[tex-live] TL-Announce ?

[Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard]

Philip TAYLOR scripsit (05.09.2008 12:38)
> But what exactly does "tlmgr update --list" do ?

List the packages that have an update pending.

> Does it compare the actual files I have in my
> TeX hierarchy with those on CTAN, or does it
> compare their modification dates ?

Hell no! That is our job as TL maintainers: we have scripts that attempt to do
so, but they definitely need a human coprocessor to achieve a (somehow)
reliable result. One of the main purpose of the TL package architecture is be
an interface between CTAN and what's on your HD. (And as you'll probably
noticed, CTAN didn't freeze for TL release, but tlmgr update --list still
outputs nothing for now...)

The truth is, it will load your local texlive database, load the remote one,
and do something like

for each local package
  if the version in the remote database is greater than the local version
    print
  end fi
end for

> Can it
> detect if I have accidentally deleted one
> (or many) ?

What do you mean, accidentally? ;-) No, it won't try to detect this.

>  Will it report new packages,
> or changed packages, or both, and so on.
> 
As the name "update" suggests, it will list packages that are installed, but
for which a newer version is available in the TL repository.

Manuel.