[OS X TeX] Getting started with tlmgr

[Gary L. Gray]

On Dec 5, 2008, at 10:07 AM, Herbert Schulz wrote:

>
> On Dec 5, 2008, at 7:36 AM, Gerrit Glabbart wrote:
>
>> Am 05.12.2008 um 01:54 schrieb Herbert Schulz:
>>
>>> 2 Initial Setup and Updating tlmgr
>>>
>>> Setting up the the tlmgr update system is a two step process.  
>>> First you have to set up a preference
>>> that tells tlmgr where to find the files to update in future runs:  
>>> run
>>> sudo tlmgr option location http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008
>>
>>
>> Isn't that the default setting? I thought the point of the location  
>> option was to select a particular mirror explicitly. I've never  
>> called this option, and yet I get my TeXLive updates from a random  
>> mirror from my home country, which, I'm guessing, is the desired  
>> behavior. Am I missing something?
>>
>> Oh, and yes, a section four, "When disaster strikes" (or something  
>> of the sort), is probably a good idea. Maybe you can just copy and  
>> paste one of your responses on this list.
>>
>> Thanks for your efforts,
>> Gerrit.
>
>
> Howdy,
>
> By now the updates should be around to all servers so it should  
> walk. I'm working on an update to the document with instructions on  
> picking a particular server for the update (please don't all try to  
> use my example in that document --- that will surely overload the  
> server). Once the update is complete you should be able to go back  
> to the mirror and it should work.
>
> I'm sorry for any problems I may have caused. Sigh...

Hi Herb.

You didn't cause any problems for me, I did. :-)

I used Migration Assistant to move to a new MacBook Pro a couple of  
weeks ago and I thought it brought TeX over perfectly since everything  
*seemed* to work. Unfortunately, I hadn't tried anything TeX-related  
in the Terminal until last night. When it didn't work, I wasn't sure  
what was happening, but it was late and I didn't want to wait to  
download 1.15 GB from home to get the MacTeX installer. I just  
downloaded it, re-installed MacTeX and all is well in the Terminal.

With that said, I just tried the tlmgr commands you posted last night  
and here is what I got:

loon:Dynamics gray$ sudo tlmgr option location http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008
Password:
Setting default installation source to http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008 
!

loon:Dynamics gray$ sudo tlmgr update bin-texlive texlive.infra
update: bin-texlive (first remove old, then install new)
remove: bin-texlive
remove: bin-texlive.universal-darwin
running post remove action for bin-texlive
install: bin-texlive
install: bin-texlive.universal-darwin
running post install action for bin-texlive
update: bin-texlive done
update: texlive.infra (first remove old, then install new)
install: texlive.infra
running post install action for texlive.infra
update: texlive.infra done
running mktexlsr
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/../texmf-local/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-config/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-doc/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-var/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Done.

loon:Dynamics gray$ tlmgr update --list
tlmgr: installation location http://mirror.unl.edu/ctan/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008
Can't locate object method "option" via package "TeXLive::TLPDB" at / 
usr/texbin/tlmgr line 1091, <RETFH> line 116086.

Something went bad at the end -- do you know what that might be?

All the best,
   Gary