Attempting to participate in Pretesting TeX Live 2022

texlive

I am attempting to participate in Pretesting TeX Live 2022. I realize the testing in not for beginners, so with only a few years with TeX, I may be over my head. But I've read that "The entire TeX Live community greatly benefits from all testing before the official release." so I'd like to give it a try.

I've read the Pretesting TeX Live 2022 page, but my UNIX knowledge is limited. I am unable to execute the rsync -a --delete --exclude="mactex*" somemirror::/some/path/ /your/local/dir with any success. Instead I downloaded the mactex-20220301.pkg file directly and followed the instructions to install MacTeX-2022.

After installing the mactex-20220301.pkg, I am wondering if I also need to follow-up the mactex-20220301 installation by running install-tl, which I have not succeeded in doing so far (nothing seems to happen).

When I attempt to run TeXShop, I see a number of errors about how downloading requires a "list of files".

Obviously, I need to do more. My question is must I absolutely run the full rsync command, e.g. rsync -a --delete --include="mactex-2*" --exclude="*" somemirror::/some/path/ /your/local/dir?

If so, I'd appreciate any pointers anyone can provide to do so. If not, I can wait a few weeks until the official 2022 version is released. Thanks.

Update: I have tried 3 different versions of the rsync command (to no avail), each attempting to download files from the www.math.utah.edu server which is listed as one of the mactex-2022 TeX sites at the status of texlive-pretest mirrors :

  • rsync -a --delete --include="mactex-2*" --exclude="*" http://www.math.utah.edu::/pub/tlpretest/ /usr/local/texlive/2022 (note double colon, w http://)

  • rsync -a --delete --include="mactex-2*" --exclude="*" www.math.utah.edu::pub/tlpretest/ /usr/local/texlive/2022/ (note double colon, no http://)

  • rsync -a --delete --include="mactex-2*" --exclude="*" www.math.utah.edu:/pub/tlpretest/ /usr/local/texlive/2022/ (note single colon, no http://)

None of the above attempts were successful.

Update 2: Completed the update as per Answer 1. (Total runtime ~8hrs.) At the end of the install-tl.log file, there are two comments:

Add /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/doc/man to MANPATH.

Add /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/doc/info to INFOPATH.

How do I add the above pathways to MANPATH and INFOPATH respectively?

From looking at the log file, mactex-2022 is an impressive accomplishment by the TeX community. Thanks again.

Best Answer

You have two options: use the MacTeX pretest images, or install using the standard Unix tools

MacTeX

There is a MacTeX image available from the pretesting sites: you can just download that and install it 'as normal'. This will set your standard TeX system to TL'22, so be mindful of that (or use the TeX Live Utility to set another system if required).

Command line

You can install the standard TeX Live setup using the command line (Terminal on the Mac, but much the same on other operating systems)

  • Download install-tl-unx.tar.gz from one of the pretest mirrors (I use http://ftp.cstug.cz/pub/tex/local/tlpretest/)

  • Extract the archive (you can do that by double-clicking it in Finder)

  • Open the Terminal, do cd Downloads/install-tl-<the date in the name>

  • Run sudo ./install-tl -repository <mirror> (so for me sudo ./install-tl -repository http://ftp.cstug.cz/pub/tex/local/tlpretest/). This will use a GUI installer: I tend to go with the terminal version by using the -gui text option

  • Accept the defaults (or not) and let the installation run

This will not add the testing TeX Live to your PATH, so for example in a GUI editor you'll need to select /usr/local/texlive/2022/bin/universal-darwin as the place to find binaries. Or at the Terminal you can do

export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2022/bin/universal-darwin:$PATH

which will then mean that this particular Terminal session will find the new binaries before the standard MacTeX ones.

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