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tlmgr used to work fine, but now I am getting the following error message for whatever I try to do:

tlmgr: The TeX Live versions supported by the repository (20xx--20xx) do not include the version of the local installation (20yy).

Any idea on how to resolve that?

wh81752
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Yoav
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    your TL version is not supported anymore. You can (a) continue using TL2012 if you don't need anything new that comes with TL 2013 or (b) install TL 2013 (alongside you actual version) and start focusing on the new version. To install the new version see here – d-cmst Jun 24 '13 at 21:54
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    This is a pretty annoying behaviour... I'm currently in the middle of a project and need to install a new module (CJK). I don't have time to install TL 2013 just now. Is there a way to just install the CJK package? – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 21:59
  • And when I do have time to install TL 2013 -- can I tell it to use precisely the current set of packages I currently have installed? (I'm on a rather tight disk space) – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 22:01
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    you should be able to install the package you need manually, seethis (or search for your OS if you're not on linux). I think it should be possible to specify a specific set of packages at install time, but maybe ask another question about that when the time comes – d-cmst Jun 24 '13 at 22:05
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    Thanks! I managed to install the package manually, but now I am missing a font. I guess the font installation question should go into a new question.. – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 22:31
  • @Yoav: TeX Live should give you the option to install a full/complete version of the software, or a basic version. You can choose basic and add/install whatever you need as you need it. – Werner Jun 24 '13 at 23:50
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    I do not feel that this question is too localized since anyone that uses tlmgr to manage his installation faces this problem as soon as texlive is updated. This also isn't just a simple hint that the installation should be updated: it prevents any operation (installing, searching, ...) and renders the local installation almost useless. I feel that this is a serious design flaw of the texlive package manager and here would be a good forum to acknowledge it as such: can anybody give an authoritative answer on wether packages can be installed into outdated texlive installations? – Holger Jul 25 '13 at 20:21
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    I also disagree that this is too localised! – a different ben Oct 11 '13 at 04:33
  • The question is not localised at all and the answer is rather simple and already pointed out here http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/25089/how-to-install-a-package-from-an-older-version-of-texlive. The rather simple answer is to let tlmgr point to a now historic repository: tlmgr option repository ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2012/tlnet-final – wh81752 Sep 24 '14 at 08:13
  • Is there a way to reopen this question for giving a proper answer? – wh81752 Sep 24 '14 at 08:16

1 Answers1

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Just to be able mark this question as answered: as the error message says and as dcmst pointed out, your version of TeX Live (2012) won't receive any more updates. tlmgr is working correctly, it's just warning you that there is no more update server to connect to to perform an upgrade.

If you wish to continue receiving updates, you need to upgrade to TeX Live 2013.

Instructions on how to install TeX Live can be found here, while the list of packages currently installed on your system can also be generated easily.
More specifically, if you want to reinstall exactly the same packages and only them, you should first run, under TL 2012:

tlmgr list --only-installed > installed_texlive_packages.txt

to save the list of installed packages as installed_texlive_packages.txt, and then under TL 2013 after installing it (assuming you are under a unix system):

cat installed_texlive_packages.txt | while read LINE; do
  PACKAGE=$(echo $LINE | cut -d " " -f 2 | cut -d ":" -f 1);
  tlmgr install $PACKAGE;
done
Community
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Xavier
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  • Before I mark this as answered, can you please add a pointer on how to upgrade to Tex Live 2013 while using a minimal amount of disk space and keeping the same packages I have currently installed? – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 22:47
  • @Yoav Answering that question depends on what your current installation scheme is. Most often than not, people install the full TeX Live distribution (with all packages), and so it's just a matter of installing TeX Live 2013 and deciding whether or not you want to keep TeX Live 2012 (it's installed in its own 2012 sub-directory under your local TeX root, so you can just remove that sub-directory). I added a link in the case you have a minimal installation and want to reinstall exactly the same packages as currently installed. – Xavier Jun 24 '13 at 22:56
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    @Yoav you can't upgrade from 2012 to 2013: http://www.tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html – giordano Jun 24 '13 at 23:02
  • @Xavier thanks, but this doesn't seem to work: ./install-tl Loading http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/ctan/systems/texlive/tlnet/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb ============================================================================= ./install-tl: The TeX Live versions of the local installation and the repository being accessed are not compatible: local: 2012 repository: 2013 Perhaps you need to use a different CTAN mirror? (For more, see the output of install-tl --help, especially the -repository option. Online via http://tug.org/texlive/doc.) =============================================== – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 23:02
  • @Xavier also, it is not clear to me how to use the generated list of installed packages once I have it. – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 23:04
  • @Yoav Please read the detailed installation instruction here. As for how to install packages individually, you probably don't want that if you don't know how to use the generated list to write a script to perform an automated install :) – Xavier Jun 24 '13 at 23:36
  • @Xavier I followed precisely these instructions, and downloaded and run the install-tl script, and it barfed the message above. Re writing a script: I was really hoping to avoid that. Why should I need to write scripts just to keep my system working as it did last week? – Yoav Jun 24 '13 at 23:58
  • @Yoav I don't know what's going wrong with your installation. It doesn't seem related to your original question (it's a new 2013 installation issue, not a 2012 update one, so I would keep this issue in a separate question / thread). As for my suggestion, what I mean is: if you are not comfortable writing scripts, I don't think trying to tweak the default "full" install is the right choice for you. Just install the "full" distribution, you will get every package, all your old files should compile, will never encounter a "missing package issue" and 2GB shouldn't be an issue nowadays. – Xavier Jun 25 '13 at 00:45
  • I am comfortable with writing scripts, but I was really hoping there is a tool for this forced migration, as I don't have much time and prefer to use it for writing papers and doing my job. And 2GB is an issue for me with a small SSD drive. – Yoav Jun 25 '13 at 05:45
  • This should do as "script": 1) under TL2012: tlmgr list --only-installed > installed_texlive_packages.txt and under TL2013 2) cat installed_texlive_packages.txt | while read LINE; do PACKAGE=$(echo $LINE | cut -d " " -f 2 | cut -d ":" -f 1); tlmgr install $PACKAGE; done – Xavier Jun 25 '13 at 14:34