[OS X TeX] How use http://contrib.texlive.info with TeXLive Utility

[Ettore Aldrovandi]

> On Oct 13, 2020, at 10:50, Murray Eisenberg <murrayeisenberg at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 12 Oct2020, at 6:08 PM, Ettore Aldrovandi <ealdrov at math.fsu.edu <mailto:ealdrov at math.fsu.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 12, 2020, at 15:20, Murray Eisenberg <murrayeisenberg at gmail.com <mailto:murrayeisenberg at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> How can one include packages from http://contrib.texlive.info <http://contrib.texlive.info/> for installation through TeXLive Utility? (Just temporarily change the repository to http://contrib.texlive.info/current <http://contrib.texlive.info/current> tlcontrib ?)
>>> 
>>> If so, I presume that will install packages from contrib.texlive.info <http://contrib.texlive.info/> into the main TeXLive tree (inside /usr/local/texlive/2020)
>>> 
>>> Should one really be putting packages from contrib.texlive.info <http://contrib.texlive.info/> into the main TeXLive tree, or would it be better to put them in the local texmf tree (on my system, ~/Library/texmf)?
>> 
>> You add the repository with
>> 
>> 	tlmgr repository add http://contrib.texlive.info/current <http://contrib.texlive.info/current> tlcontrib
>> 
>> Hope this helps
>> 
> 
> 
> If I use that tlmgr command to add the tlcontrib repository, won’t the TeXLive Utility then add packages from there to the main TeXLive tree, in /usr/local/texlive/2020? Won’t those packages then disappear from there when in future years I upgrade to TexLive 2021, etc? Would it not be safer to put them into ~/Library/texmf? And is that even possible with TeXLive Utility?

If the packages in question are in the tlcontrib repository, I actually prefer them to be managed that way. When upgrade time comes, for instance 2020->2021, then a new distribution is pulled in. If the configuration that includes tlcontrib as an additional repository is not carried along (I honestly don’t remember at the moment) it is a small matter to re-add  it via tlmgr. 

In my personal case I end up doing this anyway because I usually start using the pre-test version, so I have to switch repositories from main to pre-test and back anyhow. But back to the issue, I prefer to have it managed, rather than put stuff in texmf-local and then forget about it, thus risking to unwittingly use outdated material.

—Ettore

Ettore Aldrovandi
Department of Mathematics, Florida State University
1017 Academic Way                *   http://www.math.fsu.edu/~ealdrov
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4510, USA * * aldrovandi at math dot fsu dot edu


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