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When researching this, I found this answer which led me to try tlmgr option repository. This worked and returned Default package repository (repository): https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet. At that url, under archive, is a vast list of zip-files for many packages.

With this question here, I just wanted to confirm that that is where tlmgr installs new packages from when I do tlmgr install <some-package>.

I feel like this question is not worth a post on here, but I really couldn't think of any other place to ask. If you have a suggestion where else I could have asked this, please leave a comment.

Edit: Also, I'm curious about what happens when someone uses an old version of TeX Live, say TL2021, and wants to install a package. Does this download the same package it would when using TL2023? If so, couldn't this lead to problems when that installed package depends on other packages which are already installed in their 2021 version, which might not yet provide the functionality that the newly installed package needs from them.

Marc Miller
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  • Looks about right, yes. You can configure other sources though (for instance, you could configure a specific CTAN-mirror, or you could first rsync CTAN on a local drive and use that as sources). – Skillmon Aug 28 '23 at 08:35
  • If you look at the data listed, the files you download aren't on mirror.ctan.org. Instead they point to a mirror site near you. That is where tlmgr will get its data. At times it is usefull pin the resulting repo if the one mirror.ctan.org points to is unreliable. – daleif Aug 28 '23 at 08:42
  • @Skillmon and daleif: Thanks for confirming this. Please look at my edit which includes a follow-up question. – Marc Miller Aug 28 '23 at 08:52
  • When TeXLive X+1 is released, TeXLIve X is considered frozen, and will not get any updates and cannot install packages (AFAIR). – daleif Aug 28 '23 at 08:53
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    "If so, couldn't this lead to problems when that installed package depends on other packages which are already installed in their 2021 version, which might not yet provide the functionality that the newly installed package needs from them." Texlive won't let you update from a newer repository, but this can also happen within the same year - and that's why it is a bad idea to update only individual packages. I'd always use tlmg update -all to get a consistent installation. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 28 '23 at 08:58
  • @daleif I see, I didn't know that installing packages is just not possible anymore if the installed TeXLive is outdated – Marc Miller Aug 28 '23 at 09:15
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    @MarcMiller It is possible, but you need to select an historic mirror which matches your texlive version. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 28 '23 at 09:17
  • @samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz That sounds like good advice, thank you. While looking at /tlnet/archive, I noticed that some packages have pkg.tar.xz and pkg.r12345.tar.xz, where I think that the r stands for revision (number). But when looking at the sty-files, both \ProvidePackage the same version. If not different versions, what is the difference between the normal and the .r12345 tar-file? – Marc Miller Aug 28 '23 at 09:17
  • @samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Thanks for the clarification on that. So something like https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/2015/04/11/tlnet/ would be used to download packages with TL2015 installed? – Marc Miller Aug 28 '23 at 09:20
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    @MarcMiller https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/25089/36296 – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Aug 28 '23 at 09:29
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    As far as I know the data in CTAN is in some kind of subversion like repository. The revision is the subversion number. It is not related to the package versions as that data is fully author defined and thus might not be reliable. – daleif Aug 28 '23 at 09:31

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Yes, the repository setting defines where all files are downloaded from. Including the initial .tlpdb download and the checksum files.

In case you have multiple repositories defined, packages will be by default downloaded from the repository tagged as main, and only packages that are explicitly pinned to other repositories will be downloaded from there.

tlmgr does not do any other requests or sending tracking information.

norbert
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