TeX Live Repository for Installation Using the TeX Live Package Manager tlmgr

Deutsch: → TeX Live Repository zur Installation über den TeX Live Paketmanager tlmgr

Since 2013 TeX Live has provided the facility to use several package repositories. Doing so, you can also state which package should be installed from which repository. There are two different methods:

• one-time installation from a dedicated repository
• Defining a repository as the one that should always be used to installation or update of a package.

The repository structure has been changed from TeX Live 2015 to TeX Live 2016. Therefore we have two different repositories:

• https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2015 for TeX Live 2013–2015
• https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2023 for TeX Live 2016–2023¹

Please note, access to these links is possible with tlmgr only.

One-time, not persistent installation

Installing a package from a particular repository once is easy. Just use tlmgr this way:

tlmgr install --repository <URL> <package name>

You have to replace <URL> by the URL of the repository and <package name> by the name of the TeX Live package to be installed. If the package has already been installed, you have to add option --reinstall. If you want to replace, e.g., koma-script of TeX Live 2023 by the package of my repository you can use:

tlmgr install --reinstall --repository https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2023 koma-script

Note that with the next update the packages of my repository generally will be replaced by the packages from the main TeX Live repository. This is because the main TeX Live repository internally uses much larger revision numbers. Therefore the above way of installation of a package from my repository is only a temporary one. Nevertheless, you can also remove such packages using the graphical user interface of the TeX Live Package Manager that can be started using »tlmgr gui«. After removing the package you can reinstall it from the main TeX Live repository.

Please note, if you have a multi-user installation of TeX Live on Windows, you have to start tlmgr as administrator (can be done from an administrator terminal). Multi-user installations of TeX Live on Linux often provide package installation only for user root. In this case you can use sudo to execute tlmgr, e.g.:

sudo tlmgr install --reinstall --repository https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2023 koma-script

Nevertheless, TeX Live provides a user mode for multi-user installations. In user mode every user can install private packages. See the user manual for more information. You get it using either »texdoc tlmgr« or »tlmgr help«. By the way: Sometimes, the user mode can also be used to update packages and install packages if you do not use Vanilla TeX Live but the TeX Live packages of a Linux distribution.

Pinning a repository for a package

You can define a repository to be the one always used for installation and updates of a package. To do so, you first have to add the repository to the known repositories. Then you can pin that repository for a package, e.g., the TeX Live package koma-script:

tlmgr repository add https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2023 KOMA
tlmgr pinning add KOMA koma-script

Users of TeX Live 2013–2015 please replace the 2023 at the URL by 2015.

After pinning the repository to the package you still have to install it. If the package has already been installed before, you have to force a re-installation:

tlmgr install --reinstall koma-script

While running this installation and all future updates of koma-script, tlmgr should show a line like:

[1/1, ??:??/??:??] reinstall: koma-script @KOMA [6373k]

in the output. The @KOMA shows you that the package is installed from the KOMA repository.

Please note, if you have a multi-user installation of TeX Live on Windows, you have to start tlmgr as administrator (can be done from an administrator terminal). Multi-user installations of TeX Live on Linux often provide package installation only for user root. In this case you can use sudo to execute tlmgr, e.g.:

sudo tlmgr repository add https://www.komascript.de/repository/texlive/2023 KOMA
sudo tlmgr pinning add KOMA koma-script
sudo tlmgr install --reinstall koma-script

Nevertheless, TeX Live provides a user mode for multi-user installations. In user mode every user can install private packages. See the user manual for more information. You get it using either »texdoc tlmgr« or »tlmgr help«. By the way: Sometimes, the user mode can also be used to update packages and install packages if you do not use Vanilla TeX Live but the TeX Live packages of a Linux distribution.

Verified package installation with TeX Live since 2016

Since TeX Live 2016 TeX Live provides verified package repositories. This works only if gpg or gpg2 has been installed.

My repository also has a digital signature. tlmgr can only verify the signature if you first install the needed public key. The finger print of the key is:

654E 0E2F 3E1F 283C BA58  37A1 4B8E DF5B ACB5 A37E

The public key is:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
 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=68xQ
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

But do not add the key to your usual keyring. You should add it to the keyring of TeX Live using tlmgr. To do so, you should first save the key as file KOMA.repo.asc and then call:

tlmgr key add KOMA.repo.asc

You can list the keys using:

tlmgr key list

For TeX Live 2023 it should result in:

/usr/local/texlive/2023/tlpkg/gpg/pubring.gpg
---------------------------------------------
pub   rsa2048 2016-03-19 [SC]
      C78B82D8C79512F79CC0D7C80D5E5D9106BAB6BC
uid           [ultimate] TeX Live Distribution <tex-live@tug.org>
sub   rsa2048 2016-03-19 [E]
sub   rsa2048 2016-03-19 [S] [expires: 2023-06-23]
 
/usr/local/texlive/2023/tlpkg/gpg/repository-keys.gpg
-----------------------------------------------------
pub   rsa2048 2014-08-08 [SC] [expires: 2024-07-01]
      654E0E2F3E1F283CBA5837A14B8EDF5BACB5A37E
uid           [ unknown] KOMA.repo (This key is used only to sign my repositories.) <komascript@gmx.info>

The file paths and the expire dates may differ. For TeX Live 2016 and 2017 also only the last eight digits of the fingerprints are shown.

Please note, if you have a multi-user installation of TeX Live on Windows, you have to start tlmgr as administrator (can be done from an administrator terminal). Multi-user installations of TeX Live on Linux often provide key management only for user root. In this case you can use sudo to execute tlmgr, e.g.:

sudo tlmgr key add KOMA.repo.asc

As far as I know, key management in user mode is currently not supported by tlmgr.

Nevertheless, you can use TeX Live since 2016 without repository verification. See the manual for more information. You get it using either »texdoc tlmgr« or »tlmgr help«.