[tex-live] Could LZMA compression be combined with SFX format ?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

Philip TAYLOR writes:
 > I don't know what the typical installation time is
 > for a full network install, but my experiments here
 > with a 3Mb download speed have suggested that it is
 > not feasible for use during (say) a half-day visit
 > to a friend or colleague.  For such situations I
 > would want to take a DVD with me.

Hi Phil,
installing from the DVD is quite time consuming because about 75,000
small files have to be copied.

If you have downloaded the DVD image already, you could also consider
this:

  1. Copy the content of the DVD to a writable directory.

  2. Go to the root of this directory and run

	   tlpkg/bin/tlpdb2container --all

     This will create all the .tar.lzma packages in a directory called
     archive.  This is what usually had been on TL CDs.

  3. Either copy the whole stuff to a DVD.  This DVD will then contain
     the live system and the install files.  The installer prefers the
     compressed files if they are present because it's much faster to
     install them.  You can also copy the stuff to a USB stick (>= 4 GB).

     Or, if you have a 2 GB USB stick, remove the texmf trees.  Then
     you have an "install CD" on the stick, but no live system.

I remember from TL-2007 that installing from a DVD took 50...60
minutes, installing from a CD took abt. 20...30 minutes.  It certainly
depends a bit on the hardware.

Regarding the lzma discussion, I'm a bit wondering whether it's safe
to use 7zip.  Since the file format is not settled yet, it's best to
extract the image with the same program that created it.

If this is too inconvenient, doesn't it make more sense to provide a
batch file rather than ask people to use external software?

And is there any need to download the ISO image more than once a
year?  Hopefully not.

IMO it's sufficient if the very few steps which are necessary in order
to download and decompress the ISO image are explained somewhere.  Of
course, it's more convenient if there is a batch file.  Could you
provide one?  It's better than a self extracting archive.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover	                      mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
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