An alternative, and the one we will mainly discuss here, is to run configure and make oneself in a suitable empty subdirectory. Building in the source directory itself is not supported (sorry).

4.1 Build iteration

Running the top-level configure script configures the top level and the subdirectories libs, utils, and texk. Running make at the top-level first iterates over all TeX-specific libraries, and then runs make in libs, utils, and texk to iterate over all generic libraries, utility programs, and TeX-specific programs. These iterations consist of two steps:

1. For each library or program module not yet configured, run configure, adding the configure option --disable-build if the module need not be built, otherwise running make all.
2. For each library or program module that must be built, run make for the selected target(s): default or all to (re-)build, check to run tests, install, etc.

Running the top-level make a second time iterates again over all the library and program modules, but finds (should find) nothing to be done unless some source files have been modified.

4.2 Build problems

If configuring or building a module fails, you should first find and fix the problem, then perhaps remove the subdirectory for that module from the build tree, and finally rerun the top-level make (or Build with --no-clean as its first argument).

4.3 Build in parallel

The TL build system carefully formulates dependencies as well as make rules when a tool (such as tangle, ctangle, or convert) creates several output files. This allows for parallel builds (make -j n with n>1 or even make -j) that can considerably speed up the TL build.

Incidentally, a noticeable speed-up can also be (independently) gained by using a configure cache file, i.e., with the option -C (recommended).

4.4 Build distribution

Running make dist at the top-level creates a tarball tex-live-yyyy-mm-dd.tar.xz from the TL source tree. Running make distcheck also verifies that this tarball suffices to build and install all of TL.

This is useful for checking consistency of the source tree and Makefiles, but the result is not a complete or even usable TeX system, since all the support files are lacking; see Installing.

4.5 Build one package

To build one package, the basic idea is to use the configure option --disable-all-pkgs (see --disable-all-pkgs). Then all program and library modules are configured but none are made. However, the Makefiles still contain all build rules and dependencies and can be invoked to build an individual program or library and causes to first build any required libraries.

This “build-on-demand” procedure is used, e.g., in the luatex repository to build LuaTeX, essentially from a subset of the complete TeX Live tree. Similarly, when, e.g., building the original e-TeX has been disabled (as it is by default), one can run make etex (or make etex.exe) in texk/web2c/ to build e-TeX (although there is no comparably simple way to install e-TeX).

If you want to work on a single program within the TL sources, this is the recommended way to do it. Here is an example from start to finish for working on dvipdfm-x.

mkdir mydir && cd mydir  # new working directory

# Get sources (http://tug.org/texlive/svn)
rsync -a --delete --exclude=.svn --exclude=Work \
      tug.org::tldevsrc/Build/source/ .

# Create build directory:
mkdir Work && cd Work

# Do the configure:
../configure --disable-all-pkgs --enable-dvipdfm-x \
  -C CFLAGS=-g CXXFLAGS=-g >&outc

# Do the make:
make >&outm

# Test:
cd texk/dvipdfm-x
make check

Then you modify source files in mydir/texk/dvipdfm-x and rerun make in mydir/Work/texk/dvipdfm-x to rebuild.

The second line of the configure invocation shows examples of extra things you likely want to specify if you intend to hack the sources (and not just build binaries): the -C speeds up configure, and the CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS settings eliminate compiler optimization for debugging purposes.

Of course, one should actually look at the output and check that things are working. There are many configure options you can tweak as desired; check the output from configure --help.

Finally, the above retrieves the entire TL source tree (some 300mb). It is natural to ask if this is really necessary. Strictly speaking, the answer is no, but it is vastly more convenient to do so. If you cut down the source tree, you must also give additional configure flags to individually disable using system versions of libraries, or the intricacies of the dependencies (such as teckit requiring zlib) will have undesired side effects. For an example, see the build-pdftex.sh script in the pdftex development sources (http://pdftex.org), which are indeed a cut-down TL source tree.

5 Installing

This section discusses the results of make install in the source tree.

The main consideration is that make install is not enough to make a usable TeX installation. Beyond the compiled binaries, (thousands of) support files are needed; just as a first example plain.tex is not in the source tree.

These support files are maintained completely independently and are not present in the source tree. The best basis for dealing with them is the TeX Live (plain text) database in Master/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb, and/or the TeX Live installer, install-tl. More information is under Master/tlpkg and at http://tug.org/texlive/distro.html.

5.1 Installation directories

Running make install (or make install-strip) installs executables in bindir, libraries in libdir, headers in includedir, general data (including “linked scripts”, see Linked scripts) in datarootdir/texmf-dist, man pages in mandir, and Info files in infodir.

The values of these directories are determined by configure and can be specified explictly as options such as --prefix=prefix or --bindir=bindir; otherwise, they are given by their usual Autoconf defaults:

prefix                  /usr/local
exec_prefix             prefix
bindir                  exec_prefix/bin
libdir                  exec_prefix/lib
includedir              prefix/include
datarootdir             prefix/share    
mandir                  datarootdir/man
infodir                 datarootdir/info

except possibly modified as follows:

• If the option --enable-multiplatform is given, /platform (i.e., the canonical platform name) is appended to bindir and libdir. This is implied for a native TL build.

The top-level configure script displays all these installation paths.

For the native TL build, the Build script leaves the binaries in ./inst/bin/std-platform-name. The new binaries are not directly usable from that location; they need to be copied to Master/bin/tl-platform. The other files and directories that end up in ./inst/ are ignored.

5.2 Linked scripts

Quite a few executables are architecture-independent shell, Perl, or other interpreted scripts, rather than compiled binaries. A few are maintained as part of the TL source tree, but most are maintained elsewhere with copies under texk/texlive/linked_scripts.

These so-called linked scripts are installed under datarootdir/texmf-dist/scripts; for Unix-like systems a symbolic link is made in bindir. For example, a symlink points from bindir/ps2eps to datarootdir/texmf-dist/scripts/ps2eps/ps2eps.pl. For Windows, a standard wrapper binary (e.g., bindir/ps2eps.exe) serves the same purpose. (The source for the wrapper is in texk/texlive/w32_wrapper.)

One reason for this is to avoid having many copies of the same script; a more important reason is that it guarantees the scripts will stay in sync across the different supported operating systems.

Most important of all, we want the bindir resulting from the build to be as close as possible to what is in the TL distribution. At present, there are a few exceptions—Asymptote, Biber, Xindy—and each one creates considerable extra work. We don’t want to add more. (See http://tug.org/texlive/build.html for information about building those exceptions, as well as the xz and wget programs that are used in the TL infrastructure.)

5.3 Distro builds

Although they use the same code base, building for the native TL distribution as shipped by the TeX user groups is typically quite different from a “distro” build needed by, e.g., a full GNU/Linux or BSD operating system distribution.

The native TL distribution uses shared libraries only when absolutely necessary (libc, libm, X11 libraries, and libfontconfig). However, a distro typically wants to use as many shared libraries as possible from elsewhere on the system, including TeX-specific libraries such as libkpathsea (even though Kpathsea has never officially been released as a shared library, but we digress). In addition, the installation paths will, in general, be completely different.

Here are the configure options that distro builds are likely to find most relevant:

--disable-native-texlive-build

This must be specified to avoid interference from the many tweaks we do for the native TL build.

--with-banner-add=/SomeDistro

This isn’t technically required, but is strongly recommended, so your build and your distro can be distinguished from others.

--enable-shared

Build shared versions of the TeX-specific libraries (uses libtool).

--disable-static

Do not build the static versions of the TeX-specific libraries.

--with-system-lib

Use system versions for as many libraries lib as possible. configure --help will give you the list of possibilities.

--with-lib-includes=dir

--with-lib-libdir=dir

If needed, allows you to specify where the headers/code are for the given library lib.

--prefix=/usr

--prefix=/opt/TeXLive

Or whatever your convention is. The default is /usr/local and you shouldn’t install there for a distro.

--libdir=\${exec_prefix}/lib64

May be needed for 64-bit bi-architecture (GNU/Linux) systems.

You will need to take care of the support files mentioned above (see Installing), and many other issues, such as font maps, languages, and formats, independently of the build. Norbert Preining has written a detailed article on adapting TL for distros: http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb34-3/tb108preining-distro.pdf. (If the article needs updating in the future, perhaps we will merge it into this document.)

6 Layout and infrastructure

The TeX Live source tree is the subtree rooted at Build/source of the complete TL distribution and contains the sources for all executables distributed by TL, as well as configure scripts and make rules to build and install them together with some of their support files.

6.1 Build system tools

As mentioned above (see Prerequisites), a normal build requires very little. On the other hand, if you want to modify the TeX Live infrastructure sources, such as configure.ac or Makefile.am files, you will need to have several additional tools installed.

In general, the TL build system uses the latest released versions of the GNU build tools, installed directly from the original GNU releases (e.g., by building them with configure --prefix=/usr/local/gnu and having PATH start with /usr/local/gnu/bin). We have found that trying to use the versions of these tools packaged for distros causes many extra hassles, so don’t do that, tempting as it may be.

Currently the versions we use are:

autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.69
automake (GNU automake) 1.15
bison (GNU Bison) 3.0.4
flex 2.5.39
ltmain.sh (GNU libtool) 2.4.6
m4 (GNU M4) 1.4.17
makeinfo (GNU texinfo) 5.2

These versions should be used to update the generated files (e.g., configure or Makefile.in) in all or parts of the TL tree after their dependencies have been changed. This can be done explicitly with the top-level reautoconf script or implicitly by using the configure option --enable-maintainer-mode.

The files in the Subversion repository (see http://tug.org/texlive/svn) are all up to date, but unfortunately this may not be reflected by their timestamps. (For starters, be sure to set use-commit-times=yes in ~/.subversion/config or the equivalent.)

To avoid unnecessary runs of bison, flex, or makeinfo it may be necessary to touch the generated (.c, .h, or .info) files. With --enable-maintainer-mode it may also be necessary to touch first aclocal.m4, then configure and config.h.in (or c-auto.in), and finally all Makefile.in files. Perhaps make -t will help.

6.2 Top-level directories

Here is a brief description of the top-level directories in the TeX Live source tree.

As mentioned at the beginning of see Overview of build system, the main source directories are texk/ (TeX-specific programs and libraries), utils/ (additional programs), and libs/ (generic libraries).

The top-level directories am/ and m4/ contain Makefile.am fragments and Autoconf macros, respectively, used in many places. Specifically, the file m4/kpse-pkgs.m4 contains lists of all program and library modules; missing modules are silently ignored. (This helps in creating cut-down source trees.)

Each module contributes fragments (in separate files) defining its capabilities and requirements to the configure.ac scripts at the top-level and in the subdirectories libs, utils, and texk. The fragments from program modules supply configure options to disable or enable building them; those from library modules specify if an installed (system) version of that library can be used. This ultimately determines which modules need to be built—although all modules must be configured for the benefit of make targets such as dist or distcheck.

The top-level build-aux/ directory contains the common files compile, config.guess, config.sub, depcomp, etc. for most packages, pulled from the GNU Gnulib sources (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib), which in turn synchronizes with the appropriate ultimate upstream repository. There are, however, independent copies in, e.g., libs/freetype2/freetype-*/builds/unix/, and similar places. The reautoconf script does not touch those, but a TL cron job keeps them in sync (nightly).

The directory extra/ contains things which are not part of the TL build, but are present just for (someone’s) convenience, e.g., epstopdf which is developed here.

6.3 Autoconf macros

Here we describe some of the Autoconf macros used in several modules–not a complete list, by any means. These general macros are supplemented by module-specific macros in directories such as texk/dvipng/m4/; some of those are described in Library modules and see Program modules.

6.3.1 General setup macros

The TL sources use two general setup macros:

Macro: KPSE_BASIC (name, [more-options])

Initialize the basic TL infrastructure for module name:
   AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign more-options])
   AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
   KPSE_COMPILER_WARNINGS
and make sure the C compiler understands function prototypes. This is used for all generic library and program modules.

Macro: KPSE_COMMON (name, [more-options])

Like KPSE_BASIC but add:
   LT_PREREQ([2.2.6])
   LT_INIT([win32-dll])
   AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
   AC_FUNC_FSEEKO
and check for frequently used functions, headers, types, and structures. This is used for TeX-specific modules.

6.3.2 Macros for programs

Macros for program checks:

Macro: KPSE_CHECK_LATEX

Set LATEX to the name of the first of latex, elatex, or lambda which exists in PATH, or to no if none of them exists. Call AC_SUBST for LATEX. The result of this test can be overridden by setting the LATEX environment variable or the cache variable ac_cv_prog_LATEX.

Macro: KPSE_CHECK_PDFLATEX

Check for pdflatex in PATH and set PDFLATEX.

Macro: KPSE_CHECK_PERL

Check for perl or perl5 in PATH and set PERL.

Macro: KPSE_PROG_LEX

Call AC_PROG_LEX and add the flag -l for flex.

6.3.3 Macros for compilers

Macros for compiler-related checks:

Macro: KPSE_COMPILER_WARNINGS

When using the (Objective) C/C++ compiler, set WARNING_[OBJ]C[XX]FLAGS to suitable warning flags (depending on the value given to or implied for --enable-compiler-warnings). Call AC_SUBST for them. At the moment this only works for GNU compilers, but could be extended to others if necessary.

This macro caches its results in the kpse_cv_warning_cflags, … variables.

Macro: KPSE_COMPILER_VISIBILITY

When using the C or C++ compiler, try to set VISIBILITY_C[XX]FLAGS to flags to hide external symbols. Call AC_SUBST for this variable. At the moment this only tests for the compiler option -fvisibility=hidden, but that could be extended with more checks if necessary.

This macro caches its results in the kpse_cv_visibility_cflags or kpse_cv_visibility_cxxflags variable.

Macro: KPSE_CXX_HACK

Provide the configure option --enable-cxx-runtime-hack. If enabled and when using g++, try to statically link with libstdc++, somewhat improving portability of the resulting binary.

This macro caches its result in the kpse_cv_cxx_hack variable.

6.3.4 Macros for libraries

One macro for a library check:

Macro: KPSE_LARGEFILE (variable, [extra-define])

Call AC_SYS_LARGEFILE and AC_FUNC_FSEEKO and append suitable -D flags (optionally including -Dextra-define) to variable.

6.3.5 Macros for library and header flags

Each library module libs/lib or texk/lib is supplemented by a macro KPSE_LIB_FLAGS (all uppercase) that provides make variables for that library. E.g., for libs/libpng:

Macro: KPSE_LIBPNG_FLAGS

Provide the configure option --with-system-libpng. Set and AC_SUBST make variables for modules using this library (either an installed version or from the TeX Live tree): LIBPNG_INCLUDES for use in CPPFLAGS, LIBPNG_LIBS for use in LDADD, LIBPNG_DEPEND for use as dependency, and LIBPNG_RULE defining make rules to rebuild the library.

Macro: KPSE_ADD_FLAGS (name)

Temporarily extend CPPFLAGS and LIBS with the values required for the library module name.

Macro: KPSE_RESTORE_FLAGS

Restore CPPFLAGS and LIBS to their original values.

As an example, the configure.ac file for a hypothetical program utils/foo using libpng, and hence zlib, would contain

KPSE_ZLIB_FLAGS
KPSE_LIBPNG_FLAGS

and its Makefile.am would be along these lines:

bin_PROGRAMS = foo
AM_CPPFLAGS = ${LIBPNG_INCLUDES} ${ZLIB_INCLUDES}
foo_LDADD = ${LIBPNG_LIBS} ${ZLIB_LIBS}
foo_DEPENDENCIES = ${ZLIB_DEPEND} ${LIBPNG_DEPEND}
## Rebuild libz
@ZLIB_RULE@
## Rebuild libpng
@LIBPNG_RULE@

If it was necessary to examine whether certain zlib or libpng features were available, configure.ac should be continued this way:

KPSE_ADD_FLAGS([zlib])
… # tests for zlib features, if any
KPSE_ADD_FLAGS([libpng])
… # tests for libpng features
KPSE_RESTORE_FLAGS # restore CPPFLAGS and LIBS

6.3.6 Macros for Windows

Windows differs in several aspects from Unix-like systems, many of them due to the lack of symbolic links.

Macro: KPSE_CHECK_WIN32

Check if compiling for a Windows system. The result is no for Unix-like systems (including Cygwin), mingw32 for Windows with GCC, or native for Windows with MSVC. The result is cached in the kpse_cv_have_win32 variable.

Macro: KPSE_COND_WIN32

Call KPSE_CHECK_WIN32 and define the Automake conditional WIN32 (true if the value of kpse_cv_have_win32 is not no).

Macro: KPSE_COND_MINGW32

Call KPSE_COND_WIN32 and define the Automake conditional MINGW32 (true if the value of kpse_cv_have_win32 is mingw32).

Macro: KPSE_COND_WIN32_WRAP

Call KPSE_COND_WIN32 and define the Automake conditional WIN32_WRAP (true if the standard Windows wrapper (texk/texlive/w32_wrapper/runscript.exe) exists. This wrapper is used on Windows instead of symlinks for the “linked scripts” (see Linked scripts).

Macro: KPSE_WIN32_CALL

Call KPSE_COND_WIN32, check if the file texk/texlive/w32_wrapper/callexe.c exists; if it does, create a symlink in the build tree. Compiling callexe.c with -DEXEPROG='"foo.exe"' and installing callexe.exe as bar.exe is used on Windows instead of a symlink bar->foo for Unix-like systems.

6.4 Library modules

Here we discuss some specifics for a few of the libraries in TL, both for the details themselves, and as a way of illuminating the general structure and variation.

6.4.1 The png library in libs/libpng

This generic library uses the source tree in, e.g., the subdirectory libpng-1.6.16 with all modifications for TL recorded in libpng-1.6.16-PATCHES/*. The configure.ac fragment ac/withenable.ac contains

KPSE_WITH_LIB([libpng], [zlib])

specifying the module name, and indicating the dependency on zlib. A third literal argument tree would specify that the library from the TeX Live tree cannot be replaced by a system version. That not being the case here, a second fragment ac/libpng.ac contains

KPSE_TRY_LIB([libpng],
             [#include <png.h>],
             [png_structp png; png_voidp io; png_rw_ptr fn;
png_set_read_fn(png, io, fn);])

thus providing the simple C code

#include <png.h>
int main ()
{ png_structp png; png_voidp io; png_rw_ptr fn;
  png_set_read_fn(png, io, fn);
  return 0; }

which Autoconf uses to verify the usability of a system version with C code. The analogous macro KPSE_TRY_LIBXX would check using C++ code. These fragments are included by configure.ac at the top level.

For this library, among many other modules, a proxy build system for TL is used (configure.ac, Makefile.am, and include/Makefile.am), ignoring the distributed one. Consequently, a few generated files and auxiliary scripts are removed from the distributed source tree. The public headers png.h, pngconf.h, and pnglibconf.h are “installed” (as symlinks) under include/ in the build tree exactly as they are for a system version under, e.g., /usr/include/.

The module is supplemented by the file m4/kpse-libpng-flags.m4 that defines the M4 macro KPSE_LIBPNG_FLAGS used by all modules depending on this library in their configure.ac to generate the make variables LIBPNG_INCLUDES for use in CPPFLAGS, LIBPNG_LIBS for use in LDADD, LIBPNG_DEPEND for use as dependencies, and LIBPNG_RULE defining make rules to rebuild the library.

m4/kpse-libpng-flags.m4 also supplies the configure option --with-system-libpng and uses pkg-config to determine the flags required for the system library.

6.4.2 The zlib library in libs/zlib

This generic library is very much analogous to libpng, but without the dependency on any other library. The file m4/kpse-zlib-flags.m4 supplies the configure option --with-system-zlib, as well as --with-zlib-includes and --with-zlib-libdir to specify non-standard locations of the zlib headers and/or library.

6.4.3 The freetype library in libs/freetype2

This module uses a wrapper build system with an almost trivial configure.ac and with a Makefile.am that invokes configure and make for the distributed source, followed by make install with the build tree as destination. The flags required for the system library are obtained through freetype-config.

6.4.4 The kpathsea library in texk/kpathsea

This is one of the TeX-specific libraries that are maintained as part of TeX Live (see Kpathsea). Despite being a core part of the TeX system, it is not a terribly special case in the infrastructure. The TeX libraries are Libtool libraries (static and/or shared) and are installed by make install together with the programs. They are, however, not part of the TL DVD as distributed by TeX user groups, and have never been officially released for standalone use.

It is possible, and perhaps even useful for distro builds (see Distro builds), to specify the configure option --with-system-kpathsea in order to use a system version of the library. Programs outside the TL tree should use pkg-config for the required flags.

In addition to ac/withenable.ac and ac/kpathsea.ac there is a third fragment ac/mktex.ac included by both ac/withenable.ac and configure.ac that supplies configure options such as --enable-mktextfm-default, which determine the compile time default of whether or not to run mktextfm to generate a missing .tfm file. In any case, however, the command line options -mktex=tfm or -no-mktex=tfm for the TeX-like engines override this default.

6.5 Program modules

As with libraries (see Library modules), here we discuss the details for a few of the programs in TL.

6.5.1 The t1utils package in utils/t1utils

Once again we use the distributed source tree t1utils-1.39 with modifications documented in t1utils-1.39-PATCHES/* and a proxy build system consisting of configure.ac and Makefile.am. The fragment ac/withenable.ac contains

KPSE_ENABLE_PROG([t1utils])

specifying the module name without any dependencies, and supplies the configure option --disable-t1utils.

6.5.2 The xindy package in utils/xindy

This module uses the distributed source tree xindy-2.5.1 with modifications documented in xindy-2.5.1-PATCHES/*, a proxy configure.ac, and a wrapper Makefile.am that descends into xindy-2.5.1. The xindy build requires that the distributed Makefiles allow a VPATH build, can handle all targets, and do not refer to ${top_srcdir} or ${top_builddir}. The fragment ac/withenable.ac contains

KPSE_ENABLE_PROG([xindy], , [disable native])
m4_include(kpse_TL[utils/xindy/ac/xindy.ac])
m4_include(kpse_TL[utils/xindy/ac/clisp.ac])

where disable in the third argument indicates that xindy is only built if explicitly enabled by the user with configure --enable-xindy (the need for clisp is too painful to require by default), and native disallows cross compilation. The additional fragments ac/xindy.ac and ac/clisp.ac specify more configure options to be seen at the top level with ac/xindy.ac also included by configure.ac.

6.5.3 The xdvik package in texk/xdvik

This package is maintained as part of the TeX Live tree with sources in its top level directory and the subdirectory gui. The fragment ac/withenable.ac contains

dnl extra_dirs = texk/xdvik/squeeze
KPSE_ENABLE_PROG([xdvik], [kpathsea freetype2], [x])
m4_include(kpse_TL[texk/xdvik/ac/xdvik.ac])

thus specifying the dependency on the kpathsea, freetype, and X11 libraries. The M4 comment (following dnl) signals the subsidiary squeeze/configure.ac. This is needed because the main executable xdvi-bin (to be installed as, e.g., xdvi-xaw) is for the host system whereas the auxiliary program squeeze/squeeze has to run on the build system and in a cross compilation they differ.

The additional fragment ac/xdvik.ac is also included by configure.ac and supplies the configure option --with-xdvi-x-toolkit also seen at the top-level.

6.5.4 The subdirectory utils/asymptote

This subdirectory contains the sources for asy and xasy but due to its complexity and prerequisites (e.g., OpenGL) it is not part of the TL build system. These programs must be built and installed independently, but are included on the TL DVD together with their support files.

6.6 Extending TeX Live

This section outlines the basic process for adding new packages to the TL build system.

6.6.1 Adding a new program module

A TeX-specific program module in a subdirectory texk/prog may use the TeX-specific libraries and is included by adding its name prog to the M4 list kpse_texk_pkgs defined in m4/kpse-pkgs.m4.

A generic program module in a subdirectory utils/prog must not use the TeX-specific libraries and is included by adding its name prog to the M4 list kpse_utils_pkgs in m4/kpse-pkgs.m4.

In either case, apart from the program sources and build system (configure.ac and Makefile.am), the subdirectory texk/prog or utils/prog must provide a fragment ac/withenable.ac that contains the M4 macro KPSE_ENABLE_PROG defined in m4/kpse-setup.m4 with prog as the mandatory first argument and three optional arguments:

1. a list of required libraries from the TL tree;
2. a list of options (disable if this module is not to be built without the configure option --enable-prog, native if cross compilation is not possible, x if the program requires X11 libraries);
3. and a comment added to the help text for the configure option --enable-prog or --disable-prog.

If the module requires specific configure options to be seen at the top-level, they should be defined in an additional fragment ac/prog.ac included from ac/withenable.ac and configure.ac.

6.6.2 Adding a new generic library module

A generic library module in a subdirectory libs/lib must not depend on TeX-specific libraries, by definition. It is included by adding its name lib to the M4 list kpse_libs_pkgs in m4/kpse-pkgs.m4—before any other libraries from the TeX Live tree on which it depends.

As with program modules, the subdirectory libs/lib must contain the sources and build system for the library (and any installable support programs) and a fragment ac/withenable.ac that contains the M4 macro KPSE_WITH_LIB defined in m4/kpse-setup.m4 with lib as the mandatory first argument and two optional arguments: a list of required libraries from the TL tree, and a list of options (currently there is only one: specify tree if this library cannot be replaced by a system version).

If a system version can be used, a second fragment ac/lib.ac is needed, containing the M4 macro KPSE_TRY_LIB (or KPSE_TRY_LIBXX) with lib as the mandatory first argument and two additional arguments for the Autoconf macro AC_LANG_PROGRAM used to compile and link a small C (or C++) program as sanity check for using the system library.

In addition a file m4/kpse-lib-flags (at the top level) must define the M4 macro KPSE_LIB_FLAGS (all uppercase) setting up the make variables LIB_INCLUDES, LIB_LIBS, LIB_DEPEND, and LIB_RULE with the values required for CPPFLAGS, LDADD, dependencies, and a (multi-line) make rule to rebuild the library when necessary. All of that is needed for the library from the TL tree and, if supported, for a system version.

If a system library is allowed, KPSE_LIB_FLAGS also provides the configure option --with-system-lib and uses the additional M4 macro KPSE_LIB_SYSTEM_FLAGS to generate the make variables for a system library. Furthermore the definition of the M4 macro KPSE_ALL_SYSTEM_FLAGS in m4/kpse-pkgs.m4 must be extended by the line:
   AC_REQUIRE([KPSE_LIB_SYSTEM_FLAGS])

6.6.3 Adding a new TeX-specific library module

A TeX-specific library module in a subdirectory texk/lib may depend on other TeX-specific libraries but must not depend on any generic library from the TL tree. It is included in the same general ways as a generic library (see the previous section), with these modifications:

• The library name lib is added to the M4 list kpse_texlibs_pkgs also in m4/kpse-pkgs.m4.
• The fragment ac/withenable.ac must use KPSE_WITH_TEXLIB.

7 Configure options

Corresponding to the large number of program and library modules there are a large number configure options, most of which are described here. The command
   configure --help
at the top level gives an exhaustive list of all global options and a few important module-specific ones, whereas, e.g.,
   texk/lcdf-typetools/configure --help
also displays the lcdf-typetools specific options, which are not shown at the top-level.

The help text also mentions several influential environment variables, but for TeX Live it is better to specify them as assigments on the command line.

The ./Build script used to make the binaries shipped with TeX Live invokes the top-level configure with a few additional options (see Building). The defaults discussed below are those for the actual configure script; invoking configure via ./Build may yield different results.

Defaults for most options are set at the top level and propagated explicitly to all subdirectories. Options specified on the command line are checked for consistency but never modified.

7.1 Global configure options

Here are the global configure options.

7.1.1 --disable-native-texlive-build

If enabled (the default), build for a TL binary distribution as shipped by the TeX user groups. This requires GNU make and implies --enable-multiplatform and --enable-cxx-runtime-hack (unless they are explicitly disabled), and enforces --disable-shared.

If building TL for a GNU/Linux or other distribution, this should be disabled and system versions of most libraries would be used (see Distro builds). This may fail without GNU make, but will be tried regardless.

A related option, --enable-texlive-build, is automatically passed to all subdirectories (and cannot be disabled). Subdirectories that can also be built independently from the TL tree (such as utils/xindy and texk/dvipng) can use this option, e.g., to choose TL-specific installation paths.

7.1.2 --prefix, --bindir, …

These standard Autoconf options specify various installation directories as usual. For the complete list, see Installation directories.

Also as usual, all values are prefixed by the value of DESTDIR, if set, on the make command line (see Installation in a temporary location in GNU Automake).

7.1.3 --disable-largefile

Omit large file support (LFS), needed on most 32-bit Unix systems for files with 2GB or more. Regardless of this, the size of DVI and GF files must always be <2GB, due to the file format specifications.

With LFS, there is no fixed limit on the size of PDF files created by pdftex or PostScript files created by dvips. The size of PDF images included by pdftex or luatex must, however, be <2GB when using poppler version 0.22 or before (even on 64-bit systems with LFS).

7.1.4 --disable-missing

Immediately terminate the build process if a requested program or feature must be disabled, e.g., due to missing libraries. This can help when figuring out a specific (sub)set of modules to enable.

7.1.5 --enable-compiler-warnings=level

Enable various levels of compiler warnings for (Objective) C and C++: the level value can be one of: no min yes max all. The default is yes in maintainer-mode (see below) and min otherwise. This option defines WARNING_[OBJ]C[XX]FLAGS but these flags are not used in all library and program modules. Using them should help to resolve portability problems.

At present, these warning flags are only defined for the GNU compilers but flags for other compilers could be added when needed.

7.1.6 --enable-cxx-runtime-hack

If enabled (as it is for the native TL build) and when using g++, try to statically link with libstdc++, somewhat improving portability of the resulting binary. See Macros for compilers.

7.1.7 --enable-maintainer-mode

Enable make rules and dependencies not useful (and sometimes confusing) to the casual user. This requires current versions of the GNU build tools (see Build system tools), as it automatically rebuilds infrastructure files as needed. See missing and AM_MAINTAINER_MODE in GNU Automake.

7.1.8 --enable-multiplatform

If enabled and --bindir=dir or --libdir=dir are not specified, install executables and libraries in per-platform subdirectories of eprefix/bin and eprefix/lib where eprefix is the value given or implied for exec_prefix. In any case, the values for bindir and libdir are automatically propagated to all subdirectories.

7.1.9 --enable-shared

Build shared versions of the TeX-specific libraries such as libkpathsea. This is not allowed for a native TL build (i.e., --disable-native-texlive-build must also be specified).

7.1.10 --enable-silent-rules

Enable the use of less verbose build rules. When using GNU make (or another make implementation supporting nested variable expansions), you can specify V=1 on the make command line to get more verbosity, or V=0 to get less, regardless of this option.

7.1.11 --without-ln-s

Required when using a system without a working ln -s to build binaries for a Unix-like system. However, make install will not create anything useful and might even fail.

7.1.12 --without-x

Disable all programs using the X Window System.

7.2 Program-specific configure options

Here are (some of) the program-specific configure options.

7.2.1 --enable-prog, --disable-prog

Do or do not build and install the program(s) of the module prog.

7.2.2 --disable-all-pkgs

Do not build any program modules by default—only those explicitly enabled. This is useful when one wants to work on only a single program, which is specified with an additional --enable option, e.g., --enable-dvipdfm-x. It’s still simplest to check out and configure the whole source tree, but at least only the program you are interested in, and its dependencies, are built. The configure will generally take less than a minute with everything disabled. (It is a good idea to run make check after doing this, and after making any changes, to ensure that whatever tests have been written still pass.)

Without this option, all modules are built except those that are explicitly disabled or specify disable in their ac/withenable.ac fragment.

7.2.3 Configure options for texk/web2c

--with-banner-add=str
Add str to the default version string (TeX Live year or Web2C year) appended to banner lines. This is ignored for a native TL build, but distro builds should specify, e.g., /SomeDistro.

--with-editor=cmd
Specify the command cmd to invoke from the e option of TeX-like engines, replacing the default vi +%d '%s' for Unix or texworks --position=%d "%s" for Windows.

--with-fontconfig-includes=dir, --with-fontconfig-libdir=dir
Building XeTeX on non-Mac systems requires the fontconfig library headers and code. If one or both of these options are given, the required flags are derived from them; otherwise, they are determined via pkg-config (if present).

--with-mf-x-toolkit
Use the X toolkit (libXt) for Metafont (the default is to use the lowest-level Xlib support; it seems this has the best chance of working across X installations nowadays).

--disable-dump-share
Make the fmt/base dump files architecture dependent (somewhat faster on LittleEndian architectures).

--disable-ipc
Disable TeX’s --ipc option.

--disable-mf-nowin
Do not build a separate non-graphically-capable Metafont (mf-nowin).

--disable-tex, --enable-etex, …
Do not or do build the various TeX, Metafont, and MetaPost engines (defaults are defined in the fragment texk/web2c/ac/web2c.ac).

--disable-web-progs
Do not build the core WEB programs bibtex, …, weave. Useful if, e.g., you only want to (re)build some engines.

--enable-auto-core
This option causes TeX and Metafont to produce a core dump when a particular hacky filename is encountered, for use in creating preloaded binaries. This is rarely done nowadays.

--enable-libtool-hack
If enabled (which is the default for all platforms), prevents libtool from linking explicitly with dependencies of libfontconfig such as libexpat.

--enable-*win
Include various types of other window support for Metafont (EPSF output, mftalk, old terminals, …).

--enable-tex-synctex, --disable-etex-synctex, …
Build the TeX engines with or without SyncTeX support; ignored for a native TeX Live build, defaults are again defined in texk/web2c/ac/web2c.ac.

--disable-synctex
Do not build the SyncTeX library and tool.

7.2.4 Configure options for texk/bibtex-x

The programs bibtex8 and bibtexu have been merged into the module bibtex-x (extended BibTeX).

--disable-bibtex8
Do not build the bibtex8 program.

--disable-bibtexu
Do not build the bibtexu program (building bibtexu requires ICU libraries).

7.2.5 Configure options for texk/dvipdfm-x

The former modules dvipdfmx (extended DVI to PDF converter) and xdvipdfmx (the same, as used by XeTeX) have been merged into dvipdfm-x at the source level. Two separate binaries are still created by default. In addition, dvipdfm is created as a symlink to dvipdfmx, with backward-compatible (very slightly different) behavior.

--disable-dvipdfmx
Do not build the dvipdfmx program with the dvipdfm symlink.

--disable-xdvipdfmx
Do not build the xdvipdfmx program.

7.2.6 Configure options for texk/dvisvgm

--with-system-libgs
Build dvisvgm using installed Ghostscript (gs) headers and library (not allowed for a native TL build). The default is to load the gs library at runtime if possible, or otherwise disable support for PostScript specials.

--without-libgs
Build dvisvgm without PostScript support at all. Because the dynamic loading just mentioned defeats all attempts at static linking, the result can crash due to library incompatibilities, e.g., on CentOS 5.

--with-libgs-includes=dir, --with-libgs-libdir=dir
Specify non-standard locations of the Ghostscript headers and library.

7.2.7 Configure options for texk/texlive

--disable-linked-scripts
Do not install the “linked scripts” (see Linked scripts), except for the TL scripts required to run texlinks.

7.2.8 Configure options for texk/xdvik

--with-gs=filename
Hardwire the location of Ghostscript (gs).

--with-xdvi-x-toolkit=kit
Use toolkit kit for xdvik, one of: motif xaw xaw3d neXtaw. The default is motif if available, else xaw.

--enable-xi2-scrolling
Use XInput 2.1 “smooth scrolling” if available. (default: yes, except for a native TL build).

7.2.9 Configure options for utils/xindy

--enable-xindy-rules
Build and install xindy rules (default: yes, except for a native TL build).

--enable-xindy-docs
Build and install xindy documentation (default: yes, except for a native TL build).

--with-clisp-runtime=filename
Specifies the Full path for the CLISP runtime file (lisp.run or lisp.exe) to be installed. When specified as default (the default for a native TL build) the path is determined by the CLISP executable; the value system (not allowed for a native TL build, but the default for a non-native one) indicates that xindy will use the installed version of clisp (which must be identical to the one used to build xindy).

7.3 Library-specific configure options

Here are (some of) the library-specific configure options, starting with this generic one:

--with-system-lib

Use an installed (system) version of the library lib; this option exists for most libraries, but is not allowed for a native TL build. Using a system version implies also using the system versions of all libraries (if any) that lib depends on.

For many libraries --with-lib-includes=dir and --with-lib-libdir=dir can specify non-standard search locations; others use pkg-config or similar to determine the required flags.

The top-level configure script performs a consistency check for all required system libraries and bails out if tests fail.

7.3.1 Configure options for kpathsea

--enable-cmd-default, --disable-cmd-default
Determine the compile time default whether or not to run cmd, one of:

mkocp

(Omega compiled translation process file)

mkofm

(Omega font metrics file)

mktexfmt

(format/base dump file)

mktexmf

(Metafont source)

mktexpk

(PK bitmap font)

mktextex

(TeX source)

mktextfm

(TFM file)

to generate the specified type of file dynamically. The default can be overridden by the user in any case.

7.3.2 Configure options for system poppler

Building LuaTeX (or LuaJITTeX) and XeTeX requires poppler, either from the TL tree or system headers and library. Building pdfTeX requires either xpdf from the TeX Live tree or system poppler headers and library.

--with-system-poppler
Use a system version (0.18 or newer) of poppler for LuaTeX (or LuaJITTeX) and XeTeX, and use pkg-config to obtain the required flags.

--with-system-xpdf
Use a system version (0.12 or better) of poppler (and pkg-config) for pdfTeX instead of xpdf from the TL tree. See --disable-largefile.

7.4 Variables for configure

The values for these variables can be specified as configure arguments of the form VAR=value. They can also be defined in the environment, but that might not work for cross compilations.

CC

CXX

CPPFLAGS

And plenty more. As usual with Autoconf, these variables specify the name (or full path) of compilers, preprocessor flags, and similar. See (GNU Autoconf)autoconf.

CLISP

Name (or full path) of the clisp executable, used to build xindy.

FT2_CONFIG

ICU_CONFIG

PKG_CONFIG

These specify the name (or path) for the freetype-config, icu-config, and pkg-config commands used to determine the flags required for system versions of libfreetype, the ICU libraries, or many other libraries.

KPSEWHICH

Name (or path) of an installed kpsewhich binary, used by make check to determine the location of, e.g., cmbx10.tfm.

MAKE

SED

And more. Name (or path) of the make, sed, and similar programs; used at the top level and propagated to all subdirectories.

PERL

LATEX

PDFLATEX

Name (or full path) for the perl, latex, and pdflatex commands used, e.g., to build the xindy documentation.

8 Cross compilation

In a cross compilation a build system is used to create binaries to be executed on a host system with different hardware and/or operating system.

In simple cases, the build system can execute binaries for the host system. This typically occurs for bi-arch systems where, e.g., i386-linux binaries can run on x86_64-linux systems and win32 binaries can run on win64 systems. Although sometimes called “native cross”, technically this is not cross compilation at all. In most such cases it suffices to specify suitable compiler flags. It might be useful to add the configure option --build=host to get the correct canonical host name, but note that this should not be --host=host (see Hosts and Cross-Compilation in GNU Autoconf).

In order to build, e.g., 32-bit binaries with clang on a 64-bit MacOSX system one could use:

TL_BUILD_ENV="CC='clang -arch i386' \
  CXX='clang++ -arch i386' \
  OBJCXX='clang++ -arch i386'" \
  ./Build --build=i386-apple-darwin

8.1 Cross configuring

In a standard cross compilation, binaries for the host system cannot execute on the build system and it is necessary to specify the configure options --host=host and --build=build with two different values.

Building binaries requires suitable “cross” tools, e.g., compiler, linker, and archiver, and perhaps a “cross” version of pkg-config and similar to locate host system libraries. Autoconf expects that these cross tools are given by their usual variables or found under their usual name prefixed with host-. Here a list of such tools and corresponding variables:

ar                AR
freetype-config   FT2_CONFIG
g++               CXX
gcc               CC
icu-config        ICU_CONFIG
objdump           OBJDUMP
pkg-config        PKG_CONFIG
ranlib            RANLIB
strip             STRIP

In order to, e.g., build mingw32 binaries on x86_64-linux with a cross compiler found as i386-pc-mingw32-gcc one would specify

--host=i386-pc-mingw32 --build=x86_64-linux-gnu

or perhaps

--host=mingw32 --build=x86_64-linux CC=i386-pc-mingw32-gcc

but this latter, especially, might require adding CXX and others.

Configure arguments such as CFLAGS=… refer to the cross compiler. If necessary, you can specify compilers and flags for the few auxiliary C and C++ programs required for the build process as configure arguments

BUILDCC=…
BUILDCPPFLAGS=…
BUILDCFLAGS=…
BUILDCXX=…
BUILDCXXFLAGS=…
BUILDLDFLAGS=…

8.2 Cross problems

The fact that binaries for the host system cannot be executed on the build system causes some problems.

One problem is that configure tests using AC_RUN_IFELSE can compile and link the test program but cannot execute it. Such tests should be avoided if possible and otherwise must supply a pessimistic test result.

Another problem arises if the build process must execute some (auxiliary or installable) programs. Auxiliary programs can be placed into a subdirectory that is configured natively as is done for texk/web2c/web2c, texk/dvipsk/squeeze, and texk/xdvik/squeeze. The module libs/freetype2 uses the value of CC_BUILD, build-gcc, gcc, or cc as compiler for the auxiliary program.

Building LuaTeX (or LuaJITTeX) uses the auxiliary program txt2zlib to create pdflua.c and, if necessary, update the distributed version of that file. In a cross compilation we simply use that distributed file.

The situation for installable programs needed by the build process is somewhat different. A quite expensive possibility, chosen for the ICU libraries in module libs/icu, is to first compile natively for the build system and in a second step to use these (uninstalled) programs during the cross compilation.

This approach would also be possible for the tools such as tangle used in the module texk/web2c to build the WEB programs, but that would require first building a native kpathsea library. To avoid this complication, cross compilation of the WEB or CWEB programs requires sufficiently recent installed versions of tangle, ctangle, otangle, and tie.

Building xindy requires running the host system clisp binary, thus cross compilation is not possible.

9 Coding conventions

Ideally, building all of TeX Live with --enable-compiler-warnings=max should produce no (GCC) compiler warnings at all. In spite of considerable efforts into that direction we are still far from that goal and there are reasons that we may never fully reach it. Below are some rules about declarations of functions or variables and the use of const. These rules should be applied to all parts of the TeX Live tree, except some of those maintained independently.

9.1 Declarations and definitions

C standards

The TeX Live build system no longer supports pre-ANSI C compilers. Thus all function prototypes and definitions must conform to the ANSI C standard (including void in the declaration of C functions with no parameters). On the other hand, TL is built for a wide variety of systems, not all of which support the C99 standard. Therefore using C99 features should be avoided if that can easily be done. In particular C code must not contain declarations after statements or C++-style comments.

If some C99 (or later) constructs must be used, the module should verify that they are available and otherwise provide an alternative. For example, the module texk/chktex uses the C99 function stpcpy() that may or may not be available on a particular system. It uses AC_CHECK_DECLS([stpcpy]) in configure.ac to test this, and provides the perhaps slightly less efficient alternative

#if !(defined HAVE_DECL_STPCPY && HAVE_DECL_STPCPY)
static inline char *stpcpy(char *dest, const char *src)
{
  return strcpy(dest, src) + strlen(src);
}
#endif

in the file Utility.h.

Static functions

Functions used in only one file should be declared static; they require no prototype except as forward declaration.

Extern functions

Functions not declared static, usually because they are used in several files, require an (extern) prototype in exactly one header file, which is included in the file defining the function and in all files using that function—this is the only way to guarantee consistency between definition and use. There should be no extern declarations sprinkled throughout the C code (with or without comments as to where that function is defined).

Variable declarations

The declaration of global variables follows analogous rules: they are either declared static if used in only one file or declared extern in exactly one header and instantiated in exactly one file.

9.2 Const

The const feature of C is valuable, but easy to mis-use.

Function parameters

Ideally, a function parameter not modified by the function should be declared as const. This is important in particular for strings (char*) because the actual arguments are often string literals. It is perfectly legitimate and safe to use a type char* value for a type const char* variable (in an assignment, as initializer, as function argument, or as return value). It is equally safe to use a type char** value for a type const char*const* variable, but not for a type const char** variable since that might cause modification of a quantity supposed to be constant.

Getting all const qualifiers right can get quite involved but can almost always be done. There are only a couple notable exceptions: the X11 headers are full of declarations that ought to use const but do not, and the same is true to some extent for libfreetype (but, thankfully, not for zlib nowadays).

What must be avoided with const

The GCC compiler warnings “assignment discards qualifiers…” and analogous warnings for “initialization”, “passing arg”, or “return” must be strenously avoided in our own code. The only exception is when they are caused by X11 headers or macros or other third party code.

What should be avoided with const

A type cast, e.g., from const char* to char* does not solve any problems; depending on warning options, it may only hide them. Therefore such casts should be avoided whenever possible and otherwise must be carefully analyzed to make sure that they cannot cause the modification of quantities supposed to be constant.

Appendix A install-tl

A.1 NAME

install-tl - TeX Live cross-platform installer

A.2 SYNOPSIS

install-tl [option]...

install-tl.bat [option]...

A.3 DESCRIPTION

This installer creates a runnable TeX Live installation from various media, including over the network. The installer works across all platforms supported by TeX Live. For information on initially downloading the TeX Live, see http://tug.org/texlive/acquire.html.

The basic idea of TeX Live installation is to choose one of the top-level schemes, each of which is defined as a different set of collections and packages, where a collection is a set of packages, and a package is what contains actual files.

Within the installer, you can choose a scheme, and further customize the set of collections to install, but not the set of the packages. To do that, use tlmgr (reference below) after the initial installation is completely.

The default is scheme-full, to install everything, and this is highly recommended.

A.4 REFERENCES

Post-installation configuration, package updates, and much more, are handled through tlmgr(1), the TeX Live Manager (http://tug.org/texlive/tlmgr.html).

The most up-to-date version of this documentation is on the Internet at http://tug.org/texlive/doc/install-tl.html.

For the full documentation of TeX Live, see http://tug.org/texlive/doc.

A.5 OPTIONS

As usual, all options can be specified in any order, and with either a leading - or --. An argument value can be separated from its option by either a space or =.

-gui [[=]module]

If no module is given starts the perltk (see below) GUI installer.

If module is given loads the given installer module. Currently the following modules are supported:

text

The text mode user interface (default on Unix systems). Same as the -no-gui option.

wizard

The wizard mode user interface (default on Windows), asking only minimal questions before installing all of TeX Live.

perltk

The expert GUI installer, providing access to more options. Can also be invoked on Windows by running install-tl-advanced.bat.

The perltk and wizard modules, and thus also when calling with a bare -gui (without module), requires the Perl/Tk module (http://tug.org/texlive/distro.html#perltk); if Perl/Tk is not available, installation continues in text mode.

-no-gui

Use the text mode installer (default except on Windows).

-lang llcode

By default, the GUI tries to deduce your language from the environment (on Windows via the registry, on Unix via LC_MESSAGES). If that fails you can select a different language by giving this option with a language code (based on ISO 639-1). Currently supported (but not necessarily completely translated) are: English (en, default), Czech (cs), German (de), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Dutch (nl), Polish (pl), Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Serbian (sr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi), simplified Chinese (zh_CN), and traditional Chinese (zh_TW).

-repository url|path

Specify the package repository to be used as the source of the installation, either a local directory via /path/to/directory or a file:/ url, or a network location via a http:// or ftp:// url. (No other protocols are supported.)

The default is to pick a mirror automatically, using http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet; the chosen mirror is used for the entire download. You can use the special argument ctan as an abbreviation for this. See http://ctan.org for more about CTAN and its mirrors.

If the repository is on the network, trailing / characters and/or trailing /tlpkg and /archive components are ignored. For example, you could choose a particular CTAN mirror with something like this:

  -repository http://ctan.example.org/its/ctan/dir/systems/texlive/tlnet

Of course a real hostname and its particular top-level CTAN path have to be specified. The list of CTAN mirrors is available at http://ctan.org/mirrors.

If the repository is local, the installation type (compressed or live) is automatically determined, by checking for the presence of a archive directory relative to the root. Compressed is preferred if both are available, since it is faster. Here’s an example of using a local directory:

  -repository /local/TL/repository

After installation is complete, you can use that installation as the repository for another installation. If you chose to install less than the full scheme containing all packages, the list of available schemes will be adjusted accordingly.

For backward compatibility and convenience, --location and --repo are accepted as aliases for this option.

-select-repository

This option allows manual selection of a mirror from the current list of active CTAN mirrors. This option is supported in all installer modes (text, wizard, perltk), and will also offer to install from local media if available, or from a repository specified on the command line (see above). It’s useful when the (default) automatic redirection does not choose a good host for you.

-all-options

Normally options not relevant to the current platform are not shown (i.e., when running on Unix, Windows-specific options are omitted). Giving this command line option allows configuring settings in the final texlive.tlpdb that do not have any immediate effect.

-custom-bin path

If you have built your own set of TeX Live binaries (perhaps because your platform was not supported by TeX Live out of the box), this option allows you to specify the path to a directory where the binaries for the current system are present. The installation will continue as usual, but at the end all files from path are copied over to bin/custom/ under your installation directory and this bin/custom/ directory is what will be added to the path for the post-install actions. (By the way, for information on building TeX Live, see http://tug.org/texlive/build.html).

-debug-translation

In GUI mode, this switch makes tlmgr report any missing, or more likely untranslated, messages to standard error. Helpful for translators to see what remains to be done.

-force-platform platform

Instead of auto-detecting the current platform, use platform. Binaries for this platform must be present and they must actually be runnable, or installation will fail. -force-arch is a synonym.

-help, –help, -?

Display this help and exit (on the web via http://tug.org/texlive/doc/install-tl.html). Sometimes the perldoc and/or PAGER programs on the system have problems, possibly resulting in control characters being literally output. This can’t always be detected, but you can set the NOPERLDOC environment variable and perldoc will not be used.

-in-place

This is a quick-and-dirty installation option in case you already have an rsync or svn checkout of TeX Live. It will use the checkout as-is and will just do the necessary post-install. Be warned that the file tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb may be rewritten, that removal has to be done manually, and that the only realistic way to maintain this installation is to redo it from time to time. This option is not available via the installer interfaces. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

-logfile file

Write both all messages (informational, debugging, warnings) to file, in addition to standard output or standard error.

If this option is not given, the installer will create a log file in the root of the writable installation tree, for example, /usr/local/texlive/YYYY/install-tl.log for the YYYY release.

-no-cls

(only for text mode installer) do not clear the screen when entering a new menu (for debugging purposes).

-non-admin

For Windows only: configure for the current user, not for all users.

–persistent-downloads

–no-persistent-downloads

For network installs, activating this option makes the installer try to set up a persistent connection using the Net::LWP Perl module. This opens only one connection between your computer and the server per session and reuses it, instead of initiating a new download for each package, which typically yields a significant speed-up.

This option is turned on by default, and the installation program will fall back to using wget if this is not possible. To disable usage of LWP and persistent connections, use --no-persistent-downloads.

-portable

Install for portable use, e.g., on a USB stick. Also selectable from within the perltk and text installers.

-print-platform

Print the TeX Live identifier for the detected platform (hardware/operating system) combination to standard output, and exit. -print-arch is a synonym.

-profile profile

Load the file profile and do the installation with no user interaction, that is, a batch (unattended) install.

A profile file contains all the values needed to perform an installation. After a normal installation has finished, a profile for that exact installation is written to the file DEST/tlpkg/texlive.profile. That file can be given as the argument to -profile to redo the exact same installation on a different system, for example. Alternatively, you can use a custom profile, most easily created by starting from a generated one and changing values, or an empty file, which will take all the defaults.

Normally a profile has to specify the value 1 for each collection to be installed, even if the scheme is specified. This follows from the logic of the installer in that you can first select a scheme and then change the collections being installed. But for convenience there is an exception to this within profiles: If the profile contains a variable for selected_scheme and no collection variables at all are defined in the profile, then the collections which the specified scheme requires are installed.

Thus, a line selected_scheme scheme-medium together with the definitions of the installation directories (TEXDIR, TEXMFHOME, TEXMFLOCAL, TEXMFSYSCONFIG, TEXMFSYSVAR) suffices to install the medium scheme with all default options.

-q

Omit normal informational messages.

-scheme scheme

Schemes are the highest level of package grouping in TeX Live; the default is to use the full scheme, which includes everything. This option overrides that default. You can change the scheme again before the actual installation with the usual menu. The scheme argument may optionally have a prefix scheme-. The list of supported scheme names depends on what your package repository provides; see the interactive menu list.

-v

Include verbose debugging messages; repeat for maximum debugging, as in -v -v. (Further repeats are accepted but ignored.)

-version, –version

Output version information and exit. If -v has also been given the revisions of the used modules are reported, too.

A.6 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

For ease in scripting and debugging, install-tl will look for the following environment variables. They are not of interest in normal user installations.

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_ENV_NOCHECK

Omit the check for environment variables containing the string tex. People developing TeX-related software are likely to have many such variables.

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_NO_CONTEXT_CACHE

Omit creating the ConTeXt cache. This is useful for redistributors.

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFCONFIG

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFHOME

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFLOCAL

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFSYSCONFIG

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFSYSVAR

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_TEXMFVAR

Specify the respective directories.

NOPERLDOC

Don’t try to run the --help message through perldoc.

A.7 AUTHORS AND COPYRIGHT

This script and its documentation were written for the TeX Live distribution (http://tug.org/texlive) and both are licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later.

Appendix B tlmgr

B.1 NAME

tlmgr - the TeX Live Manager

B.2 SYNOPSIS

tlmgr [option]... action [option]... [operand]...

B.3 DESCRIPTION

tlmgr manages an existing TeX Live installation, both packages and configuration options. For information on initially downloading and installing TeX Live, see http://tug.org/texlive/acquire.html.

The most up-to-date version of this documentation (updated nightly from the development sources) is available at http://tug.org/texlive/tlmgr.html, along with procedures for updating tlmgr itself and information about test versions.

TeX Live is organized into a few top-level schemes, each of which is specified as a different set of collections and packages, where a collection is a set of packages, and a package is what contains actual files. Schemes typically contain a mix of collections and packages, but each package is included in exactly one collection, no more and no less. A TeX Live installation can be customized and managed at any level.

See http://tug.org/texlive/doc for all the TeX Live documentation available.

B.4 EXAMPLES

After successfully installing TeX Live, here are a few common operations with tlmgr:

tlmgr option repository http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet

Tell tlmgr to use a nearby CTAN mirror for future updates; useful if you installed TeX Live from the DVD image and want continuing updates.

tlmgr update --list

Report what would be updated without actually updating anything.

tlmgr update --all

Make your local TeX installation correspond to what is in the package repository (typically useful when updating from CTAN).

tlmgr info pkg

Display detailed information about pkg, such as the installation status and description.

For all the capabilities and details of tlmgr, please read the following voluminous information.

B.5 OPTIONS

The following options to tlmgr are global options, not specific to any action. All options, whether global or action-specific, can be given anywhere on the command line, and in any order. The first non-option argument will be the main action. In all cases, --option and -option are equivalent, and an = is optional between an option name and its value.

–repository url|path

Specifies the package repository from which packages should be installed or updated, overriding the default package repository found in the installation’s TeX Live Package Database (a.k.a. the TLPDB, defined entirely in the file tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb). The documentation for install-tl has more details about this (http://tug.org/texlive/doc/install-tl.html).

--repository changes the repository location only for the current run; to make a permanent change, use option repository (see the option action).

For backward compatibility and convenience, --location and --repo are accepted as aliases for this option.

–gui [action]

tlmgr has a graphical interface as well as the command line interface. You can give this option, --gui, together with an action to be brought directly into the respective screen of the GUI. For example, running

  tlmgr --gui update

starts you directly at the update screen. If no action is given, the GUI will be started at the main screen.

–gui-lang llcode

By default, the GUI tries to deduce your language from the environment (on Windows via the registry, on Unix via LC_MESSAGES). If that fails you can select a different language by giving this option with a language code (based on ISO 639-1). Currently supported (but not necessarily completely translated) are: English (en, default), Czech (cs), German (de), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Dutch (nl), Polish (pl), Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Serbian (sr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi), simplified Chinese (zh_CN), and traditional Chinese (zh_TW).

–debug-translation

In GUI mode, this switch tells tlmgr to report any untranslated (or missing) messages to standard error. This can help translators to see what remains to be done.

–machine-readable

Instead of the normal output intended for human consumption, write (to standard output) a fixed format more suitable for machine parsing. See the MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT section below.

–no-execute-actions

Suppress the execution of the execute actions as defined in the tlpsrc files. Documented only for completeness, as this is only useful in debugging.

–package-logfile file

tlmgr logs all package actions (install, remove, update, failed updates, failed restores) to a separate log file, by default TEXMFSYSVAR/web2c/tlmgr.log. This option allows you to specific a different file for the log.

–pause

This option makes tlmgr wait for user input before exiting. Useful on Windows to avoid disappearing command windows.

–persistent-downloads

–no-persistent-downloads

For network-based installations, this option (on by default) makes tlmgr try to set up a persistent connection (using the LWP Perl module). The idea is to open and reuse only one connection per session between your computer and the server, instead of initiating a new download for each package.

If this is not possible, tlmgr will fall back to using wget. To disable these persistent connections, use --no-persistent-downloads.

–pin-file

Change the pinning file location from TEXMFLOCAL/tlpkg/pinning.txt (see Pinning below). Documented only for completeness, as this is only useful in debugging.

–usermode

Activates user mode for this run of tlmgr; see USER MODE below.

–usertree dir

Uses dir for the tree in user mode; see USER MODE below.

The standard options for TeX Live programs are also accepted: --help/-h/-?, --version, -q (no informational messages), -v (debugging messages, can be repeated). For the details about these, see the TeXLive::TLUtils documentation.

The --version option shows version information about the TeX Live release and about the tlmgr script itself. If -v is also given, revision number for the loaded TeX Live Perl modules are shown, too.

B.6 ACTIONS

B.6.1 help

Display this help information and exit (same as --help, and on the web at http://tug.org/texlive/doc/tlmgr.html). Sometimes the perldoc and/or PAGER programs on the system have problems, resulting in control characters being literally output. This can’t always be detected, but you can set the NOPERLDOC environment variable and perldoc will not be used.

B.6.2 version

Gives version information (same as --version).

If -v has been given the revisions of the used modules are reported, too.

B.6.3 backup [–clean[=N]] [–backupdir dir] [–all | pkg]...

If the --clean option is not specified, this action makes a backup of the given packages, or all packages given --all. These backups are saved to the value of the --backupdir option, if that is an existing and writable directory. If --backupdir is not given, the backupdir option setting in the TLPDB is used, if present. If both are missing, no backups are made.

If the --clean option is specified, backups are pruned (removed) instead of saved. The optional integer value N may be specified to set the number of backups that will be retained when cleaning. If N is not given, the value of the autobackup option is used. If both are missing, an error is issued. For more details of backup pruning, see the option action.

Options:

–backupdir directory

Overrides the backupdir option setting in the TLPDB. The directory argument is required and must specify an existing, writable directory where backups are to be placed.

–all

If --clean is not specified, make a backup of all packages in the TeX Live installation; this will take quite a lot of space and time. If --clean is specified, all packages are pruned.

–clean[=N]

Instead of making backups, prune the backup directory of old backups, as explained above. The optional integer argument N overrides the autobackup option set in the TLPDB. You must use --all or a list of packages together with this option, as desired.

–dry-run

Nothing is actually backed up or removed; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal.

B.6.4 candidates pkg

candidates pkg

Shows the available candidate repositories for package pkg. See MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES below.

B.6.5 check [option]... [files|depends|executes|runfiles|all]

Executes one (or all) check(s) on the consistency of the installation.

files

Checks that all files listed in the local TLPDB (texlive.tlpdb) are actually present, and lists those missing.

depends

Lists those packages which occur as dependencies in an installed collections, but are themselves not installed, and those packages that are not contained in any collection.

If you call tlmgr check collections this test will be carried out instead since former versions for tlmgr called it that way.

executes

Check that the files referred to by execute directives in the TeX Live Database are present.

runfiles

List those filenames that are occurring more than one time in the runfiles.

Options:

–use-svn

Use the output of svn status instead of listing the files; for checking the TL development repository.

B.6.6 conf [texmf|tlmgr|updmap [–conffile file] [–delete] [key [value]]]

With only conf, show general configuration information for TeX Live, including active configuration files, path settings, and more. This is like the texconfig conf call, but works on all supported platforms.

With either conf texmf, conf tlmgr, or conf updmap given in addition, shows all key/value pairs (i.e., all settings) as saved in ROOT/texmf.cnf, the tlmgr configuration file (see below), or the first found (via kpsewhich) updmap.cfg file, respectively.

If key is given in addition, shows the value of only that key in the respective file. If option –delete is also given, the configuration file – it is removed, not just commented out!

If value is given in addition, key is set to value in the respective file. No error checking is done!

In all cases the file used can be explicitly specified via the option --conffile file, in case one wants to operate on a different file.

Practical application: if the execution of (some or all) system commands via \write18 was left enabled during installation, you can disable it afterwards:

  tlmgr conf texmf shell_escape 0

A more complicated example: the TEXMFHOME tree (see the main TeX Live guide, http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html) can be set to multiple directories, but they must be enclosed in braces and separated by commas, so quoting the value to the shell is a good idea. Thus:

  tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME "{~/texmf,~/texmfbis}"

Warning: The general facility is here, but tinkering with settings in this way is very strongly discouraged. Again, no error checking on either keys or values is done, so any sort of breakage is possible.

B.6.7 dump-tlpdb [–local|–remote]

Dump complete local or remote TLPDB to standard output, as-is. The output is analogous to the --machine-readable output; see MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT section.

Options:

–local

Dump the local tlpdb.

–remote

Dump the remote tlpdb.

Exactly one of --local and --remote must be given.

In either case, the first line of the output specifies the repository location, in this format:

  "location-url" "\t" location

where location-url is the literal field name, followed by a tab, and location is the file or url to the repository.

Line endings may be either LF or CRLF depending on the current platform.

B.6.8 generate [option]... what

generate language

generate language.dat

generate language.def

generate language.dat.lua

generate fmtutil

The generate action overwrites any manual changes made in the respective files: it recreates them from scratch based on the information of the installed packages, plus local adaptions. The TeX Live installer and tlmgr routinely call generate for all of these files.

For managing your own fonts, please read the updmap --help information and/or http://tug.org/fonts/fontinstall.html.

In more detail: generate remakes any of the configuration files language.dat, language.def, language.dat.lua, and fmtutil.cnf, from the information present in the local TLPDB, plus locally-maintained files.

The locally-maintained files are language-local.dat, language-local.def, language-local.dat.lua, or fmtutil-local.cnf, searched for in TEXMFLOCAL in the respective directories. If local additions are present, the final file is made by starting with the main file, omitting any entries that the local file specifies to be disabled, and finally appending the local file.

(Historical note: The formerly supported updmap-local.cfg is no longer read, since updmap now supports multiple updmap.cfg files. Thus, local additions can and should be put into an updmap.cfg file in TEXMFLOCAL. The generate updmap action no longer exists.)

Local files specify entries to be disabled with a comment line, namely one of these:

  #!NAME
  %!NAME
  --!NAME

where fmtutil.cnf uses #, language.dat and language.def use %, and language.dat.lua use --. In all cases, the name is the respective format name or hyphenation pattern identifier. Examples:

  #!pdflatex
  %!german
  --!usenglishmax

(Of course, you’re not likely to actually want to disable those particular items. They’re just examples.)

After such a disabling line, the local file can include another entry for the same item, if a different definition is desired. In general, except for the special disabling lines, the local files follow the same syntax as the master files.

The form generate language recreates all three files language.dat, language.def, and language.dat.lua, while the forms with an extension recreates only that given language file.

Options:

–dest output_file

specifies the output file (defaults to the respective location in TEXMFSYSVAR). If --dest is given to generate language, it serves as a basename onto which .dat will be appended for the name of the language.dat output file, .def will be appended to the value for the name of the language.def output file, and .dat.lua to the name of the language.dat.lua file. (This is just to avoid overwriting; if you want a specific name for each output file, we recommend invoking tlmgr twice.)

–localcfg local_conf_file

specifies the (optional) local additions (defaults to the respective location in TEXMFLOCAL).

–rebuild-sys

tells tlmgr to run necessary programs after config files have been regenerated. These are: fmtutil-sys --all after generate fmtutil, fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.dat after generate language.dat, and fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.def after generate language.def.

These subsequent calls cause the newly-generated files to actually take effect. This is not done by default since those calls are lengthy processes and one might want to made several related changes in succession before invoking these programs.

The respective locations are as follows:

  tex/generic/config/language.dat (and language-local.dat);
  tex/generic/config/language.def (and language-local.def);
  tex/generic/config/language.dat.lua (and language-local.dat.lua);
  web2c/fmtutil.cnf (and fmtutil-local.cnf);

B.6.9 gui

Start the graphical user interface. See GUI below.

B.6.10 info [option...] [collections|schemes|pkg...]

With no argument, lists all packages available at the package repository, prefixing those already installed with i.

With the single word collections or schemes as the argument, lists the request type instead of all packages.

With any other arguments, display information about pkg: the name, category, short and long description, installation status, and TeX Live revision number. If pkg is not locally installed, searches in the remote installation source.

It also displays information taken from the TeX Catalogue, namely the package version, date, and license. Consider these, especially the package version, as approximations only, due to timing skew of the updates of the different pieces. By contrast, the revision value comes directly from TL and is reliable.

The former actions show and list are merged into this action, but are still supported for backward compatibility.

Options:

–list

If the option --list is given with a package, the list of contained files is also shown, including those for platform-specific dependencies. When given with schemes and collections, --list outputs their dependencies in a similar way.

–only-installed

If this options is given, the installation source will not be used; only locally installed packages, collections, or schemes are listed. (Does not work for listing of packages for now)

–taxonomy

–keyword

–functionality

–characterization

In addition to the normal data displayed, also display information for given packages from the corresponding taxonomy (or all of them). See TAXONOMIES below for details.

B.6.11 init-usertree

Sets up a texmf tree for so-called user mode management, either the default user tree (TEXMFHOME), or one specified on the command line with --usertree. See USER MODE below.

B.6.12 install [option]... pkg...

Install each pkg given on the command line. By default this installs all packages on which the given pkgs are dependent, also. Options:

–file

Instead of fetching a package from the installation repository, use the package files given on the command line. These files must be standard TeX Live package files (with contained tlpobj file).

–reinstall

Reinstall a package (including dependencies for collections) even if it already seems to be installed (i.e, is present in the TLPDB). This is useful to recover from accidental removal of files in the hierarchy.

When re-installing, only dependencies on normal packages are followed (i.e., not those of category Scheme or Collection).

–no-depends

Do not install dependencies. (By default, installing a package ensures that all dependencies of this package are fulfilled.)

–no-depends-at-all

Normally, when you install a package which ships binary files the respective binary package will also be installed. That is, for a package foo, the package foo.i386-linux will also be installed on an i386-linux system. This option suppresses this behavior, and also implies --no-depends. Don’t use it unless you are sure of what you are doing.

–dry-run

Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal.

–force

If updates to tlmgr itself (or other parts of the basic infrastructure) are present, tlmgr will bail out and not perform the installation unless this option is given. Not recommended.

B.6.13 option

option [show]

option showall

option key [value]

The first form shows the global TeX Live settings currently saved in the TLPDB with a short description and the key used for changing it in parentheses.

The second form is similar, but also shows options which can be defined but are not currently set to any value.

In the third form, if value is not given, the setting for key is displayed. If value is present, key is set to value.

Possible values for key are (run tlmgr option showall for the definitive list):

 repository (default package repository),
 formats    (create formats at installation time),
 postcode   (run postinst code blobs)
 docfiles   (install documentation files),
 srcfiles   (install source files),
 backupdir  (default directory for backups),
 autobackup (number of backups to keep).
 sys_bin    (directory to which executables are linked by the path action)
 sys_man    (directory to which man pages are linked by the path action)
 sys_info   (directory to which Info files are linked by the path action)
 desktop_integration (Windows-only: create Start menu shortcuts)
 fileassocs (Windows-only: change file associations)
 multiuser  (Windows-only: install for all users)

One common use of option is to permanently change the installation to get further updates from the Internet, after originally installing from DVD. To do this, you can run

 tlmgr option repository http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet

The install-tl documentation has more information about the possible values for repository. (For backward compatibility, location can be used as alternative name for repository.)

If formats is set (this is the default), then formats are regenerated when either the engine or the format files have changed. Disable this only when you know what you are doing.

The postcode option controls execution of per-package postinstallation action code. It is set by default, and again disabling is not likely to be of interest except perhaps to developers.

The docfiles and srcfiles options control the installation of their respective files of a package. By default both are enabled (1). This can be disabled (set to 0) if disk space is (very) limited.

The options autobackup and backupdir determine the defaults for the actions update, backup and restore. These three actions need a directory in which to read or write the backups. If --backupdir is not specified on the command line, the backupdir option value is used (if set).

The autobackup option (de)activates automatic generation of backups. Its value is an integer. If the autobackup value is -1, no backups are removed. If autobackup is 0 or more, it specifies the number of backups to keep. Thus, backups are disabled if the value is 0. In the --clean mode of the backup action this option also specifies the number to be kept.

To setup autobackup to -1 on the command line, use:

  tlmgr option -- autobackup -1

The -- avoids having the -1 treated as an option. (-- stops parsing for options at the point where it appears; this is a general feature across most Unix programs.)

The sys_bin, sys_man, and sys_info options are used on Unix-like systems to control the generation of links for executables, info files and man pages. See the path action for details.

The last three options control behaviour on Windows installations. If desktop_integration is set, then some packages will install items in a sub-folder of the Start menu for tlmgr gui, documentation, etc. If fileassocs is set, Windows file associations are made (see also the postaction action). Finally, if multiuser is set, then adaptions to the registry and the menus are done for all users on the system instead of only the current user. All three options are on by default.

B.6.14 paper

paper [a4|letter]

[xdvi|pdftex|dvips|dvipdfmx|context|psutils] paper [papersize|–list]

With no arguments (tlmgr paper), shows the default paper size setting for all known programs.

With one argument (e.g., tlmgr paper a4), sets the default for all known programs to that paper size.

With a program given as the first argument and no paper size specified (e.g., tlmgr dvips paper), shows the default paper size for that program.

With a program given as the first argument and a paper size as the last argument (e.g., tlmgr dvips paper a4), set the default for that program to that paper size.

With a program given as the first argument and --list given as the last argument (e.g., tlmgr dvips paper --list), shows all valid paper sizes for that program. The first size shown is the default.

Incidentally, this syntax of having a specific program name before the paper keyword is unusual. It is inherited from the longstanding texconfig script, which supports other configuration settings for some programs, notably dvips. tlmgr does not support those extra settings.

B.6.15 path [–w32mode=user|admin] [add|remove]

On Unix, merely adds or removes symlinks for binaries, man pages, and info pages in the system directories specified by the respective options (see the option description above). Does not change any initialization files, either system or personal.

On Windows, the registry part where the binary directory is added or removed is determined in the following way:

If the user has admin rights, and the option --w32mode is not given, the setting w32_multi_user determines the location (i.e., if it is on then the system path, otherwise the user path is changed).

If the user has admin rights, and the option --w32mode is given, this option determines the path to be adjusted.

If the user does not have admin rights, and the option --w32mode is not given, and the setting w32_multi_user is off, the user path is changed, while if the setting w32_multi_user is on, a warning is issued that the caller does not have enough privileges.

If the user does not have admin rights, and the option --w32mode is given, it must be user and the user path will be adjusted. If a user without admin rights uses the option --w32mode admin a warning is issued that the caller does not have enough privileges.

B.6.16 pinning

The pinning action manages the pinning file, see Pinning below.

pinning show

Shows the current pinning data.

pinning add repo pkgglob...

Pins the packages matching the pkgglob(s) to the repository repo.

pinning remove repo pkgglob...

Any packages recorded in the pinning file matching the <pkgglob>s for the given repository repo are removed.

pinning remove repo --all

Remove all pinning data for repository repo.

B.6.17 platform list|add|remove platform...

B.6.18 platform set platform

B.6.19 platform set auto

platform list lists the TeX Live names of all the platforms (a.k.a. architectures), (i386-linux, ...) available at the package repository.

platform add platform... adds the executables for each given platform platform to the installation from the repository.

platform remove platform... removes the executables for each given platform platform from the installation, but keeps the currently running platform in any case.

platform set platform switches TeX Live to always use the given platform instead of auto detection.

platform set auto switches TeX Live to auto detection mode for platform.

Platform detection is needed to select the proper xz, xzdec and wget binaries that are shipped with TeX Live.

arch is a synonym for platform.

Options:

–dry-run

Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal.

B.6.20 postaction [–w32mode=user|admin] [–fileassocmode=1|2] [–all] [install|remove] [shortcut|fileassoc|script] [pkg]...

Carry out the postaction shortcut, fileassoc, or script given as the second required argument in install or remove mode (which is the first required argument), for either the packages given on the command line, or for all if --all is given.

If the option --w32mode is given the value user, all actions will only be carried out in the user-accessible parts of the registry/filesystem, while the value admin selects the system-wide parts of the registry for the file associations. If you do not have enough permissions, using --w32mode=admin will not succeed.

--fileassocmode specifies the action for file associations. If it is set to 1 (the default), only new associations are added; if it is set to 2, all associations are set to the TeX Live programs. (See also option fileassocs.)

B.6.21 print-platform

Print the TeX Live identifier for the detected platform (hardware/operating system) combination to standard output, and exit. --print-arch is a synonym.

B.6.22 restore [–backupdir dir] [–all | pkg [rev]]

Restore a package from a previously-made backup.

If --all is given, try to restore the latest revision of all package backups found in the backup directory.

Otherwise, if neither pkg nor rev are given, list the available backup revisions for all packages.

With pkg given but no rev, list all available backup revisions of pkg.

When listing available packages tlmgr shows the revision and in parenthesis the creation time if available (in format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm).

With both pkg and rev, tries to restore the package from the specified backup.

Options:

–all

Try to restore the latest revision of all package backups found in the backup directory. Additional non-option arguments (like pkg) are not allowed.

–backupdir directory

Specify the directory where the backups are to be found. If not given it will be taken from the configuration setting in the TLPDB.

–dry-run

Nothing is actually restored; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal.

–force

Don’t ask questions.

B.6.23 remove [option]... pkg...

Remove each pkg specified. Removing a collection removes all package dependencies (unless --no-depends is specified), but not any collection dependencies of that collection. However, when removing a package, dependencies are never removed. Options:

–no-depends

Do not remove dependent packages.

–no-depends-at-all

See above under install (and beware).

–force

By default, removal of a package or collection that is a dependency of another collection or scheme is not allowed. With this option, the package will be removed unconditionally. Use with care.

A package that has been removed using the --force option because it is still listed in an installed collection or scheme will not be updated, and will be mentioned as forcibly removed in the output of tlmgr update –list.

–dry-run

Nothing is actually removed; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal.

B.6.24 repository

repository list

repository list path|tag

repository add path [tag]

repository remove path|tag

repository set path[#tag] [path[#tag] ...]

This action manages the list of repositories. See MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES below for detailed explanations.

The first form (list) lists all configured repositories and the respective tags if set. If a path, url, or tag is given after the list keyword, it is interpreted as source from where to initialize a TeX Live Database and lists the contained packages. This can also be an up-to-now not used repository, both locally and remote. If one pass in addition --with-platforms, for each package the available platforms (if any) are listed, too.

The third form (add) adds a repository (optionally attaching a tag) to the list of repositories. The forth form (remove) removes a repository, either by full path/url, or by tag. The last form (set) sets the list of repositories to the items given on the command line, not keeping previous settings

In all cases, one of the repositories must be tagged as main; otherwise, all operations will fail!

B.6.25 search [option...] what

B.6.25.1 search [option...] –file what

B.6.25.2 search [option...] –taxonomy what

B.6.25.3 search [option...] –keyword what

B.6.25.4 search [option...] –functionality what

B.6.25.5 search [option...] –characterization what

B.6.25.6 search [option...] –all what

By default, search the names, short descriptions, and long descriptions of all locally installed packages for the argument what, interpreted as a regular expression.

Options:

–global

Search the TeX Live Database of the installation medium, instead of the local installation.

–word

Restrict the search to match only full words. For example, searching for table with this option will not output packages containing the word tables (unless they also contain the word table on its own).

–list

If a search for any (or all) taxonomies is done, by specifying one of the taxonomy options below, then instead of searching for packages, list the entire corresponding taxonomy (or all of them). See TAXONOMIES below.

Other search options are selected by specifying one of the following:

–file

List all filenames containing what.

–taxonomy

–keyword

–functionality

–characterization

Search in the corresponding taxonomy (or all) instead of the package descriptions. See TAXONOMIES below.

–all

Search for package names, descriptions, and taxonomies, but not files.

B.6.26 uninstall

Uninstalls the entire TeX Live installation. Options:

–force

Do not ask for confirmation, remove immediately.

B.6.27 update [option]... [pkg]...

Updates the packages given as arguments to the latest version available at the installation source. Either --all or at least one pkg name must be specified. Options:

–all

Update all installed packages except for tlmgr itself. Thus, if updates to tlmgr itself are present, this will simply give an error, unless also the option --force or --self is given. (See below.)

In addition to updating the installed packages, during the update of a collection the local installation is (by default) synchronized to the status of the collection on the server, for both additions and removals.

This means that if a package has been removed on the server (and thus has also been removed from the respective collection), tlmgr will remove the package in the local installation. This is called “auto-remove” and is announced as such when using the option --list. This auto-removal can be suppressed using the option --no-auto-remove (not recommended, see option description).

Analogously, if a package has been added to a collection on the server that is also installed locally, it will be added to the local installation. This is called “auto-install” and is announced as such when using the option --list. This auto-installation can be suppressed using the option --no-auto-install.

An exception to the collection dependency checks (including the auto-installation of packages just mentioned) are those that have been “forcibly removed” by you, that is, you called tlmgr remove --force on them. (See the remove action documentation.) To reinstall any such forcibly removed packages use --reinstall-forcibly-removed.

If you want to exclude some packages from the current update run (e.g., due to a slow link), see the --exclude option below.

–self

Update tlmgr itself (that is, the infrastructure packages) if updates to it are present. On Windows this includes updates to the private Perl interpreter shipped inside TeX Live.

If this option is given together with either --all or a list of packages, then tlmgr will be updated first and, if this update succeeds, the new version will be restarted to complete the rest of the updates.

In short:

  tlmgr update --self        # update infrastructure only
  tlmgr update --self --all  # update infrastructure and all packages
  tlmgr update --force --all # update all packages but *not* infrastructure
                             # ... this last at your own risk, not recommended!

–dry-run

Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are written to the terminal. This is a more detailed report than --list.

–list [pkg]

Concisely list the packages which would be updated, newly installed, or removed, without actually changing anything. If --all is also given, all available updates are listed. If --self is given, but not --all, only updates to the critical packages (tlmgr, texlive infrastructure, perl on Windows, etc.) are listed. If neither --all nor --self is given, and in addition no pkg is given, then --all is assumed (thus, tlmgr update --list is the same as tlmgr update --list --all). If neither --all nor --self is given, but specific package names are given, those packages are checked for updates.

–exclude pkg

Exclude pkg from the update process. If this option is given more than once, its arguments accumulate.

An argument pkg excludes both the package pkg itself and all its related platform-specific packages pkg.ARCH. For example,

  tlmgr update --all --exclude a2ping

will not update a2ping, a2ping.i386-linux, or any other a2ping.ARCH package.

If this option specifies a package that would otherwise be a candidate for auto-installation, auto-removal, or reinstallation of a forcibly removed package, tlmgr quits with an error message. Excludes are not supported in these circumstances.

–no-auto-remove [pkg]...

By default, tlmgr tries to remove packages which have disappeared on the server, as described above under --all. This option prevents such removals, either for all packages (with --all), or for just the given pkg names. This can lead to an inconsistent TeX installation, since packages are not infrequently renamed or replaced by their authors. Therefore this is not recommend.

–no-auto-install [pkg]...

Under normal circumstances tlmgr will install packages which are new on the server, as described above under --all. This option prevents any such automatic installation, either for all packages (with --all), or the given pkg names.

Furthermore, after the tlmgr run using this has finished, the packages that would have been auto-installed will be considered as forcibly removed. So, if foobar is the only new package on the server, then

  tlmgr update --all --no-auto-install

is equivalent to

  tlmgr update --all
  tlmgr remove --force foobar

–reinstall-forcibly-removed

Under normal circumstances tlmgr will not install packages that have been forcibly removed by the user; that is, removed with remove --force, or whose installation was prohibited by --no-auto-install during an earlier update.

This option makes tlmgr ignore the forcible removals and re-install all such packages. This can be used to completely synchronize an installation with the server’s idea of what is available:

  tlmgr update --reinstall-forcibly-removed --all

–backup and –backupdir directory

These two options control the creation of backups of packages before updating; that is, backup of packages as currently installed. If neither of these options are given, no backup package will be saved. If --backupdir is given and specifies a writable directory then a backup will be made in that location. If only --backup is given, then a backup will be made to the directory previously set via the option action (see below). If both are given then a backup will be made to the specified directory.

You can set options via the option action to automatically create backups for all packages, and/or keep only a certain number of backups. Please see the option action for details.

tlmgr always makes a temporary backup when updating packages, in case of download or other failure during an update. In contrast, the purpose of this --backup option is to allow you to save a persistent backup in case the actual content of the update causes problems, e.g., introduces an incompatibility.

The restore action explains how to restore from a backup.

–no-depends

If you call for updating a package normally all depending packages will also be checked for updates and updated if necessary. This switch suppresses this behavior.

–no-depends-at-all

See above under install (and beware).

–force

Force update of normal packages, without updating tlmgr itself (unless the --self option is also given). Not recommended.

Also, update --list is still performed regardless of this option.

If the package on the server is older than the package already installed (e.g., if the selected mirror is out of date), tlmgr does not downgrade. Also, packages for uninstalled platforms are not installed.

B.7 USER MODE

tlmgr provides a restricted way, called “user mode”, to manage arbitrary texmf trees in the same way as the main installation. For example, this allows people without write permissions on the installation location to update/install packages into a tree of their own.

tlmgr is switched into user mode with the command line option --usermode. It does not switch automatically, nor is there any configuration file setting for it. Thus, this option has to be explicitly given every time user mode is to be activated.

This mode of tlmgr works on a user tree, by default the value of the TEXMFHOME variable. This can be overridden with the command line option --usertree. In the following when we speak of the user tree we mean either TEXMFHOME or the one given on the command line.

Not all actions are allowed in user mode; tlmgr will warn you and not carry out any problematic actions. Currently not supported (and probably will never be) is the platform action. The gui action is currently not supported, but may be in a future release.

Some tlmgr actions don’t need any write permissions and thus work the same in user mode and normal mode. Currently these are: check, help, list, print-platform, search, show, version.

On the other hand, most of the actions dealing with package management do need write permissions, and thus behave differently in user mode, as described below: install, update, remove, option, paper, generate, backup, restore, uninstall, symlinks.

Before using tlmgr in user mode, you have to set up the user tree with the init-usertree action. This creates usertree/web2c and usertree/tlpkg/tlpobj, and a minimal usertree/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb. At that point, you can tell tlmgr to do the (supported) actions by adding the --usermode command line option.

In user mode the file usertree/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb contains only the packages that have been installed into the user tree using tlmgr, plus additional options from the “virtual” package 00texlive.installation (similar to the main installation’s texlive.tlpdb).

All actions on packages in user mode can only be carried out on packages that are known as relocatable. This excludes all packages containing executables and a few other core packages. Of the 2500 or so packages currently in TeX Live the vast majority are relocatable and can be installed into a user tree.

Description of changes of actions in user mode:

B.7.1 user mode install

In user mode, the install action checks that the package and all dependencies are all either relocated or already installed in the system installation. If this is the case, it unpacks all containers to be installed into the user tree (to repeat, that’s either TEXMFHOME or the value of --usertree) and add the respective packages to the user tree’s texlive.tlpdb (creating it if need be).

Currently installing a collection in user mode installs all dependent packages, but in contrast to normal mode, does not install dependent collections. For example, in normal mode tlmgr install collection-context would install collection-basic and other collections, while in user mode, only the packages mentioned in collection-context are installed.

B.7.2 user mode backup; restore; remove; update

In user mode, these actions check that all packages to be acted on are installed in the user tree before proceeding; otherwise, they behave just as in normal mode.

B.7.3 user mode generate; option; paper

In user mode, these actions operate only on the user tree’s configuration files and/or texlive.tlpdb. creates configuration files in user tree

B.8 CONFIGURATION FILE FOR TLMGR

A small subset of the command line options can be set in a config file for tlmgr which resides in TEXMFCONFIG/tlmgr/config. By default, the config file is in ~/.texliveYYYY/texmf-config/tlmgr/config (replacing YYYY with the year of your TeX Live installation). This is not TEXMFSYSVAR, so that the file is specific to a single user.

In this file, empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored. All other lines must look like

  key = value

where the allowed keys are gui-expertmode (value 0 or 1), persistent-downloads (value 0 or 1), auto-remove (value 0 or 1), and gui-lang (value like in the command line option).

persistent-downloads, gui-lang, and auto-remove correspond to the respective command line options of the same name. gui-expertmode switches between the full GUI and a simplified GUI with only the important and mostly used settings.

B.9 TAXONOMIES

tlmgr allows searching and listing of various categorizations, which we call taxonomies, as provided by an enhanced TeX Catalogue (available for testing at http://az.ctan.org). This is useful when, for example, you don’t know a specific package name but have an idea of the functionality you need; or when you want to see all packages relating to a given area.

There are three different taxonomies, specified by the following options:

--keyword

The keywords, as specified at http://az.ctan.org/keyword.

--functionality

The “by-topic” categorization created by J\"urgen Fenn, as specified at http://az.ctan.org/characterization/by-function.

--characterization

Both the primary and secondary functionalities, as specified at http://az.ctan.org/characterization/choose_dimen.

--taxonomy

Operate on all the taxonomies.

The taxonomies are updated nightly and stored within TeX Live, so Internet access is not required to search them.

Examples:

  tlmgr search --taxonomy exercise      # check all taxonomies for "exercise"
  tlmgr search --taxonomy --word table  # check for "table" on its own
  tlmgr search --list --keyword         # dump entire keyword taxonomy
  tlmgr show --taxonomy pdftex          # show pdftex package information,
                                        #   including all taxonomy entries

B.10 MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES

The main TeX Live repository contains a vast array of packages. Nevertheless, additional local repositories can be useful to provide locally-installed resources, such as proprietary fonts and house styles. Also, alternative package repositories distribute packages that cannot or should not be included in TeX Live, for whatever reason.

The simplest and most reliable method is to temporarily set the installation source to any repository (with the -repository or option repository command line options), and perform your operations.

When you are using multiple repositories over a sustained time, however, explicitly switching between them becomes inconvenient. Thus, it’s possible to tell tlmgr about additional repositories you want to use. The basic command is tlmgr repository add. The rest of this section explains further.

When using multiple repositories, one of them has to be set as the main repository, which distributes most of the installed packages. When you switch from a single repository installation to a multiple repository installation, the previous sole repository will be set as the main repository.

By default, even if multiple repositories are configured, packages are still only installed from the main repository. Thus, simply adding a second repository does not actually enable installation of anything from there. You also have to specify which packages should be taken from the new repository, by specifying so-called “pinning” rules, described next.

B.10.1 Pinning

When a package foo is pinned to a repository, a package foo in any other repository, even if it has a higher revision number, will not be considered an installable candidate.

As mentioned above, by default everything is pinned to the main repository. Let’s now go through an example of setting up a second repository and enabling updates of a package from it.

First, check that we have support for multiple repositories, and have only one enabled (as is the case by default):

 $ tlmgr repository list
 List of repositories (with tags if set):
   /var/www/norbert/tlnet

Ok. Let’s add the tlcontrib repository (this is a real repository, hosted at http://tlcontrib.metatex.org, maintained by Taco Hoekwater et al.), with the tag tlcontrib:

 $ tlmgr repository add http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2012 tlcontrib

Check the repository list again:

 $ tlmgr repository list
 List of repositories (with tags if set):
    http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2012 (tlcontrib)
    /var/www/norbert/tlnet (main)

Now we specify a pinning entry to get the package context from tlcontrib:

 $ tlmgr pinning add tlcontrib context

Check that we can find context:

 $ tlmgr show context
 tlmgr: package repositories:
 ...
 package:     context
 repository:  tlcontrib/26867
 ...

- install context:

 $ tlmgr install context
 tlmgr: package repositories:
 ...
 [1/1,  ??:??/??:??] install: context @tlcontrib [

In the output here you can see that the context package has been installed from the tlcontrib repository (@tlcontrib).

Finally, tlmgr pinning also supports removing certain or all packages from a given repository:

  $ tlmgr pinning remove tlcontrib context  # remove just context
  $ tlmgr pinning remove tlcontrib --all    # take nothing from tlcontrib

A summary of the tlmgr pinning actions is given above.

B.11 GUI FOR TLMGR

The graphical user interface for tlmgr needs Perl/Tk to be installed. For Windows the necessary modules are shipped within TeX Live, for all other (i.e., Unix-based) systems Perl/Tk (as well as Perl of course) has to be installed. http://tug.org/texlive/distro.html#perltk has a list of invocations for some distros.

When started with tlmgr gui the graphical user interface will be shown. The main window contains a menu bar, the main display, and a status area where messages normally shown on the console are displayed.

Within the main display there are three main parts: the Display configuration area, the list of packages, and the action buttons.

Also, at the top right the currently loaded repository is shown; this also acts as a button and when clicked will try to load the default repository. To load a different repository, see the tlmgr menu item.

Finally, the status area at the bottom of the window gives additional information about what is going on.

B.11.1 Main display

B.11.1.1 Display configuration area

The first part of the main display allows you to specify (filter) which packages are shown. By default, all are shown. Changes here are reflected right away.

Status

Select whether to show all packages (the default), only those installed, only those not installed, or only those with update available.

Category

Select which categories are shown: packages, collections, and/or schemes. These are briefly explained in the DESCRIPTION section above.

Match

Select packages matching for a specific pattern. By default, this uses the same algorithm as tlmgr search, i.e., searches everything: descriptions, taxonomies, and/or filenames. You can also select any subset for searching.

Selection

Select packages to those selected, those not selected, or all. Here, “selected” means that the checkbox in the beginning of the line of a package is ticked.

Display configuration buttons

To the right there are three buttons: select all packages, select none (a.k.a. deselect all), and reset all these filters to the defaults, i.e., show all available.

B.11.1.2 Package list area

The second are of the main display lists all installed packages. If a repository is loaded, those that are available but not installed are also listed.

Double clicking on a package line pops up an informational window with further details: the long description, included files, etc.

Each line of the package list consists of the following items:

a checkbox

Used to select particular packages; some of the action buttons (see below) work only on the selected packages.

package name

The name (identifier) of the package as given in the database.

local revision (and version)

If the package is installed the TeX Live revision number for the installed package will be shown. If there is a catalogue version given in the database for this package, it will be shown in parentheses. However, the catalogue version, unlike the TL revision, is not guaranteed to reflect what is actually installed.

remote revision (and version)

If a repository has been loaded the revision of the package in the repository (if present) is shown. As with the local column, if a catalogue version is provided it will be displayed. And also as with the local column, the catalogue version may be stale.

short description

The short description of the package.

B.11.1.3 Main display action buttons

Below the list of packages are several buttons:

Update all installed

This calls tlmgr update --all, i.e., tries to update all available packages. Below this button is a toggle to allow reinstallation of previously removed packages as part of this action.

The other four buttons only work on the selected packages, i.e., those where the checkbox at the beginning of the package line is ticked.

Update

Update only the selected packages.

Install

Install the selected packages; acts like tlmgr install, i.e., also installs dependencies. Thus, installing a collection installs all its constituent packages.

Remove

Removes the selected packages; acts like tlmgr remove, i.e., it will also remove dependencies of collections (but not dependencies of normal packages).

Backup

Makes a backup of the selected packages; acts like tlmgr backup. This action needs the option backupdir set (see Options - General>).

B.11.2 Menu bar

The following entries can be found in the menu bar:

tlmgr menu

The items here load various repositories: the default as specified in the TeX Live database, the default network repository, the repository specified on the command line (if any), and an arbitrarily manually-entered one. Also has the so-necessary quit operation.

Options menu

Provides access to several groups of options: Paper (configuration of default paper sizes), Platforms (only on Unix, configuration of the supported/installed platforms), GUI Language (select language used in the GUI interface), and General (everything else).

Several toggles are also here. The first is Expert options, which is set by default. If you turn this off, the next time you start the GUI a simplified screen will be shown that display only the most important functionality. This setting is saved in the configuration file of tlmgr; see CONFIGURATION FILE FOR TLMGR for details.

The other toggles are all off by default: for debugging output, to disable the automatic installation of new packages, and to disable the automatic removal of packages deleted from the server. Playing with the choices of what is or isn’t installed may lead to an inconsistent TeX Live installation; e.g., when a package is renamed.

Actions menu

Provides access to several actions: update the filename database (aka ls-R, mktexlsr, texhash), rebuild all formats (fmtutil-sys --all), update the font map database (updmap-sys), restore from a backup of a package, and use of symbolic links in system directories (not on Windows).

The final action is to remove the entire TeX Live installation (also not on Windows).

Help menu

Provides access to the TeX Live manual (also on the web at http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html) and the usual “About” box.

B.12 MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT

With the --machine-readable option, tlmgr writes to stdout in the fixed line-oriented format described here, and the usual informational messages for human consumption are written to stderr (normally they are written to stdout). The idea is that a program can get all the information it needs by reading stdout.

Currently this option only applies to the update, install, and option actions.

B.12.1 Machine-readable update and install output

The output format is as follows:

  fieldname "\t" value
  ...
  "end-of-header"
  pkgname status localrev serverrev size runtime esttot
  ...
  "end-of-updates"
  other output from post actions, not in machine readable form

The header section currently has two fields: location-url (the repository source from which updates are being drawn), and total-bytes (the total number of bytes to be downloaded).

The localrev and serverrev fields for each package are the revision numbers in the local installation and server repository, respectively. The size field is the number of bytes to be downloaded, i.e., the size of the compressed tar file for a network installation, not the unpacked size. The runtime and esttot fields are only present for updated and auto-install packages, and contain the currently passed time since start of installation/updates and the estimated total time.

Line endings may be either LF or CRLF depending on the current platform.

location-url location

The location may be a url (including file:///foo/bar/...), or a directory name (/foo/bar). It is the package repository from which the new package information was drawn.

total-bytes count

The count is simply a decimal number, the sum of the sizes of all the packages that need updating or installing (which are listed subsequently).

Then comes a line with only the literal string end-of-header.

Each following line until a line with literal string end-of-updates reports on one package. The fields on each line are separated by a tab. Here are the fields.

pkgname

The TeX Live package identifier, with a possible platform suffix for executables. For instance, pdftex and pdftex.i386-linux are given as two separate packages, one on each line.

status

The status of the package update. One character, as follows:

d

The package was removed on the server.

f

The package was removed in the local installation, even though a collection depended on it. (E.g., the user ran tlmgr remove --force.)

u

Normal update is needed.

r

Reversed non-update: the locally-installed version is newer than the version on the server.

a

Automatically-determined need for installation, the package is new on the server and is (most probably) part of an installed collection.

i

Package will be installed and isn’t present in the local installation (action install).

I

Package is already present but will be reinstalled (action install).

localrev

The revision number of the installed package, or - if it is not present locally.

serverrev

The revision number of the package on the server, or - if it is not present on the server.

size

The size in bytes of the package on the server. The sum of all the package sizes is given in the total-bytes header field mentioned above.

runtime

The run time since start of installations or updates.

esttot

The estimated total time.

B.12.2 Machine-readable option output

The output format is as follows:

  key "\t" value

If a value is not saved in the database the string (not set) is shown.

If you are developing a program that uses this output, and find that changes would be helpful, do not hesitate to write the mailing list.

B.13 AUTHORS AND COPYRIGHT

This script and its documentation were written for the TeX Live distribution (http://tug.org/texlive) and both are licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later.

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