How to manage Tex Live packages with Ubuntu?

**lads** · August 23rd, 2013

Dear all,

Tex Live is conceived to help manage LaTeX packages through a little command line app called tlmgr. In Ubuntu tlmgr is not available from the repos and can only by installed manually. The idea is for the user to install required LaTeX packages (latex-*) from the Ubuntu repos and not from CTAN. So far so good.

But this week I started working on an article whose template requires all sorts of exotic LaTeX packages that do not seem to be available from the repos. Two examples: europs.sty and flushend.sty; they are actually listed as being part of certain Ubuntu latex-* packages, but although these are installed on my system, the aforementioned files are nowhere to be found.

So the question is how to get these LaTeX packages without manually installing tlmgr.

Thank you.

**Impavidus** · August 23rd, 2013

Indeed many LaTeX packages are not present in the Ubuntu repos, or only as outdated versions. Sounds like you need to install tlmgr manually or (as I do) install the LaTeX packages manually (in /usr/local/share/texmf/). I don't know tlmgr, but it might cause conflicts by handling files in the same directory as the Ubuntu package manager. It may be possible to let it use /usr/local/share/, where no problems should occur.

**lads** · August 23rd, 2013

Originally Posted by Impavidus

or (as I do) install the LaTeX packages manually (in /usr/local/share/texmf/).

Hi Impavidus, could you please detail a bit more how you do it? Do you just download the packages from CTAN to that folder?

Thank you.

**Impavidus** · August 23rd, 2013

Most packages are available as a .zip archive. In there you'll usually find a file with installation instructions. It usually involves running latex package.ins, copying the files this produces to some subdirectory under /usr/local/share/texmf and running sudo texhash to update some caches. If there are fonts involved thing may get a bit more complicated. I didn't check the packages you mentioned.

**GwL3eNC** · August 23rd, 2013

Hello,

if you decide to install the newest texlive http://www.tug.org/texlive/ you can use the tlmgr http://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/tlmgr.html
to install packages in an easy way.

**lads** · August 26th, 2013

Folks thank four your answers. We have two options here, both work, but both have a down side too.

Manual install - you won't get updates, neither from the Ubuntu repos nor from Tex Live. Besides this you have to make sure the package version you are installing matches the Tex Live version installed.

tlmgr - you need to manually install Tex Live, thus foregoing whatever is available from the Ubuntu repos. Both Tex Live and its packages are updatable, but you have they you have to do it yourself (outside of the regular Ubuntu updates).

I don't get the logic behind the Ubuntu management of Tex Live any more.

**lads** · August 26th, 2013

I just found that Ubuntu 12.04 is packaged with an outdated version of Tex Live, this may be the cause of some of my woes. At least siunitx is working properly after upgrading to Tex Live 2012.

**lads** · August 27th, 2013

After some more it seems all problems are gone; basically, Tex Live and the packages it used where too old. I hope future LTS versions can ship with up to date versions of Tex Live.

**Impavidus** · August 27th, 2013

I agree.
But the difficulty is that Ubuntu 12.04 comes with what was the latest Tex Live when it was released – Tex Live 2009, already a few years old by then. The packages in TeX Live aren't always the latest versions available when Tex Live is released, giving additional delays. As a result, I have seen LaTeX packages in the Ubuntu repos that were six years behind in updates. The two-stage packaging procedure is inherently slow.
Fortunately most packages are rarely updated and rarely depend on specific versions of other packages, so most of the time you can just manually install later versions and manually check for updates only when you need a new feature present in the latest version.

Originally Posted by tug.org

By the way, a native TL, which is typically installed under /usr/local, and a TeX from your operating system can happily coexist, each with their own completely independent trees and programs. (Do not try to merge them!) So you could install a native TeX Live if your vendor is not keeping up

Don't worry too much about this. Plugging in the latest versions of simple LaTeX packages should work >90% of the time.

**lads** · August 28th, 2013

Originally Posted by Impavidus

I agree.
But the difficulty is that Ubuntu 12.04 comes with what was the latest Tex Live when it was released – Tex Live 2009, already a few years old by then.

Here's the Tex Live release log: