[OS X TeX] changing texlive distribution on a per file basis

[Jonathan Fine]

Hi Nestor

I have some older files that need to be typeset with older distributions,
> and it is cumbersome to go back and forth changing it via the Tex Live
> Utility.
>
> Is there a way to typeset with a specific distribution (I understand that
> even pdflatex changes with the distributions), ideally using via a "magic"
> comment at the beginning of the file?
>

This is mostly a TeXLive issue. Life would be easier if the distribution
were smaller, and also if different versions could share resources.

For R-markdown users the situation is better. Yihui Xie's
https://yihui.org/tinytex/ is a 100MB R package which gives them all
they need. It's installation doesn't need admin privileges, and it can even
be run from a USB drive.

I've got some unreleased proof-of-concept work that would give an exact
record of the files needed to process a particular TeX document (and hence
produce a minimal archive). By the way, the
--recorder
option doesn't give enough information.

Yihui will be at next Thursday's TeX Hour, from 7 to 8pm UK time. More
information later.

best regards

Jonathan
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