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I'm in the process of switching to Debian, and I'm interested in updating packages since I'm coming from Windows 10 MikTex. I read this post: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/55459/230596 and I understood that for updating packages I have to issue tlmgr update --all. My question is that issuing that command, I will have all the time updates as I had when using Miktex. If so, why should I install another Texlive in 2023?

Mafsi
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  • texlive only updates packages not binaries. – Ulrike Fischer Jun 07 '22 at 11:13
  • TeXLive only (for various reasons) provides updates to a given version for a little less than a year. As these (at least when it is Upstream TeXLive and not Debian/TeXLive) can live side by side, these year releases can be useful as you can go back in time. Say I have a manuscript that compiled with TL16 but not does not with TL22, then I can just use TL16-frozen as I have it on disk. – daleif Jun 07 '22 at 11:18
  • @UlrikeFischer @daleif maybe I'm not used with a specialized language, that's why I did not understand binaries frozen Texlive etc. I installed Texlive over the internet and for example I see here https://ctan.org/ctan-ann/id/mailman.4074.1654525684.3195.ctan-ann@ctan.org that latexindent received an update yesterday. Is it possible to have this update in Texlive? – Mafsi Jun 07 '22 at 11:22
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    Of course. Just have your TeX Live's Package Manager update the files. – Ingmar Jun 07 '22 at 11:29
  • The important thing for you is to understand that there is “TeX Live provided by Debian” and “upstream TeX Live”. The former is the easiest to install for a Debian user, since it's installed exactly like other packages. Upstream TeX Live can live side by side with the TL from Debian, is not difficult to install either (read the instructions), but much easier to keep very up-to-date: you can update it every day if you want, instead of depending on Debian release cycles (or on Debian package updates in the case of Debian unstable). – frougon Jun 07 '22 at 12:41
  • Upstream TeX Live can be installed & updated under a specific user account (e.g., texlive), and then used by any user account. This way, the installation/update procedure can't write anywhere (in my example, it is limited to where user texlive has permission to write). – frougon Jun 07 '22 at 12:46
  • @frougon I know about TeX Live provided by Debian, but I preferred to install it via https://tug.org/texlive/acquire-netinstall.html. So far, so good for me. Just issued sudo ./install-tl -gui, chose default full scheme, also mark create simlink directories or smth and everything is good. I didn't even need to export $PATH in my profile. Now, issuing sudo tlmgr update --all is updating my TexLive. I read the part with user texlive here on tex.stackexchange.com, I tried, but it was way too complicated for me. After everything written here, you have any further advice, pls share. – Mafsi Jun 07 '22 at 15:43
  • Installing with root priviledges was totally unnecessary... The only thing you gained is not to have to change the PATH setting. Hmm. – frougon Jun 07 '22 at 15:46
  • Issuing ./install-tl -gui didn't work for me cause it asked for permission – Mafsi Jun 07 '22 at 15:48
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    Personally, I do ssh -X texlive@localhost after temporarily uncommenting X11Forwarding yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config, then doing systemctl restart ssh.service (as root). An alternative is to perform a graphical login as user texlive (or install/update in text mode). – frougon Jun 07 '22 at 15:50

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