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5 Installing
************
This section discusses the results of 'make install' in the source tree.
The main consideration is that 'make install' is not enough to make a
usable TeX installation. Beyond the compiled binaries, (thousands of)
support files are needed; just as a first example, 'plain.tex' is not in
the source tree.
These support files are maintained completely independently and are
not present in the TL source tree. The best basis for dealing with them
is the TeX Live (plain text) database in 'Master/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb',
and/or the TeX Live installer, 'install-tl'. More information is under
'Master/tlpkg' and at <https://tug.org/texlive/distro.html>.
5.1 Installation directories
============================
Running 'make install' (or 'make install-strip') installs executables in
'BINDIR', libraries in 'LIBDIR', headers in 'INCLUDEDIR', general data
(including "linked scripts", *note Linked scripts::) in
'DATAROOTDIR/texmf-dist', man pages in 'MANDIR', and Info files in
'INFODIR'.
The values of these directories are determined by 'configure' and can
be specified explicitly as options such as '--prefix=PREFIX' or
'--bindir=BINDIR'; otherwise, they are given by their usual Autoconf
defaults:
PREFIX /usr/local
EXEC_PREFIX PREFIX
BINDIR EXEC_PREFIX/bin
LIBDIR EXEC_PREFIX/lib
INCLUDEDIR PREFIX/include
DATAROOTDIR PREFIX/share
MANDIR DATAROOTDIR/man
INFODIR DATAROOTDIR/info
except possibly modified as follows:
* If the option '--enable-multiplatform' is given, '/PLATFORM' (i.e.,
the canonical platform name) is appended to 'BINDIR' and 'LIBDIR'.
This is implied for a native TL build.
* In a native TL build, 'DATAROOTDIR' is set to 'PREFIX', 'INFODIR'
is set to 'PREFIX/texmf-dist/doc/info', and 'MANDIR' to
'PREFIX/texmf-dist/doc/man', corresponding to the directories used
in the TL distribution.
The top-level 'configure' script displays all these installation paths.
For the native TL build, the 'Build' script leaves the binaries in
'./inst/bin/STD-SYSTEM-TRIPLET'. The new binaries are not directly
usable from that location; they need to be copied to
'Master/bin/TL-PLATFORM'. The other files and directories that end up
in './inst/' are ignored.
5.2 Linked scripts
==================
Quite a few executables are architecture-independent shell, Perl, or
other interpreted scripts, rather than compiled binaries. A few are
maintained as part of the TL source tree, but most are maintained
elsewhere with copies under 'texk/texlive/linked_scripts'.
These so-called "linked scripts" are installed under
'DATAROOTDIR/texmf-dist/scripts'; for Unix-like systems a symbolic link
is made in 'BINDIR'. For example, a symlink points from 'BINDIR/ps2eps'
to 'DATAROOTDIR/texmf-dist/scripts/ps2eps/ps2eps.pl'. For Windows, a
standard wrapper binary (copied to, e.g., 'BINDIR/ps2eps.exe') serves
the same purpose. The source for the wrapper is in
'texk/texlive/w32_wrapper'.
One reason for this is to avoid having many copies of the same
script; a more important reason is that it guarantees the scripts will
stay in sync across the different supported operating systems.
Most important of all, we want the 'BINDIR' resulting from the build
to be as close as possible to what is in the TL distribution. At
present, there are a few exceptions--Asymptote, Biber, Xindy--and each
one creates considerable extra work. We don't want to add more. (See
<https://tug.org/texlive/build.html> for information about building
those exceptions, as well as the 'xz' and 'wget' programs that are used
in the TL infrastructure.)
5.3 Distro builds
=================
Although they use the same code base, building for the native TL
distribution as shipped by the TeX user groups is typically quite
different from a "distro" build needed by, e.g., a full GNU/Linux or BSD
operating system distribution.
The native TL distribution uses shared libraries only when absolutely
necessary ('libc', 'libm', X11 libraries, and 'libfontconfig'). In
contrast, a distro typically wants to use as many shared libraries as
possible from elsewhere on the system, including TeX-specific libraries
such as 'libkpathsea' (even though Kpathsea has never officially been
released as a shared library). In addition, the installation paths
will, in general, be completely different.
Here are the 'configure' options that distro builds are likely to
find most relevant:
'--disable-native-texlive-build'
This must be specified to avoid interference from the many tweaks
we do for the native TL build.
'--with-banner-add=/SOMEDISTRO'
This isn't technically required, but is strongly recommended, so
your build and your distro can be distinguished from others.
'--enable-shared'
Build shared versions of the TeX-specific libraries (uses
'libtool').
'--disable-static'
Do not build the static versions of the TeX-specific libraries.
'--with-system-LIB'
Look for and use a system version of the library LIB. 'configure
--help' will give you the list of possibilities.
'--with-LIB-includes=DIR'
'--with-LIB-libdir=DIR'
If needed, allows you to specify where the headers/code are for the
given library LIB.
'--prefix=/usr'
'--prefix=/opt/TeXLive'
Or whatever your convention is. The default is '/usr/local' and
you shouldn't install there for a distro.
'--libdir=\${exec_prefix}/lib64'
May be needed for 64-bit bi-architecture (GNU/Linux) systems.
You will need to take care of the support files mentioned above
(*note Installing::), and many other issues, such as font maps,
languages, and formats, independently of the build. Norbert Preining
has written a detailed article on adapting TL for distros:
<https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb34-3/tb108preining-distro.pdf>. (If the
article needs updating in the future, perhaps we will merge it into this
document.)