-----Original Message-----
From: Sivaram Neelakantan <***@gmail.com>
Subject: manually installing tex package groups in Ubuntu
Date: 09/29/2024 03:55:29 PM
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Post by Sivaram NeelakantanWhat's the minimum set of Ubuntu packages that need to be installed to
get a working tex system without the docs? The full install seems
enormous and I'd like to use apt-get only to get the packages.
I have had bad experience too many times with people maintaining their own
distributions for their distributions[1], that I never use them. I would
suggest you to download the DVD/ISO[2] version of TeX Live distribution,
and proceed with the installation with the required packages. This is
fast, less prone to error and offline installation.
Or, if you are on a metered connection and don't want to download the
entire ISO, then you can try the Network Installation[3] of TeX Live
that downloads packages as you go.
Using TeX Live, you have control of all the packages you want to
install. Unlike some Linux distro's TeX distribution where most of the
time the packages are grouped into some category and documentation of
which packages are where is missing. You also get the handy `tlmgr`
tool that you can think of like a package mananger for TeX Live that you
can use to install packages later if you have forgotten while installing
TeX Live.
The only downside I see with TeX Live is that you have to re-install
TeX Live every year (around March).
[1] TeX has it's own distributions like TeX Live, MikTeX which is not
the same as a Linux distribution, like Ubuntu.
[2] https://tug.org/texlive/acquire-iso.html
[3] https://tug.org/texlive/acquire-netinstall.html