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Is a list published somewhere of which macro packages come standard with texlive? Specifically, I am considering installing the texlive package (not texlive-full) in Ubuntu. I'd like to know if certain tex packages that I need will come standard, or if they will need to be installed in addition. I realize that I could just see what I have and what I don't have after installing texlive, but

  • I worry that I will have somehow ended up with a package installed that I cannot rely on coming standard.
  • For the future, if future releases of texlive have different packages that come standard, I'd like to know where to look for the list.

EDIT I don't think that suggested existing answer is answering my question. That is about having an existing texlive distribution and checking to see what was originally installed. I'm looking to know what to expect before the Ubuntu texlive package is installed. It's a subtle difference but important in my context. It might warrant a vote to close as it's more about Ubuntu than TeXLive, but I disagree that it has already been answered (at least not at the suggested existing answer).

EDIT: I'm not interested in this for a personal installation of LaTeX. I need to know this for a separate piece of software that relies on LaTeX to produce pdfs. The installation process for this other software needs to understand what it should bring in when checking for a texlive distribution, without overdoing it or asking the person installing it to manually do anything with their texlive distribution.

I'd prefer to just have the list of these packages in a reference online somewhere and write the software to assume that no more than those standard packages are used in pdf production. I'd prefer this than to directly look at any one installation and see what it has/does not have.

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alex.jordan
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    The question is about what is in the Debian/Ubuntu repository package texlive, not about what is in the actual TeXLive2014 distribution. – musarithmia Aug 14 '14 at 19:56
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    While the repository packages do make it easy to install a TeX system, they make it hard to customize your installation. Even adding a single package, if it turns out that you need it, can be a challenge. I would recommend installing some subset of the actual TeXLive distribution (you can choose sets of packages using the installer). If you're worried about going outside the package manager, you can safely install as an ordinary user, either in your home directory or in /opt/. – musarithmia Aug 14 '14 at 20:06
  • @AndrewCashner We have a good amount of questions about local texmf trees so that's not as serious as you portrayed here (maybe unintentionally) – percusse Aug 14 '14 at 20:09
  • @AndreCashner Is it appropriate then that I changed the tag to ubuntu? – alex.jordan Aug 14 '14 at 20:27
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    The texlive package in Ubuntu is just some fairly arbitrary subset of the real TeX Live. They are not following any "standard"; what this package happens to contain is entirely up to the Ubuntu developers. You can try it out and see if it works for you. – Jukka Suomela Aug 14 '14 at 20:49
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    I think the edit makes this a different question, something more like how to package a subset of TeXLive as a library for use in another application, or how to match TeX-related dependencies to what is provided in various system distributions. – musarithmia Aug 14 '14 at 20:57
  • Note that Debian has a stricter definition of 'free' than TeX Live which means that some things may be removed from Debian's packages. On the whole, my impression is that efforts are increasingly made by TL to avoid this. However, this is unlikely to be retrospectively applicable across the board. – cfr Aug 14 '14 at 21:51

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There a list of packages coming with TeXLive 2014 here and you may use tlmgr list --only-installed > installed_texlive_packages.txt to get a simple text files with all packages installed on your system (from this answer). Without the --only-installed option this should print a list of all packages available, whether installed or not.

Edit: There is also a list of what's in what collection here.

Each paragraph starting with "collection " defines a collection.

(quoting from here)

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greyshade
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  • This list helps, thank you. I think I have what I want, using this list in combination with this reference, which tells me that the Debian/Ubuntu texlive package gives texlive-latex-recommended, texlive-fonts-recommended, texlive-latex-base (which is texlive-latex?) and texlive-base (which is texlive-basic?). – alex.jordan Aug 14 '14 at 20:26
  • @alex.jordan I've just added a link with a file that might be machine readable and includes information on what TeXLive defines different collections to be - how these mirror to the Debian/Ubuntu packages I have no idea though.. – greyshade Aug 14 '14 at 20:34