NAME¶
tlmgr - the TeX Live Manager
SYNOPSIS¶
tlmgr [
option]...
action [
option]... [
operand]...
DESCRIPTION¶
tlmgr manages an existing TeX Live installation, both packages and
configuration options. For information on initially downloading and installing
TeX Live, see <
http://tug.org/texlive/acquire.html>.
The most up-to-date version of this documentation (updated nightly from the
development sources) is available at
<
http://tug.org/texlive/tlmgr.html>, along with procedures for updating
"tlmgr" itself and information about test versions.
WARNING: tlmgr in Debian runs always in user mode
TeX Live is organized into a few top-level
schemes, each of which is
specified as a different set of
collections and
packages, where
a collection is a set of packages, and a package is what contains actual
files. Schemes typically contain a mix of collections and packages, but each
package is included in exactly one collection, no more and no less. A TeX Live
installation can be customized and managed at any level.
See <
http://tug.org/texlive/doc> for all the TeX Live documentation
available.
EXAMPLES¶
After successfully installing TeX Live, here are a few common operations with
"tlmgr":
- "tlmgr option repository
http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet"
- Tell "tlmgr" to use a nearby CTAN mirror for future updates;
useful if you installed TeX Live from the DVD image and want continuing
updates.
- "tlmgr update --list"
- Report what would be updated without actually updating anything.
- "tlmgr update --all"
- Make your local TeX installation correspond to what is in the package
repository (typically useful when updating from CTAN).
- "tlmgr info" pkg
- Display detailed information about pkg, such as the installation
status and description.
For all the capabilities and details of "tlmgr", please read the
following voluminous information.
OPTIONS¶
The following options to "tlmgr" are global options, not specific to
any action. All options, whether global or action-specific, can be given
anywhere on the command line, and in any order. The first non-option argument
will be the main action. In all cases, "--"
option and
"-"
option are equivalent, and an "=" is optional
between an option name and its value.
- --repository url|path
- Specifies the package repository from which packages should be installed
or updated, overriding the default package repository found in the
installation's TeX Live Package Database (a.k.a. the TLPDB, defined
entirely in the file "tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb"). The documentation
for "install-tl" has more details about this
(<http://tug.org/texlive/doc/install-tl.html>).
"--repository" changes the repository location only for the
current run; to make a permanent change, use "option repository"
(see the "option" action).
For backward compatibility and convenience, "--location" and
"--repo" are accepted as aliases for this option.
- --gui [action]
- "tlmgr" has a graphical interface as well as the command line
interface. You can give this option, "--gui", together with an
action to be brought directly into the respective screen of the GUI. For
example, running
tlmgr --gui update
starts you directly at the update screen. If no action is given, the GUI
will be started at the main screen.
- --gui-lang llcode
- By default, the GUI tries to deduce your language from the environment (on
Windows via the registry, on Unix via "LC_MESSAGES"). If that
fails you can select a different language by giving this option with a
language code (based on ISO 639-1). Currently supported (but not
necessarily completely translated) are: English (en, default), Czech (cs),
German (de), French (fr), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Dutch (nl), Polish
(pl), Brazilian Portuguese (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Slovak (sk), Slovenian
(sl), Serbian (sr), Ukrainian (uk), Vietnamese (vi), simplified Chinese
(zh_CN), and traditional Chinese (zh_TW).
- --debug-translation
- In GUI mode, this switch tells "tlmgr" to report any
untranslated (or missing) messages to standard error. This can help
translators to see what remains to be done.
- --machine-readable
- Instead of the normal output intended for human consumption, write (to
standard output) a fixed format more suitable for machine parsing. See the
"MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT" section below.
- --no-execute-actions
- Suppress the execution of the execute actions as defined in the tlpsrc
files. Documented only for completeness, as this is only useful in
debugging.
- --package-logfile file
- "tlmgr" logs all package actions (install, remove, update,
failed updates, failed restores) to a separate log file, by default
"TEXMFSYSVAR/web2c/tlmgr.log". This option allows you to
specific a different file for the log.
- --pause
- This option makes "tlmgr" wait for user input before exiting.
Useful on Windows to avoid disappearing command windows.
- --persistent-downloads
- --no-persistent-downloads
- For network-based installations, this option (on by default) makes
"tlmgr" try to set up a persistent connection (using the
"LWP" Perl module). The idea is to open and reuse only one
connection per session between your computer and the server, instead of
initiating a new download for each package.
If this is not possible, "tlmgr" will fall back to using
"wget". To disable these persistent connections, use
"--no-persistent-downloads".
- --pin-file
- Change the pinning file location from
"TEXMFLOCAL/tlpkg/pinning.txt" (see "Pinning" below).
Documented only for completeness, as this is only useful in
debugging.
- --usermode
- Activates user mode for this run of "tlmgr"; see "USER
MODE" below.
- --usertree dir
- Uses dir for the tree in user mode; see "USER MODE"
below.
The standard options for TeX Live programs are also accepted:
"--help/-h/-?", "--version", "-q" (no
informational messages), "-v" (debugging messages, can be repeated).
For the details about these, see the "TeXLive::TLUtils"
documentation.
The "--version" option shows version information about the TeX Live
release and about the "tlmgr" script itself. If "-v" is
also given, revision number for the loaded TeX Live Perl modules are shown,
too.
ACTIONS¶
help¶
Display this help information and exit (same as "--help", and on the
web at <
http://tug.org/texlive/doc/tlmgr.html>). Sometimes the
"perldoc" and/or "PAGER" programs on the system have
problems, resulting in control characters being literally output. This can't
always be detected, but you can set the "NOPERLDOC" environment
variable and "perldoc" will not be used.
version¶
Gives version information (same as "--version").
If "-v" has been given the revisions of the used modules are reported,
too.
backup [--clean[= N]] [--backupdir dir] [--all | pkg]...¶
If the "--clean" option is not specified, this action makes a backup
of the given packages, or all packages given "--all". These backups
are saved to the value of the "--backupdir" option, if that is an
existing and writable directory. If "--backupdir" is not given, the
"backupdir" option setting in the TLPDB is used, if present. If both
are missing, no backups are made.
If the "--clean" option is specified, backups are pruned (removed)
instead of saved. The optional integer value
N may be specified to set
the number of backups that will be retained when cleaning. If "N" is
not given, the value of the "autobackup" option is used. If both are
missing, an error is issued. For more details of backup pruning, see the
"option" action.
Options:
- --backupdir directory
- Overrides the "backupdir" option setting in the TLPDB. The
directory argument is required and must specify an existing,
writable directory where backups are to be placed.
- --all
- If "--clean" is not specified, make a backup of all packages in
the TeX Live installation; this will take quite a lot of space and time.
If "--clean" is specified, all packages are pruned.
- --clean[=N]
- Instead of making backups, prune the backup directory of old backups, as
explained above. The optional integer argument N overrides the
"autobackup" option set in the TLPDB. You must use
"--all" or a list of packages together with this option, as
desired.
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually backed up or removed; instead, the actions to be
performed are written to the terminal.
candidates pkg¶
- candidates pkg
- Shows the available candidate repositories for package pkg. See
"MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES" below.
check [ option]... [files|depends|executes|runfiles|all]¶
Executes one (or all) check(s) on the consistency of the installation.
- files
- Checks that all files listed in the local TLPDB
("texlive.tlpdb") are actually present, and lists those
missing.
- depends
- Lists those packages which occur as dependencies in an installed
collections, but are themselves not installed, and those packages that are
not contained in any collection.
If you call "tlmgr check collections" this test will be carried
out instead since former versions for "tlmgr" called it that
way.
- executes
- Check that the files referred to by "execute" directives in the
TeX Live Database are present.
- runfiles
- List those filenames that are occurring more than one time in the
runfiles.
Options:
- --use-svn
- Use the output of "svn status" instead of listing the files; for
checking the TL development repository.
conf [texmf|tlmgr|updmap [--conffile file] [--delete] [key [value]]]¶
With only "conf", show general configuration information for TeX Live,
including active configuration files, path settings, and more. This is like
the "texconfig conf" call, but works on all supported platforms.
With either "conf texmf", "conf tlmgr", or "conf
updmap" given in addition, shows all key/value pairs (i.e., all settings)
as saved in "ROOT/texmf.cnf", the tlmgr configuration file (see
below), or the first found (via kpsewhich) "updmap.cfg" file,
respectively.
If
key is given in addition, shows the value of only that
key in
the respective file. If option
--delete is also given, the
configuration file -- it is removed, not just commented out!
If
value is given in addition,
key is set to
value in the
respective file.
No error checking is done!
In all cases the file used can be explicitly specified via the option
"--conffile
file", in case one wants to operate on a
different file.
Practical application: if the execution of (some or all) system commands via
"\write18" was left enabled during installation, you can disable it
afterwards:
tlmgr conf texmf shell_escape 0
A more complicated example: the "TEXMFHOME" tree (see the main TeX
Live guide, <
http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html>) can be set to multiple
directories, but they must be enclosed in braces and separated by commas, so
quoting the value to the shell is a good idea. Thus:
tlmgr conf texmf TEXMFHOME "{~/texmf,~/texmfbis}"
Warning: The general facility is here, but tinkering with settings in this way
is very strongly discouraged. Again, no error checking on either keys or
values is done, so any sort of breakage is possible.
dump-tlpdb [--local|--remote]¶
Dump complete local or remote TLPDB to standard output, as-is. The output is
analogous to the "--machine-readable" output; see
"MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT" section.
Options:
- --local
- Dump the local tlpdb.
- --remote
- Dump the remote tlpdb.
Exactly one of "--local" and "--remote" must be given.
In either case, the first line of the output specifies the repository location,
in this format:
"location-url" "\t" location
where "location-url" is the literal field name, followed by a tab, and
location is the file or url to the repository.
Line endings may be either LF or CRLF depending on the current platform.
generate [ option]... what¶
- generate language
- generate language.dat
- generate language.def
- generate language.dat.lua
- generate fmtutil
The "generate" action overwrites any manual changes made in the
respective files: it recreates them from scratch based on the information of
the installed packages, plus local adaptions. The TeX Live installer and
"tlmgr" routinely call "generate" for all of these files.
For managing your own fonts, please read the "updmap --help"
information and/or <
http://tug.org/fonts/fontinstall.html>.
In more detail: "generate" remakes any of the configuration files
"language.dat", "language.def",
"language.dat.lua", and "fmtutil.cnf", from the
information present in the local TLPDB, plus locally-maintained files.
The locally-maintained files are "language-local.dat",
"language-local.def", "language-local.dat.lua", or
"fmtutil-local.cnf", searched for in "TEXMFLOCAL" in the
respective directories. If local additions are present, the final file is made
by starting with the main file, omitting any entries that the local file
specifies to be disabled, and finally appending the local file.
(Historical note: The formerly supported "updmap-local.cfg" is no
longer read, since "updmap" now supports multiple
"updmap.cfg" files. Thus, local additions can and should be put into
an "updmap.cfg" file in "TEXMFLOCAL". The "generate
updmap" action no longer exists.)
Local files specify entries to be disabled with a comment line, namely one of
these:
#!NAME
%!NAME
--!NAME
where "fmtutil.cnf" uses "#", "language.dat" and
"language.def" use "%", and "language.dat.lua"
use "--". In all cases, the
name is the respective format
name or hyphenation pattern identifier. Examples:
#!pdflatex
%!german
--!usenglishmax
(Of course, you're not likely to actually want to disable those particular
items. They're just examples.)
After such a disabling line, the local file can include another entry for the
same item, if a different definition is desired. In general, except for the
special disabling lines, the local files follow the same syntax as the master
files.
The form "generate language" recreates all three files
"language.dat", "language.def", and
"language.dat.lua", while the forms with an extension recreates only
that given language file.
Options:
- --dest output_file
- specifies the output file (defaults to the respective location in
"TEXMFSYSVAR"). If "--dest" is given to "generate
language", it serves as a basename onto which ".dat" will
be appended for the name of the "language.dat" output file,
".def" will be appended to the value for the name of the
"language.def" output file, and ".dat.lua" to the name
of the "language.dat.lua" file. (This is just to avoid
overwriting; if you want a specific name for each output file, we
recommend invoking "tlmgr" twice.)
- --localcfg local_conf_file
- specifies the (optional) local additions (defaults to the respective
location in "TEXMFLOCAL").
- --rebuild-sys
- tells tlmgr to run necessary programs after config files have been
regenerated. These are: "fmtutil-sys --all" after "generate
fmtutil", "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.dat" after
"generate language.dat", and "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen
.../language.def" after "generate language.def".
These subsequent calls cause the newly-generated files to actually take
effect. This is not done by default since those calls are lengthy
processes and one might want to made several related changes in succession
before invoking these programs.
The respective locations are as follows:
tex/generic/config/language.dat (and language-local.dat);
tex/generic/config/language.def (and language-local.def);
tex/generic/config/language.dat.lua (and language-local.dat.lua);
web2c/fmtutil.cnf (and fmtutil-local.cnf);
gui¶
Start the graphical user interface. See
GUI below.
info [ option...] [collections|schemes|pkg...]¶
With no argument, lists all packages available at the package repository,
prefixing those already installed with "i".
With the single word "collections" or "schemes" as the
argument, lists the request type instead of all packages.
With any other arguments, display information about
pkg: the name,
category, short and long description, installation status, and TeX Live
revision number. If
pkg is not locally installed, searches in the
remote installation source.
It also displays information taken from the TeX Catalogue, namely the package
version, date, and license. Consider these, especially the package version, as
approximations only, due to timing skew of the updates of the different
pieces. By contrast, the "revision" value comes directly from TL and
is reliable.
The former actions "show" and "list" are merged into this
action, but are still supported for backward compatibility.
Options:
- --list
- If the option "--list" is given with a package, the list of
contained files is also shown, including those for platform-specific
dependencies. When given with schemes and collections, "--list"
outputs their dependencies in a similar way.
- --only-installed
- If this options is given, the installation source will not be used; only
locally installed packages, collections, or schemes are listed. (Does not
work for listing of packages for now)
- --taxonomy
- --keyword
- --functionality
- --characterization
- In addition to the normal data displayed, also display information for
given packages from the corresponding taxonomy (or all of them). See
"TAXONOMIES" below for details.
init-usertree¶
Sets up a texmf tree for so-called user mode management, either the default user
tree ("TEXMFHOME"), or one specified on the command line with
"--usertree". See "USER MODE" below.
install [ option]... pkg...¶
Install each
pkg given on the command line. By default this installs all
packages on which the given
pkgs are dependent, also. Options:
- --file
- Instead of fetching a package from the installation repository, use the
package files given on the command line. These files must be standard TeX
Live package files (with contained tlpobj file).
- --reinstall
- Reinstall a package (including dependencies for collections) even if it
already seems to be installed (i.e, is present in the TLPDB). This is
useful to recover from accidental removal of files in the hierarchy.
When re-installing, only dependencies on normal packages are followed (i.e.,
not those of category Scheme or Collection).
- --no-depends
- Do not install dependencies. (By default, installing a package ensures
that all dependencies of this package are fulfilled.)
- --no-depends-at-all
- Normally, when you install a package which ships binary files the
respective binary package will also be installed. That is, for a package
"foo", the package "foo.i386-linux" will also be
installed on an "i386-linux" system. This option suppresses this
behavior, and also implies "--no-depends". Don't use it unless
you are sure of what you are doing.
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are
written to the terminal.
- --force
- If updates to "tlmgr" itself (or other parts of the basic
infrastructure) are present, "tlmgr" will bail out and not
perform the installation unless this option is given. Not
recommended.
option¶
- option [show]
- option showall
- option key [value]
The first form shows the global TeX Live settings currently saved in the TLPDB
with a short description and the "key" used for changing it in
parentheses.
The second form is similar, but also shows options which can be defined but are
not currently set to any value.
In the third form, if
value is not given, the setting for
key is
displayed. If
value is present,
key is set to
value.
Possible values for
key are (run "tlmgr option showall" for the
definitive list):
repository (default package repository),
formats (create formats at installation time),
postcode (run postinst code blobs)
docfiles (install documentation files),
srcfiles (install source files),
backupdir (default directory for backups),
autobackup (number of backups to keep).
sys_bin (directory to which executables are linked by the path action)
sys_man (directory to which man pages are linked by the path action)
sys_info (directory to which Info files are linked by the path action)
desktop_integration (Windows-only: create Start menu shortcuts)
fileassocs (Windows-only: change file associations)
multiuser (Windows-only: install for all users)
One common use of "option" is to permanently change the installation
to get further updates from the Internet, after originally installing from
DVD. To do this, you can run
tlmgr option repository http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet
The "install-tl" documentation has more information about the possible
values for "repository". (For backward compatibility,
"location" can be used as alternative name for
"repository".)
If "formats" is set (this is the default), then formats are
regenerated when either the engine or the format files have changed. Disable
this only when you know what you are doing.
The "postcode" option controls execution of per-package
postinstallation action code. It is set by default, and again disabling is not
likely to be of interest except perhaps to developers.
The "docfiles" and "srcfiles" options control the
installation of their respective files of a package. By default both are
enabled (1). This can be disabled (set to 0) if disk space is (very) limited.
The options "autobackup" and "backupdir" determine the
defaults for the actions "update", "backup" and
"restore". These three actions need a directory in which to read or
write the backups. If "--backupdir" is not specified on the command
line, the "backupdir" option value is used (if set).
The "autobackup" option (de)activates automatic generation of backups.
Its value is an integer. If the "autobackup" value is
"-1", no backups are removed. If "autobackup" is 0 or
more, it specifies the number of backups to keep. Thus, backups are disabled
if the value is 0. In the "--clean" mode of the "backup"
action this option also specifies the number to be kept.
To setup "autobackup" to "-1" on the command line, use:
tlmgr option -- autobackup -1
The "--" avoids having the "-1" treated as an option.
("--" stops parsing for options at the point where it appears; this
is a general feature across most Unix programs.)
The "sys_bin", "sys_man", and "sys_info" options
are used on Unix-like systems to control the generation of links for
executables, info files and man pages. See the "path" action for
details.
The last three options control behaviour on Windows installations. If
"desktop_integration" is set, then some packages will install items
in a sub-folder of the Start menu for "tlmgr gui", documentation,
etc. If "fileassocs" is set, Windows file associations are made (see
also the "postaction" action). Finally, if "multiuser" is
set, then adaptions to the registry and the menus are done for all users on
the system instead of only the current user. All three options are on by
default.
paper¶
- paper [a4|letter]
- [xdvi|pdftex|dvips|dvipdfmx|context|psutils] paper [papersize|--list]
With no arguments ("tlmgr paper"), shows the default paper size
setting for all known programs.
With one argument (e.g., "tlmgr paper a4"), sets the default for all
known programs to that paper size.
With a program given as the first argument and no paper size specified (e.g.,
"tlmgr dvips paper"), shows the default paper size for that program.
With a program given as the first argument and a paper size as the last argument
(e.g., "tlmgr dvips paper a4"), set the default for that program to
that paper size.
With a program given as the first argument and "--list" given as the
last argument (e.g., "tlmgr dvips paper --list"), shows all valid
paper sizes for that program. The first size shown is the default.
Incidentally, this syntax of having a specific program name before the
"paper" keyword is unusual. It is inherited from the longstanding
"texconfig" script, which supports other configuration settings for
some programs, notably "dvips". "tlmgr" does not support
those extra settings.
path [--w32mode=user|admin] [add|remove]¶
On Unix, merely adds or removes symlinks for binaries, man pages, and info pages
in the system directories specified by the respective options (see the
"option" description above). Does not change any initialization
files, either system or personal.
On Windows, the registry part where the binary directory is added or removed is
determined in the following way:
If the user has admin rights, and the option "--w32mode" is not given,
the setting
w32_multi_user determines the location (i.e., if it is on
then the system path, otherwise the user path is changed).
If the user has admin rights, and the option "--w32mode" is given,
this option determines the path to be adjusted.
If the user does not have admin rights, and the option "--w32mode" is
not given, and the setting
w32_multi_user is off, the user path is
changed, while if the setting
w32_multi_user is on, a warning is issued
that the caller does not have enough privileges.
If the user does not have admin rights, and the option "--w32mode" is
given, it must be
user and the user path will be adjusted. If a user
without admin rights uses the option "--w32mode admin" a warning is
issued that the caller does not have enough privileges.
pinning¶
The "pinning" action manages the pinning file, see "Pinning"
below.
- "pinning show"
- Shows the current pinning data.
- "pinning add" repo pkgglob...
- Pins the packages matching the pkgglob(s) to the repository
repo.
- "pinning remove" repo pkgglob...
- Any packages recorded in the pinning file matching the <pkgglob>s
for the given repository repo are removed.
- "pinning remove repo --all"
- Remove all pinning data for repository repo.
"platform list" lists the TeX Live names of all the platforms (a.k.a.
architectures), ("i386-linux", ...) available at the package
repository.
"platform add"
platform... adds the executables for each given
platform
platform to the installation from the repository.
"platform remove"
platform... removes the executables for each
given platform
platform from the installation, but keeps the currently
running platform in any case.
"platform set"
platform switches TeX Live to always use the
given platform instead of auto detection.
"platform set auto" switches TeX Live to auto detection mode for
platform.
Platform detection is needed to select the proper "xz",
"xzdec" and "wget" binaries that are shipped with TeX
Live.
"arch" is a synonym for "platform".
Options:
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are
written to the terminal.
postaction [--w32mode=user|admin] [--fileassocmode=1|2] [--all] [install|remove] [shortcut|fileassoc|script] [ pkg]...¶
Carry out the postaction "shortcut", "fileassoc", or
"script" given as the second required argument in install or remove
mode (which is the first required argument), for either the packages given on
the command line, or for all if "--all" is given.
If the option "--w32mode" is given the value "user", all
actions will only be carried out in the user-accessible parts of the
registry/filesystem, while the value "admin" selects the system-wide
parts of the registry for the file associations. If you do not have enough
permissions, using "--w32mode=admin" will not succeed.
"--fileassocmode" specifies the action for file associations. If it is
set to 1 (the default), only new associations are added; if it is set to 2,
all associations are set to the TeX Live programs. (See also "option
fileassocs".)
Print the TeX Live identifier for the detected platform (hardware/operating
system) combination to standard output, and exit. "--print-arch" is
a synonym.
restore [--backupdir dir] [--all | pkg [rev]]¶
Restore a package from a previously-made backup.
If "--all" is given, try to restore the latest revision of all package
backups found in the backup directory.
Otherwise, if neither
pkg nor
rev are given, list the available
backup revisions for all packages.
With
pkg given but no
rev, list all available backup revisions of
pkg.
When listing available packages tlmgr shows the revision and in parenthesis the
creation time if available (in format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm).
With both
pkg and
rev, tries to restore the package from the
specified backup.
Options:
- --all
- Try to restore the latest revision of all package backups found in the
backup directory. Additional non-option arguments (like pkg) are
not allowed.
- --backupdir directory
- Specify the directory where the backups are to be found. If not given it
will be taken from the configuration setting in the TLPDB.
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually restored; instead, the actions to be performed are
written to the terminal.
- --force
- Don't ask questions.
remove [ option]... pkg...¶
Remove each
pkg specified. Removing a collection removes all package
dependencies (unless "--no-depends" is specified), but not any
collection dependencies of that collection. However, when removing a package,
dependencies are never removed. Options:
- --no-depends
- Do not remove dependent packages.
- --no-depends-at-all
- See above under install (and beware).
- --force
- By default, removal of a package or collection that is a dependency of
another collection or scheme is not allowed. With this option, the package
will be removed unconditionally. Use with care.
A package that has been removed using the "--force" option because
it is still listed in an installed collection or scheme will not be
updated, and will be mentioned as forcibly removed in the output of
tlmgr update --list.
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually removed; instead, the actions to be performed are
written to the terminal.
repository¶
- repository list
- repository list path|tag
- repository add path
[tag]
- repository remove path|tag
- repository set path[#tag]
[ path[#tag] ...]
- This action manages the list of repositories. See "MULTIPLE
REPOSITORIES" below for detailed explanations.
The first form ("list") lists all configured repositories and the
respective tags if set. If a path, url, or tag is given after the
"list" keyword, it is interpreted as source from where to
initialize a TeX Live Database and lists the contained packages. This can
also be an up-to-now not used repository, both locally and remote. If one
pass in addition "--with-platforms", for each package the
available platforms (if any) are listed, too.
The third form ("add") adds a repository (optionally attaching a
tag) to the list of repositories. The forth form ("remove")
removes a repository, either by full path/url, or by tag. The last form
("set") sets the list of repositories to the items given on the
command line, not keeping previous settings
In all cases, one of the repositories must be tagged as "main";
otherwise, all operations will fail!
search [ option...] what¶
search [option...] --file what
search [option...] --taxonomy what
search [option...] --keyword what
search [option...] --functionality what
search [option...] --characterization what
search [option...] --all what
By default, search the names, short descriptions, and long descriptions of all
locally installed packages for the argument
what, interpreted as a
regular expression.
Options:
- --global
- Search the TeX Live Database of the installation medium, instead of the
local installation.
- --word
- Restrict the search to match only full words. For example, searching for
"table" with this option will not output packages containing the
word "tables" (unless they also contain the word
"table" on its own).
- --list
- If a search for any (or all) taxonomies is done, by specifying one of the
taxonomy options below, then instead of searching for packages, list the
entire corresponding taxonomy (or all of them). See "TAXONOMIES"
below.
Other search options are selected by specifying one of the following:
- --file
- List all filenames containing what.
- --taxonomy
- --keyword
- --functionality
- --characterization
- Search in the corresponding taxonomy (or all) instead of the package
descriptions. See "TAXONOMIES" below.
- --all
- Search for package names, descriptions, and taxonomies, but not
files.
uninstall¶
Uninstalls the entire TeX Live installation. Options:
- --force
- Do not ask for confirmation, remove immediately.
update [ option]... [pkg]...¶
Updates the packages given as arguments to the latest version available at the
installation source. Either "--all" or at least one
pkg name
must be specified. Options:
- --all
- Update all installed packages except for "tlmgr" itself. Thus,
if updates to "tlmgr" itself are present, this will simply give
an error, unless also the option "--force" or "--self"
is given. (See below.)
In addition to updating the installed packages, during the update of a
collection the local installation is (by default) synchronized to the
status of the collection on the server, for both additions and removals.
This means that if a package has been removed on the server (and thus has
also been removed from the respective collection), "tlmgr" will
remove the package in the local installation. This is called
``auto-remove'' and is announced as such when using the option
"--list". This auto-removal can be suppressed using the option
"--no-auto-remove" (not recommended, see option description).
Analogously, if a package has been added to a collection on the server that
is also installed locally, it will be added to the local installation.
This is called ``auto-install'' and is announced as such when using the
option "--list". This auto-installation can be suppressed using
the option "--no-auto-install".
An exception to the collection dependency checks (including the
auto-installation of packages just mentioned) are those that have been
``forcibly removed'' by you, that is, you called "tlmgr remove
--force" on them. (See the "remove" action documentation.)
To reinstall any such forcibly removed packages use
"--reinstall-forcibly-removed".
If you want to exclude some packages from the current update run (e.g., due
to a slow link), see the "--exclude" option below.
- --self
- Update "tlmgr" itself (that is, the infrastructure packages) if
updates to it are present. On Windows this includes updates to the private
Perl interpreter shipped inside TeX Live.
If this option is given together with either "--all" or a list of
packages, then "tlmgr" will be updated first and, if this update
succeeds, the new version will be restarted to complete the rest of the
updates.
In short:
tlmgr update --self # update infrastructure only
tlmgr update --self --all # update infrastructure and all packages
tlmgr update --force --all # update all packages but *not* infrastructure
# ... this last at your own risk, not recommended!
- --dry-run
- Nothing is actually installed; instead, the actions to be performed are
written to the terminal. This is a more detailed report than
"--list".
- --list [pkg]
- Concisely list the packages which would be updated, newly installed, or
removed, without actually changing anything. If "--all" is also
given, all available updates are listed. If "--self" is given,
but not "--all", only updates to the critical packages (tlmgr,
texlive infrastructure, perl on Windows, etc.) are listed. If neither
"--all" nor "--self" is given, and in addition no
pkg is given, then "--all" is assumed (thus, "tlmgr
update --list" is the same as "tlmgr update --list --all").
If neither "--all" nor "--self" is given, but specific
package names are given, those packages are checked for updates.
- --exclude pkg
- Exclude pkg from the update process. If this option is given more
than once, its arguments accumulate.
An argument pkg excludes both the package pkg itself and all
its related platform-specific packages pkg.ARCH. For example,
tlmgr update --all --exclude a2ping
will not update "a2ping", "a2ping.i386-linux", or any
other "a2ping." ARCH package.
If this option specifies a package that would otherwise be a candidate for
auto-installation, auto-removal, or reinstallation of a forcibly removed
package, "tlmgr" quits with an error message. Excludes are not
supported in these circumstances.
- --no-auto-remove [pkg]...
- By default, "tlmgr" tries to remove packages which have
disappeared on the server, as described above under "--all".
This option prevents such removals, either for all packages (with
"--all"), or for just the given pkg names. This can lead
to an inconsistent TeX installation, since packages are not infrequently
renamed or replaced by their authors. Therefore this is not
recommend.
- --no-auto-install [pkg]...
- Under normal circumstances "tlmgr" will install packages which
are new on the server, as described above under "--all". This
option prevents any such automatic installation, either for all packages
(with "--all"), or the given pkg names.
Furthermore, after the "tlmgr" run using this has finished, the
packages that would have been auto-installed will be considered as
forcibly removed. So, if "foobar" is the only new package
on the server, then
tlmgr update --all --no-auto-install
is equivalent to
tlmgr update --all
tlmgr remove --force foobar
- --reinstall-forcibly-removed
- Under normal circumstances "tlmgr" will not install packages
that have been forcibly removed by the user; that is, removed with
"remove --force", or whose installation was prohibited by
"--no-auto-install" during an earlier update.
This option makes "tlmgr" ignore the forcible removals and
re-install all such packages. This can be used to completely synchronize
an installation with the server's idea of what is available:
tlmgr update --reinstall-forcibly-removed --all
- --backup and --backupdir directory
- These two options control the creation of backups of packages
before updating; that is, backup of packages as currently
installed. If neither of these options are given, no backup package will
be saved. If "--backupdir" is given and specifies a writable
directory then a backup will be made in that location. If only
"--backup" is given, then a backup will be made to the directory
previously set via the "option" action (see below). If both are
given then a backup will be made to the specified directory.
You can set options via the "option" action to automatically
create backups for all packages, and/or keep only a certain number of
backups. Please see the "option" action for details.
"tlmgr" always makes a temporary backup when updating packages, in
case of download or other failure during an update. In contrast, the
purpose of this "--backup" option is to allow you to save a
persistent backup in case the actual content of the update causes
problems, e.g., introduces an incompatibility.
The "restore" action explains how to restore from a backup.
- --no-depends
- If you call for updating a package normally all depending packages will
also be checked for updates and updated if necessary. This switch
suppresses this behavior.
- --no-depends-at-all
- See above under install (and beware).
- --force
- Force update of normal packages, without updating "tlmgr" itself
(unless the "--self" option is also given). Not recommended.
Also, "update --list" is still performed regardless of this
option.
If the package on the server is older than the package already installed (e.g.,
if the selected mirror is out of date), "tlmgr" does not downgrade.
Also, packages for uninstalled platforms are not installed.
USER MODE¶
"tlmgr" provides a restricted way, called ``user mode'', to manage
arbitrary texmf trees in the same way as the main installation. For example,
this allows people without write permissions on the installation location to
update/install packages into a tree of their own.
"tlmgr" is switched into user mode with the command line option
"--usermode". It does not switch automatically, nor is there any
configuration file setting for it. Thus, this option has to be explicitly
given every time user mode is to be activated.
This mode of "tlmgr" works on a user tree, by default the value of the
"TEXMFHOME" variable. This can be overridden with the command line
option "--usertree". In the following when we speak of the user tree
we mean either "TEXMFHOME" or the one given on the command line.
Not all actions are allowed in user mode; "tlmgr" will warn you and
not carry out any problematic actions. Currently not supported (and probably
will never be) is the "platform" action. The "gui" action
is currently not supported, but may be in a future release.
Some "tlmgr" actions don't need any write permissions and thus work
the same in user mode and normal mode. Currently these are: "check",
"help", "list", "print-platform",
"search", "show", "version".
On the other hand, most of the actions dealing with package management do need
write permissions, and thus behave differently in user mode, as described
below: "install", "update", "remove",
"option", "paper", "generate",
"backup", "restore", "uninstall",
"symlinks".
Before using "tlmgr" in user mode, you have to set up the user tree
with the "init-usertree" action. This creates
usertree"/web2c" and
usertree"/tlpkg/tlpobj", and a minimal
usertree"/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb". At that point, you can tell
"tlmgr" to do the (supported) actions by adding the
"--usermode" command line option.
In user mode the file
usertree"/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb" contains
only the packages that have been installed into the user tree using
"tlmgr", plus additional options from the ``virtual'' package
"00texlive.installation" (similar to the main installation's
"texlive.tlpdb").
All actions on packages in user mode can only be carried out on packages that
are known as "relocatable". This excludes all packages containing
executables and a few other core packages. Of the 2500 or so packages
currently in TeX Live the vast majority are relocatable and can be installed
into a user tree.
Description of changes of actions in user mode:
user mode install¶
In user mode, the "install" action checks that the package and all
dependencies are all either relocated or already installed in the system
installation. If this is the case, it unpacks all containers to be installed
into the user tree (to repeat, that's either "TEXMFHOME" or the
value of "--usertree") and add the respective packages to the user
tree's "texlive.tlpdb" (creating it if need be).
Currently installing a collection in user mode installs all dependent packages,
but in contrast to normal mode, does
not install dependent collections.
For example, in normal mode "tlmgr install collection-context" would
install "collection-basic" and other collections, while in user
mode,
only the packages mentioned in "collection-context" are
installed.
user mode backup; restore; remove; update¶
In user mode, these actions check that all packages to be acted on are installed
in the user tree before proceeding; otherwise, they behave just as in normal
mode.
user mode generate; option; paper¶
In user mode, these actions operate only on the user tree's configuration files
and/or "texlive.tlpdb". creates configuration files in user tree
CONFIGURATION FILE FOR TLMGR¶
A small subset of the command line options can be set in a config file for
"tlmgr" which resides in "TEXMFCONFIG/tlmgr/config". By
default, the config file is in
"~/.texliveYYYY/texmf-config/tlmgr/config" (replacing
"YYYY" with the year of your TeX Live installation). This is
not "TEXMFSYSVAR", so that the file is specific to a single
user.
In this file, empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored. All other lines
must look like
key = value
where the allowed keys are "gui-expertmode" (value 0 or 1),
"persistent-downloads" (value 0 or 1), "auto-remove"
(value 0 or 1), and "gui-lang" (value like in the command line
option).
"persistent-downloads", "gui-lang", and
"auto-remove" correspond to the respective command line options of
the same name. "gui-expertmode" switches between the full GUI and a
simplified GUI with only the important and mostly used settings.
TAXONOMIES¶
tlmgr allows searching and listing of various categorizations, which we call
taxonomies, as provided by an enhanced TeX Catalogue (available for
testing at <
http://az.ctan.org>). This is useful when, for example, you
don't know a specific package name but have an idea of the functionality you
need; or when you want to see all packages relating to a given area.
There are three different taxonomies, specified by the following options:
- "--keyword"
- The keywords, as specified at <http://az.ctan.org/keyword>.
- "--functionality"
- The ``by-topic'' categorization created by J\"urgen Fenn, as
specified at <http://az.ctan.org/characterization/by-function>.
- "--characterization"
- Both the primary and secondary functionalities, as specified at
<http://az.ctan.org/characterization/choose_dimen>.
- "--taxonomy"
- Operate on all the taxonomies.
The taxonomies are updated nightly and stored within TeX Live, so Internet
access is not required to search them.
Examples:
tlmgr search --taxonomy exercise # check all taxonomies for "exercise"
tlmgr search --taxonomy --word table # check for "table" on its own
tlmgr search --list --keyword # dump entire keyword taxonomy
tlmgr show --taxonomy pdftex # show pdftex package information,
# including all taxonomy entries
MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES¶
The main TeX Live repository contains a vast array of packages. Nevertheless,
additional local repositories can be useful to provide locally-installed
resources, such as proprietary fonts and house styles. Also, alternative
package repositories distribute packages that cannot or should not be included
in TeX Live, for whatever reason.
The simplest and most reliable method is to temporarily set the installation
source to any repository (with the "-repository" or "option
repository" command line options), and perform your operations.
When you are using multiple repositories over a sustained time, however,
explicitly switching between them becomes inconvenient. Thus, it's possible to
tell "tlmgr" about additional repositories you want to use. The
basic command is "tlmgr repository add". The rest of this section
explains further.
When using multiple repositories, one of them has to be set as the main
repository, which distributes most of the installed packages. When you switch
from a single repository installation to a multiple repository installation,
the previous sole repository will be set as the main repository.
By default, even if multiple repositories are configured, packages are
still only installed from the main repository. Thus, simply
adding a second repository does not actually enable installation of anything
from there. You also have to specify which packages should be taken from the
new repository, by specifying so-called ``pinning'' rules, described next.
Pinning¶
When a package "foo" is pinned to a repository, a package
"foo" in any other repository, even if it has a higher revision
number, will not be considered an installable candidate.
As mentioned above, by default everything is pinned to the main repository.
Let's now go through an example of setting up a second repository and enabling
updates of a package from it.
First, check that we have support for multiple repositories, and have only one
enabled (as is the case by default):
$ tlmgr repository list
List of repositories (with tags if set):
/var/www/norbert/tlnet
Ok. Let's add the "tlcontrib" repository (this is a real repository,
hosted at <
http://tlcontrib.metatex.org>, maintained by Taco Hoekwater
et al.), with the tag "tlcontrib":
$ tlmgr repository add http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2012 tlcontrib
Check the repository list again:
$ tlmgr repository list
List of repositories (with tags if set):
http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2012 (tlcontrib)
/var/www/norbert/tlnet (main)
Now we specify a pinning entry to get the package "context" from
"tlcontrib":
$ tlmgr pinning add tlcontrib context
Check that we can find "context":
$ tlmgr show context
tlmgr: package repositories:
...
package: context
repository: tlcontrib/26867
...
- install "context":
$ tlmgr install context
tlmgr: package repositories:
...
[1/1, ??:??/??:??] install: context @tlcontrib [
In the output here you can see that the "context" package has been
installed from the "tlcontrib" repository (@tlcontrib).
Finally, "tlmgr pinning" also supports removing certain or all
packages from a given repository:
$ tlmgr pinning remove tlcontrib context # remove just context
$ tlmgr pinning remove tlcontrib --all # take nothing from tlcontrib
A summary of the "tlmgr pinning" actions is given above.
GUI FOR TLMGR¶
The graphical user interface for "tlmgr" needs Perl/Tk to be
installed. For Windows the necessary modules are shipped within TeX Live, for
all other (i.e., Unix-based) systems Perl/Tk (as well as Perl of course) has
to be installed. <
http://tug.org/texlive/distro.html#perltk> has a list
of invocations for some distros.
When started with "tlmgr gui" the graphical user interface will be
shown. The main window contains a menu bar, the main display, and a status
area where messages normally shown on the console are displayed.
Within the main display there are three main parts: the "Display
configuration" area, the list of packages, and the action buttons.
Also, at the top right the currently loaded repository is shown; this also acts
as a button and when clicked will try to load the default repository. To load
a different repository, see the "tlmgr" menu item.
Finally, the status area at the bottom of the window gives additional
information about what is going on.
Main display¶
Display configuration area
The first part of the main display allows you to specify (filter) which packages
are shown. By default, all are shown. Changes here are reflected right away.
- Status
- Select whether to show all packages (the default), only those installed,
only those not installed, or only those with update available.
- Category
- Select which categories are shown: packages, collections, and/or schemes.
These are briefly explained in the "DESCRIPTION" section
above.
- Match
- Select packages matching for a specific pattern. By default, this uses the
same algorithm as "tlmgr search", i.e., searches everything:
descriptions, taxonomies, and/or filenames. You can also select any subset
for searching.
- Selection
- Select packages to those selected, those not selected, or all. Here,
``selected'' means that the checkbox in the beginning of the line of a
package is ticked.
- Display configuration buttons
- To the right there are three buttons: select all packages, select none
(a.k.a. deselect all), and reset all these filters to the defaults, i.e.,
show all available.
Package list area
The second are of the main display lists all installed packages. If a repository
is loaded, those that are available but not installed are also listed.
Double clicking on a package line pops up an informational window with further
details: the long description, included files, etc.
Each line of the package list consists of the following items:
- a checkbox
- Used to select particular packages; some of the action buttons (see below)
work only on the selected packages.
- package name
- The name (identifier) of the package as given in the database.
- local revision (and version)
- If the package is installed the TeX Live revision number for the installed
package will be shown. If there is a catalogue version given in the
database for this package, it will be shown in parentheses. However, the
catalogue version, unlike the TL revision, is not guaranteed to reflect
what is actually installed.
- remote revision (and version)
- If a repository has been loaded the revision of the package in the
repository (if present) is shown. As with the local column, if a catalogue
version is provided it will be displayed. And also as with the local
column, the catalogue version may be stale.
- short description
- The short description of the package.
Main display action buttons
Below the list of packages are several buttons:
- Update all installed
- This calls "tlmgr update --all", i.e., tries to update all
available packages. Below this button is a toggle to allow reinstallation
of previously removed packages as part of this action.
The other four buttons only work on the selected packages, i.e., those where
the checkbox at the beginning of the package line is ticked.
- Update
- Update only the selected packages.
- Install
- Install the selected packages; acts like "tlmgr install", i.e.,
also installs dependencies. Thus, installing a collection installs all its
constituent packages.
- Remove
- Removes the selected packages; acts like "tlmgr remove", i.e.,
it will also remove dependencies of collections (but not dependencies of
normal packages).
- Backup
- Makes a backup of the selected packages; acts like "tlmgr
backup". This action needs the option "backupdir" set (see
"Options -" General>).
The following entries can be found in the menu bar:
- "tlmgr" menu
- The items here load various repositories: the default as specified in the
TeX Live database, the default network repository, the repository
specified on the command line (if any), and an arbitrarily
manually-entered one. Also has the so-necessary "quit"
operation.
- "Options menu"
- Provides access to several groups of options: "Paper"
(configuration of default paper sizes), "Platforms" (only on
Unix, configuration of the supported/installed platforms), "GUI
Language" (select language used in the GUI interface), and
"General" (everything else).
Several toggles are also here. The first is "Expert options",
which is set by default. If you turn this off, the next time you start the
GUI a simplified screen will be shown that display only the most important
functionality. This setting is saved in the configuration file of
"tlmgr"; see "CONFIGURATION FILE FOR TLMGR" for
details.
The other toggles are all off by default: for debugging output, to disable
the automatic installation of new packages, and to disable the automatic
removal of packages deleted from the server. Playing with the choices of
what is or isn't installed may lead to an inconsistent TeX Live
installation; e.g., when a package is renamed.
- "Actions menu"
- Provides access to several actions: update the filename database (aka
"ls-R", "mktexlsr", "texhash"), rebuild all
formats ("fmtutil-sys --all"), update the font map database
("updmap-sys"), restore from a backup of a package, and use of
symbolic links in system directories (not on Windows).
The final action is to remove the entire TeX Live installation (also not on
Windows).
- "Help menu"
- Provides access to the TeX Live manual (also on the web at
<http://tug.org/texlive/doc.html>) and the usual ``About'' box.
MACHINE-READABLE OUTPUT¶
With the "--machine-readable" option, "tlmgr" writes to
stdout in the fixed line-oriented format described here, and the usual
informational messages for human consumption are written to stderr (normally
they are written to stdout). The idea is that a program can get all the
information it needs by reading stdout.
Currently this option only applies to the update, install, and
"option" actions.
Machine-readable "update" and "install" output¶
The output format is as follows:
fieldname "\t" value
...
"end-of-header"
pkgname status localrev serverrev size runtime esttot
...
"end-of-updates"
other output from post actions, not in machine readable form
The header section currently has two fields: "location-url" (the
repository source from which updates are being drawn), and
"total-bytes" (the total number of bytes to be downloaded).
The
localrev and
serverrev fields for each package are the
revision numbers in the local installation and server repository,
respectively. The
size field is the number of bytes to be downloaded,
i.e., the size of the compressed tar file for a network installation, not the
unpacked size. The runtime and esttot fields are only present for updated and
auto-install packages, and contain the currently passed time since start of
installation/updates and the estimated total time.
Line endings may be either LF or CRLF depending on the current platform.
- "location-url" location
- The location may be a url (including
"file:///foo/bar/..."), or a directory name
("/foo/bar"). It is the package repository from which the new
package information was drawn.
- "total-bytes" count
- The count is simply a decimal number, the sum of the sizes of all
the packages that need updating or installing (which are listed
subsequently).
Then comes a line with only the literal string "end-of-header".
Each following line until a line with literal string "end-of-updates"
reports on one package. The fields on each line are separated by a tab. Here
are the fields.
- pkgname
- The TeX Live package identifier, with a possible platform suffix for
executables. For instance, "pdftex" and
"pdftex.i386-linux" are given as two separate packages, one on
each line.
- status
- The status of the package update. One character, as follows:
- "d"
- The package was removed on the server.
- "f"
- The package was removed in the local installation, even though a
collection depended on it. (E.g., the user ran "tlmgr remove
--force".)
- "u"
- Normal update is needed.
- "r"
- Reversed non-update: the locally-installed version is newer than the
version on the server.
- "a"
- Automatically-determined need for installation, the package is new on the
server and is (most probably) part of an installed collection.
- "i"
- Package will be installed and isn't present in the local installation
(action install).
- "I"
- Package is already present but will be reinstalled (action install).
- localrev
- The revision number of the installed package, or "-" if it is
not present locally.
- serverrev
- The revision number of the package on the server, or "-" if it
is not present on the server.
- size
- The size in bytes of the package on the server. The sum of all the package
sizes is given in the "total-bytes" header field mentioned
above.
- runtime
- The run time since start of installations or updates.
- esttot
- The estimated total time.
Machine-readable "option" output¶
The output format is as follows:
key "\t" value
If a value is not saved in the database the string "(not set)" is
shown.
If you are developing a program that uses this output, and find that changes
would be helpful, do not hesitate to write the mailing list.
AUTHORS AND COPYRIGHT¶
This script and its documentation were written for the TeX Live distribution
(<
http://tug.org/texlive>) and both are licensed under the GNU General
Public License Version 2 or later.