TeXLive merge into FreeBSD ports tree - is this going to happen or not?

Stephen Montgomery-Smith stephen at missouri.edu
Sat May 26 16:01:55 UTC 2012


On 05/26/2012 09:19 AM, Nikola Lečić wrote:
> On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:01:37 -0400, Jerry wrote:
>> On Sat, 26 May 2012 22:42:50 +1200
>> Sam Lin articulated:
>>
>
> This was already repeated many times on this mailing list, but I guess
> it won't hurt to remind that vanilla TeX Live works on FreeBSD (from 7.0
> to 10-CURRENT) out of the box. It lives in /usr/local/texlive/, has its
> own nice text and gui package manager and doesn't mess with the rest of
> your system. Just download ISO and install it.

This is what I have done, and it has worked very well - except the xdvi 
program that came with texlive was linked to a different version of the 
xorg libraries!

But http://code.google.com/p/freebsd-texlive/wiki/Installing didn't work 
for me.  I tried the tlmgr command to change to letter paper size, and 
it gave me error messages.  (I must admit that I haven't tried this 
recently so maybe it got fixed.  But I didn't get any good responses 
when I complained on the freebsd-texlive mailing list - if I remember 
correctly I was told I shouldn't be using tlmgr.)

But also, the current proposed freebsd texlive just looks way to 
difficult to maintain.  Everytime the texlive distribution changes, the 
texlive ports have to update.

If I were to implement texlive as a freebsd port, I would create a port 
called print/texlive-install.  This port would build a texlive 
install-tl-unx.tar.gz program, just like can be found on the texlive web 
sites, but with xdvi and other binaries compiled by the port, but 
everything else operating according to the texlive philosophy.  The port 
would run the install program, and then do a "find /usr/local/texlive" 
to fill in the appropriate /var/db/pkg/texlive files.

I have written other ports where the ported software doesn't work well 
with the FreeBSD ports philosophy, and my approach has been to embrace 
the software's philosophy and make the freebsd port a wrapper for the 
software's installation process.  This includes the math/sage port, and 
the math/octave-forge* ports.  If I had the time, I would do the same 
for a texlive-install port.  If wouldn't conflict with (but it would 
compete against) the current proposed freebsd texlive ports.  The reason 
I haven't done this yet is (1) because of time constraints, and (2) I 
feel uncomfortable competing with someone elses proposed port structure.

P.S.  How did I solve the xdvi problem?  I installed texlive from the 
texlive web site.  Then I installed the FreeBSD print/teTeX port.  Then 
I set PATH so that it picked up most of the commands from 
/usr/local/texlive/bin, but picked up xdvi from /usr/local/bin.  I know 
it is an ugly hack.

Stephen




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