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I'm trying to learn how to install packages in LaTeX. I've downloaded the TeX Live Utility in order to have a GUI (I'm using a Mac) and I've installed it, but I don't know how to run the application and I don't find the answer anywhere.

Newbie here TT.

vicaba
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2 Answers2

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To to a large extent, once you have downloaded MacTeX itself you will not need to install any packages except to keep your distribution up-to-date, and for this you use TeX Live Utility.

What TeX Live Utility is for

TeX Live Utility is not a general purpose package installer, but a tool to manage an existing TeX Live distribution (in your case, MacTeX). It provides a graphical user interface to a subset of the functions that the command line tlmgr can perform. Specifically, it can do the following things:

  • Update your existing packages to the latest versions on CTAN.
  • Install any new packages that have appeared on CTAN since the last update.
  • Change the global paper size for your distribution.

Basic use is really simple: open the application (if you have installed MacTeX it will be found in the TeX folder inside your Applications folder). When you do this you should see a window that looks like this: (the URL field in your window will be different from this one.)

update window

From here, you should usually choose Update All Packages from the Actions menu. You should do this immediately upon installing MacTeX for the first time, and then periodically thereafter.

Items in blue are new packages that don't yet exist in your distribution. Items in black are existing packages with updates available.

If you don't want to update or install everything, you can select particular items from the list with the mouse and then choose Update Selected Packages. (Unless you know what you're doing, this is usually not the best option.)

Since MacTeX is installed using administrator permissions, you will also need to authenticate using an administrator account to update your distribution with TeX Live Utility.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes you will see the following message:

updates needed

and the installer itself will update first.

One other thing to understand is that TeXLive operates on a yearly distribution system, and by default the TL Utility will only update the current year's distribution. For example, since TL 2015 has been released, but I have not yet installed it, I can no longer run TL Utility in its default mode, and receive the following message:

wrong year message

What TeX Live Utility is *not* for

Community
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Alan Munn
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  • So, when Tex Live updates to the new year, we have to reinstall using the new version? – Alenanno Jul 08 '15 at 19:20
  • @Alenanno Well the application itself will update itself independently over the course of a year, so you don't really need to reinstall anything. But once a new year of TL exists, TL Utility will only see that year's repository, and therefore will no longer be able to update a previous year. – Alan Munn Jul 08 '15 at 19:23
  • That sounds like a yes. I'm asking because I've been seeing "Unable to find a valid update server" for a while now and while I was told that it could have been a temporary problem, weeks have gone by. – Alenanno Jul 08 '15 at 19:25
  • @Alenanno Are you running TL 2015 or TL 2014? If you still have TL 2014 installed, then you will get that message. – Alan Munn Jul 08 '15 at 19:28
  • Yes I have 2014, that's the problem. I am unable to update to 2015 from within the application and if I understood your answer, it's impossible to do, isn't it? Do I have to download the new one? – Alenanno Jul 08 '15 at 19:30
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    @Alenanno Yes. TeX Live is set up that way, you cannot upgrade. – Torbjørn T. Jul 08 '15 at 19:31
  • @TorbjørnT. Ok, that's what I was trying to understand. Thank you both for the help! :) – Alenanno Jul 08 '15 at 19:56
  • @TorbjørnT. Unless you are brave. However, I don't think you can update MacTeX even if you are brave. – cfr Jul 08 '15 at 23:03
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    Good description by @AlanMunn. However, please note that TeX Live Utility a) finally has a home page again, which describes basic features, and b) it has fairly complete documentation via its Help menu. These are the canonical references on features, and I try to keep them updated. – Adam Maxwell Jul 10 '15 at 00:15
  • @AdamMaxwell Thanks Adam. I take it that 'finally' means just now since I swear I went to the GitHub page before writing this and it wasn't there. :) – Alan Munn Jul 10 '15 at 00:19
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    @AlanMunn It's actually been up since before TL 2015 was released; I had a frantic effort to try and move the content from my old googlecode pages, after several months of them being unavailable. Unfortunately, the link is really easy to miss on the GitHub project page, and I just noticed the readme link is old. – Adam Maxwell Jul 10 '15 at 00:24
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enter image description hereSorry for my english is no so good, i have mac too, wen i need installed someone package that is not in CTAN , for example flexbib, i must go in the /usr/local, here texlive, 2015 , texmfdist, and this such the folder wen you must place the package. Other option is place the file directly in the folder wen you save your tex work.

Carolina Lastra Zuluaga
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