[tex-live] Restoring from a backup to TEXMFLOCAL?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2012-10-04 at 20:18:15 +0200, Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard wrote:

 > Hi,
 > 
 > On 01/10/2012 17:13, jfbu wrote:
 > > is there an option for tlmgr
 > > to restore a backup-ed package into
 > > the *TEXMFLOCAL* directory?
 > > 
 > There is no such tlmgr option: tlmgr never touches TEXMFLOCAL.
 > 
 > However, backups of TeX Live packages are simple tar archives. It
 > should be easy enough to just untar the backup file in TEXMFLOCAL,
 > then delete the tlpkg directory. 

Hi Jean-Francois,
please don't remove the tlpkg directory immediately.  After unpacking
the tar.xz file amd running mktexlsr, look into .tlpobj files in the
tlpkg directory.  Especially check whether they contain lines
beginning with the word "execute".  These lines provide information
about things which have to be done after unpacking the archive.  For
example, the font package cantarell.r25752.tar.xz

contains a file

  tlpkg/tlpobj/cantarell.tlpobj

with the line

  execute addMap cantarell.map

This means that you have to install the map file using updmap.  Thus,
the .tlpobj file at least reminds you that you're not finished yet and
maybe provides some useful information.  It's more difficult to find
out later why something doesn't work.

 > (At least, this is for packages which lived in only one tree.
 > Packages with files in both TEXMFMAIN and TEXMFDIST are more
 > complicated.)
 > 
 > Please let us know if it worked or if you have additional questions.

I suppose that most packages are removed due to their licenses.
However, some packages are removed because commercial use or charging
money for redistribution is prohibited.  In this case there is a much
better solution: Upload it to

   http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/

and install from there using tlmgr.  Yes, recent versions of tlmgr can
install additional packages from this repository too.  The advantage
is that others benefit from your effort as well.  If you have any
questions, the TLContrib home page has a link to its mailing list.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
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