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ALSO POSTED HERE I didn't know about this tex.stackexchange untill after that post

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21105531/linux-when-setting-my-latex-path-the-path-only-maintains-its-value-for-the-durat

I am trying to learn LaTeX and I am running Linux mint 15 x64. I have installed "texlive" and followed this installation guide:

http://www.tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

The problem I am having is, as the title suggests when I set my PATH variable to the LaTeX directory, it works fine for one terminal window only, if I exit that terminal window the PATH no longer points to the LaTeX install, thus I have to reset it every time which is rather annoying.

I am using the following command:

PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-linux/:$PATH

then when I do:

echo $PATH I get this result:

/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-linux/:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and I can do this:

latex --version

pdfTeX 3.1415926-2.5-1.40.14 (TeX Live 2013)
kpathsea version 6.1.1
Copyright 2013 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Compiled with libpng 1.5.16; using libpng 1.5.16
Compiled with zlib 1.2.7; using zlib 1.2.7
Compiled with xpdf version 3.03

which is as expected, but when I close the terminal window, and re-open it I get the following:

echo $PATH

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <--- missing the latex path

and when I check the version:

latex --version:
The program LaTeX is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base

I have also tried doing the same as the super-user, I get the same end product.

Any have a solution to this problem?

Thanks

Community
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chris edwards
  • 153
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    Welcome to TeX.SE. How are you setting the path? If you are doing it as a shell command then your problem makes sense. It needs to be set every time you start a shell and the usual way to do that would be to add it to your .bashrc (or equivalent for what ever other shell you are using). This gets invoked at the start of the shell so will be set every time. – Peter Grill Jan 14 '14 at 04:36
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    Are you just issuing this command -- PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-linux/:$PATH -- in a terminal..? That will only 'stick' while you are using that terminal in the same way I can write zzz=/media/seagate/docs and then use it thus: cp somefile.txt $zzz/ (it will copy the file to /media/seagate/docs/, but only while using that terminal: once it is closed, the variable 'zzz' is lost). – jon Jan 14 '14 at 04:52
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    I'm not on Mint, but Ubuntu, but I have in my ~/.profile: PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH. – jon Jan 14 '14 at 04:55

1 Answers1

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I am a linux user.I have installed TeXLive 2013 on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit.I suggest to uninstall TeXLive completely (using the software package center and purge command and then delete the directory contents(they still exist after removing) by manually deleting them in the root folder(I dont remember the path exactly)) and then follow these instructions.
These instructions are standard and I didn't face any problems with the installation.Here is the link: Installing TeXLive 2013 on Debian or Ubuntu

Community
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subham soni
  • 9,673
  • Is it really necessary to reinstall all over again? I'm having exactly the same problem, but I don't know how to set these PATH variables properly (I'm new to LaTeX on ubuntu, I don't even know what these variables are in the first place). – latex user Jun 29 '17 at 22:46