Installing TeXlive

2021-04-23 · 3 min read

Installing the distribution TeXlive.

Table of Contents

1 General information

  • TeX Live — the most complete LaTeX distribution supported by the TeX community.
  • Supports a large number of operating systems.
  • Developed since 1996.
  • Based on the teTeX distribution.
  • MacTeX — a variant for MacOS.
  • Main page: https://www.tug.org/texlive/.
  • TeX Live — is a distribution with continuous updates as part of the annual version of the distribution.

2 Installation from distribution packages

  • Ubuntu:
apt install texlive-full

3 Network installation on one computer

3.1 Installation using distribution scripts

cd /tmp/
wget https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz

tar xzvf install-tl-unx.tar.gz
  • Go to the unpacked directory and run the installer:
cd install-tl-[0-9]*
sudo ./install-tl
  • It is recommended to create links to executable files in the /usr/local/bin directory. To do this, in the console version of the utility, select the O option, and then L. To return to the previous menu, use R.

3.2 Installing with a package manager

choco install texlive

4 Network installation on multiple computers

4.1 File server

  • A copy of the TeX Live archive is stored on the file server.
  • We store it in the directory /com/lib/portage/extras/texlive (of course, you can choose any).
  • We share this directory via NFS (for example).
  • Let’s make a script for daily download:
#!/bin/bash
# /etc/cron.daily/texlive-rsync-tree

RSYNC_MIRROR=rsync://mirrors.mi.ras.ru/CTAN/

mkdir -p /com/lib/portage/extras/texlive
rsync -rltpD -v -HS --delete ${RSYNC_MIRROR}/systems/texlive/tlnet/ /com/lib/portage/extras/texlive

4.2 Clients

4.2.1 Installation

  • First, install manually on clients. To do this, run on the client:
/com/lib/portage/extras/texlive/install-tl --repository=/com/lib/portage/extras/texlive

4.3 Update

  • To update, use the script on the client:
#!/bin/bash

if [[ -d /com/lib/portage/extras/texlive ]]
then
tlmgr update --repository=/com/lib/portage/extras/texlive --self
tlmgr update --repository=/com/lib/portage/extras/texlive --all
else
tlmgr update --self
tlmgr update --all
fi
tlmgr path add
Code Snippet 1: /etc/cron.weekly/texlive-update

5 Updating to the next version of TeXlive

  • It is recommended to install the new version of TeXlive separately.
  • But you can do a manual update using an existing installation.
  • Let’s assume that our architecture is x86_64-linux.
  • If you have installed symbolic links to system directories (via installer option or tlmgr path add), remove them:
tlmgr path remove
  • Move the entire TeXlive directory to match the new version, for example:
mv /usr/local/texlive/2024/ /usr/local/texlive/2025
  • Remove package backups:
rm /usr/local/texlive/2025/tlpkg/backups/*
  • Create links to executables:
/usr/local/texlive/2025/bin/x86_64-linux/tlmgr path add
  • Download the latest version of the script update-tlmgr-latest.sh:
wget https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/update-tlmgr-latest.sh -O /tmp/update-tlmgr-latest.sh
  • Run the script:
sh /tmp/update-tlmgr-latest.sh -- upgrade
  • If you do not want to use the default repository for downloading new files, then replace it:
tlmgr option repository <reponame>
  • Update the TeXlive package manager:
tlmgr update --self
  • Update TeXlive packages:
tlmgr update --all
  • Set symbolic links to executables in system directories (/usr/local/bin):
tlmgr path add
  • You can recreate the cache lualatex under the user:
mv ~/.texlive2024 ~/.texlive2025
luaotfload-tool -fu
  • If you don’t do this, the cache will be recreated on the first run of lualatex.
Latex Tex
Dmitry S. Kulyabov
Authors
Dmitry S. Kulyabov
Professor of the Department of Probability Theory and Cybersecurity
My research interests include physics, Unix administration, and networking.