Tlmgr returning error in Linux

[naveen521kk]

I downloaded https://github.com/yihui/tinytex-releases/releases/download/v2020.09/TinyTeX-1.tar.gz in Linux.
I extracted it using the below command

tar -xvzf "TinyTeX-1.tar.gz" 

At first, I could find my extracted folder. Later I found it was .TinyTeX(Hidden). Then I wanted to create symlinks to start using it. So I typed the below command

cd .TinyTeX && bin/x86_64-linux/tlmgr path add

Then it returned a weird error.

Can't locate TeXLive/TLConfig.pm in @INC (you may need to install the TeXLive::TLConfig module) (@INC contains: //texmf-dist/scripts/texlive //tlpkg /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.26.1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.26 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.26 /usr/share/perl/5.26 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base) at bin/x86_64-linux/tlmgr line 101.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at bin/x86_64-linux/tlmgr line 101.

Looks like the way it was build was the issue. I think @yihui . Could you try and verify whether this works?

Here, I attached a Google Colab copy of what happened.
https://gist.github.com/naveen521kk/3fe9f54a4e82efef97903a272380e541
Note: Their all bash command should start with !.

[yihui]

You need to cd into the directory of tlmgr:
https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/blob/9ba0e4eef2ea98b8a3cef4eff65bd91c51c7e4ab/tools/install-bin-unix.sh#L16-L18

It seems that tlmgr under ~/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux is dependent on the working directory.

[naveen521kk]

I appreciate a clear mention of this in docs. I haven't tried it yet. Once, I tried it and confirm I will close this issue.

[yihui]

To be honest, this is the first time I have discovered it over the several years of using tlmgr. Perhaps I'd never know it by myself, and was just too lucky to have done tlmgr path add correctly in the first time :)

[naveen521kk]

Yes, what you said worked. I tried the below command and it worked without any errors.

cd .TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux && ./tlmgr path add

[yihui]

If you want to install TinyTeX on Linux, you can use the method here: https://yihui.org/tinytex/#installation which essentially runs this script: https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/blob/master/tools/install-bin-unix.sh

[naveen521kk]

I am closing this as this is fixed. Also, why not publish to apt for TexLive?

[yihui]

That might be a good idea, but I'm not interested in it. Users have too little freedom with a Debian package (which may make sense for other packages but not for TeX Live in my opinion): https://yihui.org/tinytex/pain/

If I were to make this a package at all, I'd probably consider Homebrew instead (which works for both macOS and Linux), so users can brew install tinytex. I have done some work a couple of years ago: https://github.com/yihui/homebrew-tinytex I didn't think it was a good idea at that time, but I think it's okay now because we have got stable releases.