Generate all significant recent states of TeX Live

[Henri Menke]

On Wed, 2022-11-16 at 18:40 +0000, Jonathan Fine wrote:
> Hi
> 
> My present project is to systematically generate all recent
> significant
> states of TeX Live, as experienced by users who regularly update
> their
> systems.
> 
> My starting point is the 2022 TeXLive ISO, for which:
> $ ls texlive/archive | head -5
> 12many.doc.r15878.tar.xz
> 12many.r15878.tar.xz
> 12many.source.r15878.tar.xz
> 2up.doc.r55076.tar.xz
> 2up.r55076.tar.xz
> 
> My first task is texmf-dist/tex/latex. I assume (or hope) that the
> LaTeX
> packages in this archive are systematically generated from the SVN
> repository by some script, or if not are at least logged somewhere.
> 
> I have found Norbert's most helpful pages:
> https://www.texlive.info/
> https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/
> https://texlive.info/tlnet-archive/2022/11/10/tlnet/archive/ # Sample
> listing
> 
> What I am at present a bit short of is documentation about how the
> texlive/archive directory of packages is created. I was hoping there
> might
> be a script in the (enormous) SVN repository. However, my initial
> poking
> around hasn't turned up much. Places I've looked include:
> 
> https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc.html
> https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/tlbuild.html
> 
> If anyone here can help with some pointers, links or advice it would
> be
> much appreciated. And I am grateful to Norbert for the information
> and
> resources provided on texlive.info.

For most purposes most importantly these two:

https://tug.org/svn/texlive/trunk/Master/tlpkg/bin/tl-update-tlpdb
https://tug.org/svn/texlive/trunk/Master/tlpkg/bin/tl-update-containers

If you want to regenerate all of TeX Live you might need other scripts,
too.

Cheers, Henri

> 
> As Neils Bohr didn't say: Archives are difficult, particularly when
> they
> record the past.
> 
> [Neils Bohr is supposed to have said: Prediction is difficult,
> particularly
> when it involves the future.]
> 
> The last two TeX Hour videos give motivation for and some detail
> about this
> archiving project of mine:
> https://texhour.github.io/2022/10/27/fun-games-git-fossil/
> https://texhour.github.io/2022/11/10/arxiv-access-and-tex-macro-store/
> 
> ---
> 
> In case you're interested, the rest of this message is about
> tomorrow's TeX
> Hour. The topic is "Less is more — micropublishing".
> 
> The term “micropublishing” has several meanings. An old use is
> microfilm
> (and for spies the microdot). Today we use it to mean rapidly
> published
> short research communications. Typically, it places new findings
> directly
> into information discovery spaces.
> 
> We’re pleased to have Kaveh Bazargan as a special guest. Kaveh runs
> River
> Valley Technologies, who provide technical services and innovation to
> STEM
> publishers.
> 
> Date: Thursday 17 November, 6:30 to 7:30pm (UK time).
> Details: 
> https://texhour.github.io/2022/11/17/less-more-micropublish/
> Meeting URL: https://texhour.github.io/about/
> 
> wishing you happy TeXing
> 
> Jonathan