[tex-live] installing parallel (by year) versions

[Zdenek Wagner]

2013/5/13 Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk>:
> Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2013/5/13 Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk>:
>> > Barbara Beeton <bnb at ams.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >> ams tech-support has received an inquiry
>> >> to which the answer is "install the latest
>> >> version of xxx file"; said file is included
>> >> in tex live, but is not posted independently
>> >> on ctan, only in a .zip file or via .dtx/.ins.
>
> if the file (not a .dtx) is in a .zip file, it will usually be in .tds.zip
>
>> > is the user actually using tex live?
>> >
>> > what is wrong with putting the generated file in the user's ~/texmf/....
>>
>> CTAN contains dtx, TeX Live contains the generated files ready to use,
>> source files (dtx) as well as compiled manual can also be installed.
>>
>> >> adding a few sentences about setting up
>> >> multiple, parallel, year-specific structures
>> >> would be useful, i think.
>>
>> It is very easy. Each version is installed in its own directory, as
>> default in /usr/local/texlive/YYYY where YYYY is the year. In order to
>> switch to another version it is sufficient to modify PATH.
>> /usr/local/texlive/YYYY/bin/ARCH must be at the beginning of PATH. I
>> have a script written in bash + tcl/tk that offers installed versions
>> and can change PATH in the current xterm. I can send you the script.
>
> great.  more then 2 gbytes downloaded to gain access to a file that's
> actually a few tens of kbytes.
>
> very modern.  hope the user isn't on dialup ;-)
>
You can hardly find an old TeX Live distribution. I have them because
I have not deleted them in past but installed new version in parallel.

>> In addition, my PATH contains /usr/local/texlive/current/bin/ARCH
>> where /usr/local/texlive/current is a symlink to a version that I want
>> to use (cuttently 2012). When I decide that 2013 is stable enough, I
>> will just change the symlink and all xterms will use it immediatelly.
>>
>> I have all versions since 2007 although I do not use them but
>> sometimes it is useful to see how things worked in previous versions.
>>
>> > fwiw, i would *never* recommend a second installation on a machine.  i
>> > do it myself, but there are rather few of my behaviours that i would
>> > recommend to anyone else.
>
> i stand by what i said.  i'm not keen to advise an "ordinary user" to
> maintain a second tree.
>
> tex's had enough "bad names" in the past ... to encourage people to
> believe they need to download a massive object to acquire a single file
> ... seems to me to fly in the face of all the hard work that has been
> done.  sigh.
>
> robin



--
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz