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The TeX distribution provided by apt on Ubuntu is not the latest (2023 at the time of this question). So one may want to install directly from TeX Live.

At this point an important choice is whether one wants to install the distribution for just a single user, or globally in the system so that all existing and future users can access it.

The official Guide does a great job of explaining everything. However when it comes to the question of system-wide installation vs single-user installation, it says:

If you want to make these changes globally, or for a user newly added to the system, then you are on your own; there is just too much variation between systems in how and where these things are configured.

Fair enough.

Doubts appear already when running the first install command: should one run

perl ./install-tl

or

sudo perl ./install-tl

?

Thereafter comes all the complicated (for a low-level user like me) situation of configuring PATHs and so on.

TeX and AskUbuntu have plenty of scattered questions related to this, but often they give different solutions (or at least they look different to a low-level user), and many are a few years old, and I'm unsure whether they still apply or not.

So I wonder if you can forward me to a reliable guide that addresses these points in a systematic manner, for Ubuntu and derivates.

I'm really lost with all options and contradicting instructions and warnings scattered a bit everywhere :(

pglpm
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    Would this https://askubuntu.com/a/1228573/16395 helps? I am doing this since 3-4 years (installing a minimal apt-based texlive, and then using a personal/portable one). – Rmano Jun 21 '23 at 11:01
  • Thank you @Rmano The procedure there is useful for a personal/portable installation, but I would like to have an updated, system-wide one. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 11:06
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    Ah, I never did one of that, sorry. But I imagine that this is the same, just: use sudo to install in some system directory (like /usr/local/texlive or similar), and not choose a portable installation. Notice however that in Ubuntu, from my experience, you need a minimal apt installation or you'll have a dependency hell... – Rmano Jun 21 '23 at 11:10
  • @Rmano that is what I did, but then questions remain: do I have to change other things as sudo? For example, some answers here speak of running sudo visudo or similar things. What you say about the apt installation is frightening. Again I think there's need of a reliable guide out there. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 11:16
  • well, it depends. If you want all user by default using the new installation, you should add it before the apt one in some global environment file that sets up the path for any user (shell dependent, I think, like /etc/profile.d/...). I think that asking a specific question about what isn't working would be more useful. You can also look at this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/24937/how-do-i-set-path-variables-for-all-users-on-a-server – Rmano Jun 21 '23 at 11:24
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    About sudo visudo: this is for giving a normal user the right to run things as root. Maybe to allow them to run tlmgr? I would really not do that. If the installation is system-wide, the system administrator should be the one doing this kind of things. This is why in my machine I prefer using a portable installation. – Rmano Jun 21 '23 at 11:27
  • @Rmano You see the problem there: what if it's necessary to do something that one (a low-level user) has not even thought about? I can't ask questions about details that I don't even know the existence of... Also, many questions and answers are a bit old, and I always wonder if they're still valid. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 11:29
  • @Rmano I appreciate your concern and thank you for the warning. This is exactly why I'm asking about a reliable guide. I'm really lost with all options and contradicting instructions and warnings scattered a bit everywhere :( – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 11:30
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    https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/9044/1090 – David Carlisle Jun 21 '23 at 11:43
  • Thank you @DavidCarlisle. Just upvoted that meta-question. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 11:46
  • https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/171560/277964 – cabohah Jun 21 '23 at 12:29
  • @cabohah The guide you mention is for TeX Live 2016? – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 12:44
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    @pglpm 2023, 2016, 1999, .. issues are identical apart from the year – David Carlisle Jun 21 '23 at 13:00
  • @DavidCarlisle The problem is: how can a low-level user know that? Some answers seem to depend on the year and they are contradictory. One of the linked guides uses sudo ./install-tl. But then a comment says "that's not recommended. You should change ownership of etc/local/... instead". For setting PATH variables, one answer says to modify something in /etc/profile; but then another says no, the relevant directory has changed. Another answer says to use sudo visudo, but a comment above says that's dangerous... Sorry for the lack of links, I've been roaming here for 6 hours today. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 13:14
  • @pglpm issues around root and sudo are not specific to texlive and or even linux, you would have had the same issues (or I would, at least) installing tex in sun bsd unix in 1989 – David Carlisle Jun 21 '23 at 14:37
  • @pglpm If users follow the link to scott's github repository there, they will find, that the last update has happened in April. And the README.md also states: “installs the latest version of TeX Live”. So yes, you should expect, that it works for the latest TeX Live. – cabohah Jun 21 '23 at 14:37
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    in particular if you give yourself sudo access then you have write access to (and for instance could accidentally delete) every file on the machine. Some tutorials may describe that as "dangerous" some may just consider it as natural for installing any software for all users. So having it described as dangerous or not is not "contradictory" and not about tex; just about linux system management and being careful with super user access – David Carlisle Jun 21 '23 at 14:43
  • @cabohah Nope. I checked the Readme of the repo, it says "Installs the latest version of TeX Live (as of writing, TeX Live 2019)". Some files might have been changed two months ago, but the changes could be just correction of a typo. I don't "expect" anything when contradictory information is given. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 15:36
  • @pglpm “as of writing” means, when the README.md has been written, not when the latest update has been written. And ”latest version” indeed means latest version. Try it Thomas, try it … But, because of your problems in believing, I've also added an issue. I hope, the three year numbers will be removed from the README. – cabohah Jun 21 '23 at 15:52
  • @cabohah I understand your point of view, but I've been in similar situations (repos with recently updated files, Readme not updated) when things didn't work instead – and the reply then was "but didn't you read the Readme? we stopped updating this a while ago, we're just doing small bug corrections for the old versions". Unfortunately different developers think differently and mean things differently, and I can't just read their minds :/ Consider also that that repo's script uses sudo, so one wants to be extra careful. – pglpm Jun 21 '23 at 16:05
  • @pglpm As I told already two times: The README already says: “latest version” and currently the latest version is TeX Live 2023. The README also says, that TeX Live 2019 was the latest version, when the README has been written. And yes the script uses sudo as you would have to using apt, because they do something similar. – cabohah Jun 21 '23 at 16:12
  • @pglpm README.md does not refer to old TeX Live releases any longer. So your problem with interpreting it different should be solved. Thanks to scott for changing it! – cabohah Jul 07 '23 at 08:41

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