[tex-live] TeXLive-2018 fails to update across firewall

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Uri,

> I'm pretty sure it uses the system-provided curl. And again, am very happy about that. 

TL does not provide curl, it needs to be provided by the system. But it
is not necessary.

>     THis is *really* surprising... WHY did it choose wget from the system,
>     it should have taken the one provided by TL ... I need to find out why.
>     
> Can you please make an option for the user to force using the system-provided wget? Pretty-please?

What for? On Mac it will probably never hit wget anymore. With the
latest update you included, the logic is now
  - by default try LWP
  - if that fails and curl is available, try curl
  - if that fails, use wget
Now since curl is always available on MacOS, I guess that wget will
never be used on.

And, in addition, there is already a way to force TL to use
different programs. I quote from the tlmgr man page:

    "TEXLIVE_DOWNLOADER"
    "TL_DOWNLOAD_PROGRAM"
    "TL_DOWNLOAD_ARGS"
        These options allow selecting different download programs then the
        ones automatically selected by the installer. The order of selection
        is:

        1.      If the environment variable "TEXLIVE_DOWNLOADER" is defined,
                use it; abort if the specified program doesn't work. Possible
                values: "curl", "wget". The necessary options are added
                internally.

        2.      If the environment variable "TL_DOWNLOAD_PROGRAM" is defined
                (can be any value), use it together with "TL_DOWNLOAD_ARGS";
                abort if it doesn't work.

        3.      If LWP is available and working, use that (by far the most
                efficient method, as it supports persistent downloads).

        4.      If curl is available (from the system) and working, use that.

        5.      If wget is available (either from the system or TL) and
                working, use that.

        TL still provides "wget" binaries for some platforms, so some download
        method should always be available.


> I wouldn't mess with it, if it worked! 

It works, right?

> Maybe it would be possible to use system-provided (instead of TL-packaged) wget and/or curl when LWP doesn't work? And allowing the user to choose between system-provided and TL-provided?

As I said, and explained in the excerpt from the man page, it is curl that 
will be used.

Best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
Accelia Inc.     +    JAIST     +    TeX Live     +    Debian Developer
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