[Tex/LaTex] Install old version of TeX Live – untarring failed

texlive

To compile some old papers laying around as source, I wanted to install some old version of TeX Live.

I downloaded the install-tl-unx.tar.gz from
ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2014/tlnet-final

And then run:

TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX=texlive ./install-tl-20150411/install-tl --repository=ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2014/tlnet-final

But there seems some problem with tar:

Installing [0001/3036, time/total: ??:??/??:??]: 12many [376k]
tar: texlive/2014/temp/12many.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
untar: untarring texlive/2014/temp/12many.tar failed (in texlive/2014/texmf-dist)
untarring texlive/2014/temp/12many.tar failed, stopping install.
Installation failed.

Whats happening here? Both the 12many.tar and the outputdirectory exist.

Best Answer

TeX Live versions older than 2015 require an absolute TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX.

So this works:

export TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$(pwd)/texlive 
./install-tl-20150411/install-tl --repository=ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2014/tlnet-final

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Installing and using XeTeX

The problem lies in the fact that you chose to create symbolic links for the executables in /usr/local/texlive/2011/bin/<architecture> to /usr/local/bin.

With tlmgr there's the possibility to update them, but the action is not performed automatically.

However, my advices are:

Always install the full TeX Live
Never create symbolic links, particularly on Debian based systems

If you don't have strict space constraints, do a full TeX Live install. It would have avoided the problem of installing the XeTeX subsystem.

Changing what's in /usr/local/bin is dangerous as other system utilities may choose to install something there. It's better to change the PATH variable and the safest method is to write a file zzz-texlive.sh containing

export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2011/bin/`uname -i`-linux:$PATH
export MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf/doc/man:$MANPATH
export INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf/doc/info:$INFOPATH
unset TEXINPUTS
unset TEXMFCONFIG

and move it into /etc/profile.d. After a logout/login cycle, the PATH variable will contain the correct directory for the executables.

[Tex/LaTex] Full version of TeX Live: malware checked

TeX Live consists of a relatively small number of executable items and a large number of 'other things', principally LaTeX packages, fonts and documentation (PDF files). The standard settings for the binary part of the set up are 'cautious' about potential security risks in the (La)TeX parts of the system, but these are likely to be more theoretical than actual. To the best of my knowledge there has not been an attempt to send to CTAN, and thus to TeX Live, a LaTeX package which deliberately tries to use \write18 to cause trouble. The number of people who would be affected is very small, and it's extremely unlikely that a self-replicating approach would be successful. The binary parts of the system are of course of more interest in this regard, but again there are not to my knowledge any actual issues (though see Is luatex as secure as pdftex? for discussion on the affect of Lua scripting on security).

All of that said, there is no-one checking each CTAN upload for security fixes, and the TeX Live team take most of their material more-or-less directly from CTAN. As such, if you are looking for some form of 'assurance' on the code then you will have to find a downstream group doing the work. That I know of, Ubuntu do not do this, although you might be better asking on an Ubunut-specific site about that. Perhaps other operating system teams (most obviously OpenBSD) might do such work if they are very security-focussed, but again that is more about those systems than about TeX.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Installing and using XeTeX

[Tex/LaTex] Full version of TeX Live: malware checked

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