Re: texlive organization on netbsd

["John D. Baker" <jdbaker%mylinuxisp.com@localhost>]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018, Mayuresh wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 10, 2018 at 08:52:12PM -0500, John D. Baker wrote:
> >   meta-pkgs/texlive-collection-langenglish
> >   meta-pkgs/texlive-collection-binextra

> 1. I am not familiar with how meta-pkgs work - particularly how will I
> know what they will install, like PLIST etc.

A meta-package provides a convenient way to install a system made up of
many different parts, such as TeX, by simply depending on the various
other packages that comprise the system.

Since I always build from source, a glance at the meta-package's Makefile
provides an initial clue as to what will be installed.

For binary packages, I'm not sure how to figure that out ahead of time.

> 2. The latex packages one needs vary over time and they are just too large
> in number. Just like what pip is to python, tlmgr is to texlive packages.
> I think, given the ever growing count of packages in python or latex, it's
> a better approach to leave them to use their own package management
> instead of burdening pkgsrc with them.

As far as I can see, the "texlive-collection-lang*" packages provide a
baseline working TeX/LaTeX installation with the appropriate hyphenation
rules and font requirements for the specified language.  Multiple such
packages can be installed and only the necessary bits for the additional
languages will be added.

As to particular add-ons for LaTeX, and so forth, I will have to defer
to more seasoned users.

(I install the "texlive-collection-binextra" meta-package to get
additional output converter applications like 'dvilj4'.)

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