tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2018 < 2019)

[schnoddelbotz]

I'm building my own pandoc image based on pandoc/latex:2.7.2. Since a few days, tlmgr installations fail for me:

2.7.2: Pulling from pandoc/latex
bdf0201b3a05: Pull complete 
...
a0d8d5c5eda2: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:f2c2300b5af6da69bec4dcb9f54c6a68084b4e30fbc12fb2bb1a9f706308a805
Status: Downloaded newer image for pandoc/latex:2.7.2
 ---> 40fade551d61
Step 2/2 : RUN tlmgr install adjustbox collectbox pagecolor mdframed needspace sourcesanspro ly1 mweights sourcecodepro titling framed
 ---> Running in d01d50d252ba

tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2018 < 2019)
Cross release updates are only supported with
  update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) --update
Please see https://tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html for details.

I can't find update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) --- any hints on how to make tlmgr work again?

[Ricq]

+1 on fixing this. It is probably just baking and publishing a new image from the current Docker file, as that will pull the latest TexLive, which will be the 2019 version.

[tarleb]

Thanks for the report. I haven't had time yet to look into this, but should be able to check possible solutions sometime later this week.

[svenevs]

We were expecting this (at least I was), this will likely be a yearly thing (every time a new latex is released).

I don't know if we'll ever be able to future proof things. You can tell tlmgr to use the archives for 2018 like done here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/429718

A the time of building a current latex image, we need the regular url. When latex releases, usually every May, what are people's thoughts about doing the following:

1. Rerelease latest and edge builds.
2. Include instructions in the readme explaining how to set the tlmgr option for any now deprecated images. So right now the 2.6 (latex) image is considered deprecated for example.

What I really want to avoid is rereleasing every image. It will quickly become unmanageable (it takes a long time to build these out...).

I'll do (1) today so that latest and edge work. Looking for feedback on how to document / deal with this because this problem will return even if we did rebuild every image.

[Ricq]

Are there stable repository URLs for each Latex release? If so, you could fixate them to the appropriate release whenever you release a Pandoc version, instead of needing to rely on the changing edge repo. E.g.: when you release a new Docker image at the time Latex needs the 2018 repo, you fix the Latex version and repo to 2018, so even if 2019 becomes available for image will stay working for 2018. If that's possible you stay in control. You would only maybe get questions on when you would be upgrading to a newer version, but that's your choice and much less of an issue than breaking builds.

latest will then mean: the latest Pandoc Docker image, and not necessarily the latest Latex version.

[svenevs]

Are there stable repository URLs for each Latex release?

This is worth looking into more closely, the last time I looked this up (a few months ago) my understanding was that no such stable repo exists. It's always "latest" and "archive", and "archive" doesn't get put online until "latest" moves. I'll double check though, because if they do exist this would fix everything. Just set the option immediately.

latest will then mean: the latest Pandoc Docker image, and not necessarily the latest Latex version.

latest tag for all of the images refers to latest pandoc release, but the proposal above is to basically tie latex image to also mean latest latex. For no reason other than this tlmgr thing.

P.S.: edge build is running now, when this completes the edge tag should be fixed. Probably in ~40 minutes. I'll merge #44 after that finishes which will trigger the updated 2.7.2 build. I am fighting my eyes to stay awake though...so @tarleb if you notice I haven't merged it in about an hour feel free to do so 🙂

Update: core and latest (2.7.2 right now) tags should be functional as build bases again. Will close this PR with either a solution or docs explaining options when this happens / why.

[schnoddelbotz]

Hey @svenevs
Just to confirm: The re-released 2.7.2 resolved this issue for me, tlmgr works fine again.
Thanks a lot for your efforts!

[svenevs]

Proposed "solution" being discussed here #82 (comment)

All images are currently broken for people needing to build derivative images with tlmgr so we'd like to decide quickly and be happy with it 🙂

[tarleb]

See #82 (comment)