[tex-live] Ubuntu update to 11.10 while texlive 2011 is installed independently

[Lars Madsen]

Axel E. Retif wrote, On 2011-11-01 09:08:
> On 10/31/2011 07:35 AM, Bernhard Kleine wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
>> I updated my Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 today. Everything went smooth, only
>> three packages did not install well: These were tex-common, kile and
>> texlive-latex-base.
> 
> [...]
> 
>> Two points are therefore to be reminded:
>>
>> First: It is better to remove the tl2011 symlinks before updating the
>> distribution. Saves time.
> 
> Here is my recommendation, somehow along the lines of previous replies. 
> It has worked for me with Ubuntu and (Ubuntu based) Linux Mint:
> 
> 1) Do not do (ask for) any symlinks at all when installing TUG TeXLive, 
> nor afterwards. Make sure the symlinks option is unchecked during 
> installation.
> 
> 2) Prepend your path in /etc/environment. This file has a simple line:
> 
> PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games" 
> 
> 
> Just put your path to TUG TeXLive first:
> 
> PATH="/usr/local/texlive/2011/bin/x86_64-linux:/usr/local/sbin: ... games"
> 
> (of course, if your binaries are for a 32 bit system, change 
> x86_64-linux accordingly).
> 
> (On Debian, instead of /etc/environment it is /etc/profile and 
> /etc/login.defs: see http://www.tug.org/texlive/debian.html ---I know it 
> works.)
> 
> 3) Reboot.
> 
> This has these great advantages:
> 
> a) You don't have to remember about those symlinks (there aren't any) 
> when upgrading, etc.
> 
> b) You know TUG TeXLive is the one that will be used.
> 
> c) When you install TUG TeXLive 2012 you don't have to unistall TL 2011 
> and its symlinks (again, there aren't any) ---just change the above path 
> from 2011 to 2012, and you can keep 2011 if anything goes wrong with 
> 2012, or a particular document don't compile for some reason and you 
> don't have time for debugging. (On my Mac I have TL from 2007 to 2010 
> ---it has proven very useful when in a hurry.)
> 
> 
> Best
> 
> Axel

I tend not to delete old TUG TLs, so I have a symlink in

<path>/texlive

pointing to the current year. And then use

PATH="/usr/local/texlive/current/bin/x86_64-linux:/usr/local/sbin: ... "

Then it is easy to change LaTeX installation, and no reboot/relogin is 
needed.

-- 

/daleif