The texdef package was recently updated to fix a critical bug. The package is updated on CTAN, but because TeX Live is in its "freeze" period, attempting to update the package via tlmgr update does not work. I do not consider it an acceptable solution to wait until the freeze period is over. How can I install the most recent version?
[Tex/LaTex] Install package from CTAN which is not available in TeX Live
ctanpackagestexdeftexlivetlmgr
Related Solutions
Simpler than installing from CTAN is the following procedure:
* download all file *.tar.xz from the tlpretest/archive
* try to run tlmgr install --from-file *.tar.xz
That should work in most cases, but has the problem that the doc and source files (in the -doc.tar.xz and -source.tar.xz) are installed as separate packages (AFAIR).
Still you should get updated versions of the packages.
And no, don't do this with binary packages, especially not on Windows (library hell).
The conditions of a package for TeX Live can be found at this page: TeX Live package contributions
I will quote some of the page to discuss the conditions.
Disclaimer: I am not part of the TeX Live team. This is just my way to see the licensing conditions and my interpretation might not be correct.
Questions can be asked in the TeX Live mailing list (texlive at tug dot org), see TeX Live mailing lists.
1. a) First, the package must be free (as in freedom) software, available under, for example, the LaTeX Project Public License or GNU General Public License. Please state the license explicitly in your package's source code, README, and/or other documentation. Those licenses (and others) contain instructions for how to apply them to your code.
matlab-prettifier is licensed under LPPL 1.3 or any later version.
2. a) The package must be useful in itself, or useful in conjunction with free software. In other words, we won't install a package that exists only to support something nonfree, even when it is free itself (e.g., LPPL'd macro support for a proprietary font). That doesn't help the free software world, and would rightly be rejected by free distros in any case.
Problematic, because MATLAB is AFAIK a commercial software and the sole purpose of matlab-prettifier is the MATLAB language.
TeX Live has the condition, that a package must be useful on a system, which consists and uses entirely free software. This condition differs TeX Live from MiKTeX. It is a concise decision of the Maintainers of TeX Live, which do not want to spend their spare voluntary time on commercial software.
However, it is acceptable for TeX Live AFAIK, if a package is additionally useful for free software. There are some free alternatives to MATLAB: GNU Octave, FreeLab, ... If at least some of them also support the MATLAB language (more or less), or if the package can also support free alternatives, then the red cross might turn to a green check mark.
2. b) We very strongly recommend using an existing license; devising your own will certainly delay any inclusion in TeX Live. We also strongly recommend using a clause “or any later version” with any license. The licensing conditions for TeX Live go into more detail about what is and isn't acceptable.
LPPL 1.3 or any later version.
3. The source for any generated documentation files (e.g., pdf) must also be available for the generated documentation to be included in TeX Live. We won't refuse to install the package itself, but we must refrain from installing generated documentation when there is no source. Free documentation is as important as free software.
Source for the package and documentation is given by the .dtx file.
4. If you haven't uploaded your package to CTAN, please do that. Virtually all TL packages come from CTAN and that is by far the easiest place for us to update from. It's a good thing in general for CTAN to be as comprehensive as possible.
CTAN location: CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/matlab-prettifier/
5. The @ character cannot be used in any filenames. Our tools are not prepared to handle this, and since it's trivial to avoid we'd rather not spend time on it.
matlab-prettifier does not contain @. The use of - is ok.
6. The package should not create (the likelihood of) any new runtime filename conflicts; in other words, all names should be reasonably expected to remain unique; using the package name as a prefix often works well. In addition to conflicts in the TeX tree, new executables should have names that are reasonably distinctive, and not just within the TeX world—most executables will end up being installed in system-wide directories as part of os distributions.
The only run-time file matlab-prettifier.sty does not conflict with any other file in TeX Live.
Summary:
- Most conditions pass without doubt.
- In case of 2.a), I would ask on the TeX Live mailing list. It would help, if the package can show its usefulness for free software.
- The package might just be overlooked, also a reason to ask on the TeX Live mailing list.
Best Answer
CAVEAT: This answer holds only for packages which are available in the TDS format. This is indicated by their filename on CTAN. If the filename reads
<package>.tds.zip, it is in TDS format.You can simply install it by hand. The
texdefpackage is available in TDS format which makes the installation ridiculously easy.Download
texdef.tds.zipUnpack (probably you need
sudowith it)???
Profit
For other packages extra steps might be necessary. If the package contains files which have to be located via kpathsea, you have to rebuild the filename database. Fonts have to be enabled in the map file. For example with STIX2.
Download
stix2-type1.tds.zip.Unpack (probably you need
sudowith it)Rebuild the filename database (probably you need
sudowith it)For fonts, enable the font in the map file (probably you need
sudowith it)???
Profit