LFS-RPM/tlive-lfs.md

TeXLive 2023 in LFS 11.3

This document is not yet finished.

This document was written for TeXLive 2023 in LFS 11.3 but probably is mostly applicable to other versions of LFS and to future versions of TeXLive as well.

This document and the script within I consider to be Public Domain but if you must have an actual license, Creative Commons CC0 works for me.

These instructions were tried on a very basic LFS 11.3 system with just a few additions from BLFS, the important addition being curl which I chose to build against GnuTLS for TLS support. Building curl against OpenSSL (or LibreSSL) should also work.

These instructions also assume you have gone through the BLFS After LFS Configuration Issues section and have implemented The Bash Shell Startup Files section.

Rationale

On an LFS system, software is generally installed from source. It is possible to build TeXLive from source but under some situations, it is impractical to do so.

TeXLive is a large collection of mostly architecture independent text files and fonts from CTAN---The Comprehensive TeX Network. TeXLive does include a small number of compiled binaries.

Given the massive amount of architexture independent files, it often makes sense to share a single TeXLive install between multiple operating systems on the same physical computer, between multiple operating systems on physically different computers all connected via the same LAN (via NFS), or by installing TeXLive to a dedicated portable hard drive that can be taken from place to place and connected to whichever computer the TeX author is currently using.

Furthermore, for people who use LaTeX a lot, it often makes sense to have multiple versions of TeXLive available. A documented authored using TeXLive 2016 may not properly build in TeXLive 2023 without some time-consuming tweaks to the LaTeX code itself. If such a document needs a minor edit, it is better to have the version of TeXLive the LaTeX was originally authored under available than to have to potentially spend hours updating LaTeX code.

This document explains installing and maintaining a TeXLive system in LFS that can be shared with other operating systems, even on platforms other than GNU/Linux.

TeXLive Mountpoint

Traditionally, the /opt filesystem is used for third-party products that are maintained and updated outside of the operating system package manager.

The typical structure is /opt/<vendor>/<product> and TeXLive fits that paradigm perfectly.

The default install location is actually within /usr/local however /usr/local generally should be reserved for software built locally from source that is not under the control of the package manager.

As the root user, create the directory /opt/texlive:

mkdir -p /opt/texlive

If you will be sharing the TeXLive install between multiple operating systems on the same hardware, you will want to either create a partition on an internal drive or alternative create a partition on an external drive.

If you will be sharing the TeXLive install via NFS with other operating systems on your LAN, you probably should use a partition on an internal drive.

If you will be sharing the TeXLive install with other operating systems by use of an external drive, you should use an external drive. Even a USB thumb drive works.

If you are not sharing the TeXLive install then a separate partition is not necessary.

For a separate partition, I recommend at least 25 GiB but I prefer 64 GiB personally. TeXLive actually only needs about 7 GiB but having a larger partition allows you to have multiple versions installed at the same time.

I recommend using the ext2 filesystem. TeXLive does not really benefit from a journaled file system and especially if you are sharing it with operating systems other than GNU/Linux, it is usually easier to find software solutions for mounting ext2 than for ext4 or other modern GNU/Linux filesystems.

Once your partition is properly created and formatted, go ahead and mount it at the /opt/texlive mount point.

If TeXLive is on an external drive, you want the /etc/fstab to auto-mount it when detectected but not attempt to mount it when not present:

UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX /opt/texlive   ext2  defaults,noauto 1 2

If TeXLive is on an internal drive, then you do want it to auto-mount during boot:

UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX /opt/texlive   ext2  defaults 1 2

Obviously replace XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX with the actual UUID (which you can find wuth the blkid command).

With the partition mounted, go ahead and create the following three directories:

mkdir -p /opt/texlive/{2023,texmf-local,tladmin}

The first is where TeXLive 2023 will be installed. The second is for local additions to the TeXLive system, such as additional fonts and macro packages like MathTime Pro 2. The third is a home directory for the TeXLive administrative user. Keeping the home directory for that user on the same partition as the TeXLive install allows you to easily administrate the install from any Un*x operating system the partition is mounted on---should you choose to do so.

TeXLive User and Group

The next thing to do is create a texlive user and group. The purpose of the group is two-fold:

1. It provides a group for the texlive administrator.
2. It provides a group for users of the texlive system.

When TeXLive is available, any user on the system can use it by simply adjusting their PATH environmental variable. For users that want to use the TeXLive system, it is easier if the environmental variables are already set up for them when they log in.

By adding users who want to use the TeXLive system to the texlive group, those users can automatically have their environmental variables (PATH, INFOPATH, MANPATH) adjust to use the TeXLive system while other user accounts (including system users and daemons) that do not need to use the TeXLive system do not have their environmental variables adjusted.

The purpose of the texlive user is to have an otherwise unprivileged user account that installs and administrates the TeXLive system.

When sharing a TeXLive install, each Unx system should have both the texlive user and group and they should have the same user-id and group-id, at least if you wish to be able to be able to also administrate the TeXLive system from any Unx system using the partition.

The UID/GID I personally use is 450 for both. The reason I chose 450 is because it is well above 100 (under 100 is usually used for system users and daemons) yet below 500. Most Un*x systems today start user accounts at 1000 but some use 500 as the first personal account UID/GID, so I chose 450 to specifically be below that.

When creating the texlive user, make sure to set the home directory to /opt/texlive/tladmin and the shell to /bin/bash (or to /usr/bin/bash on systems that put bash in /usr/bin).

I personally do not set a password for the texlive user. You can become the texlive user by first logging in to the root account and then issuing the following command:

su - texlive

If you have sudo installed, then users in the wheel group can become the texlive user with the following command:

sudo su - texlive

Note that you only need to become the texlive user to administer the system. Usually that means once a month or so, installing updates. Or whenever you think you come across a bug, to see if it is already fixed before reporting it.

As the root user, copy the relevant /etc/skel files into the /opt/texlive/tladmin directory:

cp /etc/skel/{.bash_logout,.bash_profile,.bashrc} /opt/texlive/tladmin/

Finally, set the correct permissions:

chown -R texlive:texlive /opt/texlive/tladmin
chown texlive:texlive /opt/texlive/{2023,texmf-local}

You are now ready to install TeXLive 2023.

Install TeXLive 2023

To install TeXLive 2023, first become the texlive user:

sudo su - texlive

As the texlive user, retrieve the installer:

TMPDIR="`mktemp --tmpdir -d tlive-XXXXXXXXXXXX`"
pushd ${TMPDIR}
curl -L -O https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz

Note the -L option is necessary because it will redirect you to a mirror.

Unpack the archive, enter the installer directory, and install it:

tar -zxf install-tl-unx.tar.gz
cd install-tl-20*
/usr/bin/perl ./install-tl                \
  --texdir="/opt/texlive/2023"            \
  --texmflocal="/opt/texlive/texmf-local" \
  --no-interaction

There are some other options (such as default papersize) but those can be set after install. Normally I like to set papersize in the document itself however ff you plan to use TeXLive to build documentation that comes with source packages in LFS/BLFS, you probably want to set the default papersize to the size of paper your printer uses.

I will cover that in the adminstration section.

The install will likely take an hour or so, depending upon the speed of the mirror used for the install.

Once installed, remove the temporary install directory:

popd
# optionally - since in /tmp it should be deleted automatically eventually
rm -rf ${TMPDIR}

/etc/profile.d/texlive.sh

The following script is what I use to set up the various environmental variables for TeXLive in LFS. It is an adaptation of a script I first wrote for use in CentOS for TeXLive 2014, the adaptation being I used the pathprepend function from the BLFS bash /etc/profile script. See The Bash Shell Startup Files in the BLFS book.

This script only sets up the path for non-root users of the texlive group, and it does not need to be updated when you update TeXLive itself to a new version, it always adjusts to the newest version of TeXLive installed.

# /etc/profile.d/texlive.sh - set *PATH variables for TeXLive

checkuser () {
  ### returns 0 only for non-root members of texlive group
  if [ "`id -u`" == "0" ]; then
    return 1
  fi
  TLGID="`id -g texlive`" 2> /dev/null
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    return 1
  fi
  for id in `id -G`; do
    if [ "${id}" == "${TLGID}" ]; then
      return 0
    fi
  done
  return 1
}

tlversion () {
  ### returns 0 only if it finds an ls-R in texmf-dist
  ### only checks for versions within last seven years.
  YYYY=`date +%Y`
  for n in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7; do
    DIR="`echo "${YYYY} - ${n}" |bc`"
    if [ -f /opt/texlive/${DIR}/texmf-dist/ls-R ]; then
      printf ${DIR}
      return 0
    fi
  done
  return 1
}

tlplatform () {
  HARDWARE="`uname -m`"
  OS="`uname -o`"
  case "${OS}" in
    GNU/Linux)
      case "${HARDWARE}" in
        x86_64)
          printf "x86_64-linux"
          ;;
        arm64)
          printf "aarch64-linux"
          ;;
        i386 | i486 | i586 | i686)
          printf "i386-linux"
          ;;
        *)
          # hardware not (yet) supported by script
          return 1
          ;;
      esac
      ;;
    *)
      # OS not (yet) supported by script
      return 1
      ;;
  esac
  return 0
}

if checkuser; then
  TLPLATFORM="`tlplatform`"
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    TLIVEV="`tlversion`"
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
      # pathprepend defined in BLFS/YJL /etc/profile
      pathprepend /opt/texlive/${TLIVEV}/bin/${TLPLATFORM}
      pathprepend /opt/texlive/${TLIVEV}/texmf-dist/doc/info INFOPATH
      pathprepend /opt/texlive/${TLIVEV}/texmf-dist/doc/man MANPATH
    fi
  fi
fi

# End /etc/profile.d/texlive.sh

With that file installed within /etc/profile.d LFS should automatically set up the environmental variables for users within the texlive group to use the TeXLive system. At least for users who use bash as their login shell.

An equivalent for tcsh has not (yet) been written.

Note to use this method for setting up the environmental variables on other GNU/Linux distributions (or other operating systems) you will likely have to port it. CentOS/Fedora for example do not define the pathprepend function, and on macOS the appropriate place to mount the partition is probably /usr/local/opt/texlive rather than /opt/texlive. Or maybe /Volumes/texlive. Just pick one... 😜

If you would prefer to have the texlive environmental variables set for every login user (except root) without needing to put every login user in the texlive group, just have the checkuser () function return 0 for the texlive user and for any user with a UID greater than 999.

I highly recommend against modifying the environmental variables for the root user, or for system/daemon users, for security reasons.

Post Install Administration

Updates

Periodically it is a good idea to apply updates to the TeXLive system. When the tlmgr command itself needs an update, it generally has to be updated by itself before any other packages can be updated.

To keep my system up to date, I have the following shell script in /opt/texlive/tladmin and run it as the texlive user about once a month, or whenever I think about it:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#  Begin update-tl.sh
#
tlmgr update --self
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  tlmgr update --all
fi
#  End update-tl.sh

I use #!/usr/bin/env bash as the shebang because I do not know what operating system I might want to run it from, or where that operating system has bash installed.

Local Files

Commercial Math Fonts

If you are not writing for a commercial publication, the free Math fonts that are part of TeXLive almost certainly meet your needs. See CTAN Maths Font.

Commercial publications however often have an established workflow and like to specify what macro packages and fonts you are allowed to use in order to be allowed to make them money.

Some publications will require you use MathTime Pro 2 for your math font (usually in combination with Adobe Times/URW++ Nimbus Roman No. 9 L) and other publications will require you use the Lucida Fonts.

If you are writing for such a publication, the proper place to install the files is within the /opt/texlive/texmf-local tree.

Both packages come with install instructions but in both cases I often see some users confused.

1. First put the files in their proper place within the texmf-local tree.
2. Then as the texlive user run the texhash command.
3. then as the texlive user run the updmap-sys variant of the updmap command when enabling the font map file. Otherwise the fonts will not be system-wide enabled for all users.

When you upgrade to a new version of TeXLive, you do not need to re-install those packages, but you will need to re-run the appropriate updmap-sys command to re-enable the needed map file in the new version of TeXLive.

Paper Size

By default, a TeXLive install will use the A4 paper size for documents that do not specify a paper size.

Generally it is a good idea to always set the intended paper size in your project but for projects intended to be compiled anywhere---as is the case with open source software documentation---it is better not to specify the paper size so that the documentation can be built to match the paper size it is most likely to be printed on.

If you are in the United States and would prefer U.S. Letter to A4 when the document does not specify the paper size, run the following command:

tlmgr paper letter

If you need to change it back to A4:

tlmgr paper a4

Binary Platform Support

By default, the TeXLive installer only installs binaries for one platform. If you need support for another platform, you can install support for an additional platform.

To see all available platform options as well as which platforms are already installed, use the command:

tlmgr platform list

To add an available platform, use tlmgr add <platform>. For example, to add support for macOS so that you can share the TeXLive install with macOS, you would run the command:

tlmgr platform add universal-darwin

If you need to remove a platform you are no longer using, then you can use the same command to add the platform, substituting remove in place of add.

Adobe Base 35 Fonts

Most people can skip this.

TeXLive ships with the metric compatible URW clones of the Adobe Base35 Postscript Level 2 fonts.

If you happen to have the genuine Adobe Base35 fonts installed in the proper place within your texmf-local tree:

texmf-local/fonts/type1/adobe/base35/

Then you can configure TeXLive to use the genuine Adobe fonts. If they are named using the "berry" names (e.g. phvbo8an.pfb):

updmap-sys --setoption LW35 ADOBEkb

On the other hand if they have the Adobe vendor filenames (e.g. hvnbo___.pfb):

updmap-sys --setoption LW35 ADOBE

Visually, almost no one can tell the difference between the free URW clones and the genuine Adobe fonts, but if you happen to have the genuine Adobe fonts you might as well use them for projects that call the Base35 postscript fonts.

Modern LaTeX projects that want to use fonts of the Base35 look and feel generally should use the TeX Gyre OpenType fonts instead, as they have much better glyph coverage, but some macro packages which have an internal need to typeset characters (such as the packages for generating barcodes) will still specify the actual Base35 fonts internally for backwards compatibility, and some open source software with LaTeX documentation uses the Baes35 fonts.

LFS Missing Libraries

With a barebones LFS install, the following TeXLive 2023 installed binaries have missing shared library dependencies.

Note that without these libraries installed, I was able to use TeXLive 2023 within LFS 11.3 to compile TeX projects originally authored for LuaLaTeX without any problems.

Most if not all of the missing shared library dependencies will be met once an LFS/BLFS 11.3 system has the X11 windowing system installed.

I do not believe TeXLive has been ported to pure Wayland yet but if it has, you probably have to build TeXLive from source for a pure Wayland system to have all dependencies met.

It is slower than wayland, but I still like X11.

xetex

This is probably the most important component of TeXLive to support even if you do not use it yourself, it is quite likely that at some point you will need to compile a LaTeX document written for XeTeX if you are involved at all in the TeX world.

The missing libraries after a barebones LFS install are:

• libfontconfig.so.1
• libfreetype.so.6

Relevant BLFS packages:

• FreeType2
• Fontconfig

metafont

The mf program is metafont and is used to generate TeX native fonts. In this day in age, generally OpenType fonts are used for new LaTeX projects and at least with LuaLaTeX, a barebones LFS install has what is needed to deal with those. However sometimes older LaTeX projects will want metafont available.

The missing libraries after a barebones LFS install are:

• libSM.so.6
• libICE.so.6
• libXext.so.6
• libX11.so.6

Asymptote

Most users probably do not need this to work.

The asy command invokes a script-based vector graphics language for generating technical drawings. It can be used to create very high quality figures. At this point, most high quality figures are actually generated as postscript or PDF images using programs outside of the TeXLive system, but it is possible you may need this command to work especially if you are working with older TeX projects.

The missing libraries after a barebones LFS install are:

• libGLX.so.0
• libglut.so.3
• libGL.so.1

xdvi-xaw

In the old days, the standard way to use a TeX system was to generate a DVI file that could then be sent to be printed or rendered by a device with an appropriate DVI driver.

When generating a postscript file, one would then use the program dvips to create a postscript file from the DVI file.

DVI files are rarely generated now, but when they are generated you may want the xdvi-xaw program to view the DVI file on your display before it is printed or further processed into something else.

The missing libraries after a barebones LFS install are:

• libXaw.so.7
• libXmu.so.6
• libXt.so.6
• libSM.so.6
• libICE.so.6
• libXext.so.6
• libXpm.so.4
• libX11.so.6

pdfclose, pdfopen

Those two programs are not needed on GNU/Linux.

The missing library if you want them to work anyway is:

• libX11.so.6

Text Editors

To compose your LaTeX projects, you need a text editor you know how to use, preferably one with LaTeX syntax highlighting.

When using UTF-8 (as you should for anything new), the text editor should not insert a BOM (Byte Order Mark) at the beginning of the document.

Allegedly a BOM is no longer a problem in TeXLive since TeXLive 2018 but I have not verified that always is the case, and it probably is not the case for some commercial TeX distributions that publishers often use.

Use a text editor that does not insert a BOM.

Traditional Un*x-like Operating Systems CLI

The vim editor that is part of LFS is sufficient but if you do a lot of work in LaTeX it may be worth your time to learn how to use GNU Emacs.

Traditional Un*x-like Operating Systems GUI

For a GUI editor, I really like LaTeXila but the project first was integrated in GNOME3 as GNOME-LaTeX and then it appears the original author has left or been pushed out.

I just use LaTeXila 3.26.1 and do not bother updating it, I am not a fan of GNOME 3.

LaTeXila 3.26.1 builds and works well in MATE. Unfortunately I do not know of a current mirror that still hosts the LaTeXila tarballs but it can be found in the old Fedora source RPMs.

macOS

To share TeXLive as installed here with macOS, you need to be able to mount ext2 filesystems. There are several solutions, pick one.

Note that MacTeX is just TeXLive with a few extra GUI programs that I personally found to be useless. On macOS for a text editor, I highly recommend using BBEdit. The free version works well with LaTeX but BBEdit is worth paying for.

Windows

It is possible to run TeXLive on Windows but it is possible the Windows installer is actually required.

Most people I know in the LaTeX world who use Windows just use MiKTeX on Windows, and generally use the Notepad++ text editor.

When I have had to use Windows, any projects I was working on in TeXLive had no problems compiling in MiKTeX, MiKTeX is highly compatible with TeXLive since both use CTAN for their macro packages. Just be sure that Notepad++ uses Unix line breaks to avoid projects with mixed line breaks.

A proper UTF-8 text editor without a BOM (Byte Order Mark) is recommended. Do not try to use Windows Notepad, it always adds a BOM. Use Notepad++ configured to save as UTF-8 without the BOM.