This repository aspires to be the Homebrew source for all free and open-source TeX-related software not already provided by other taps such as homebrew-core.
Notes
- We say “aspires” because (a) packaging TeX software can be difficult and (b) there is a lot of TeX software out there.
- If it can go into homebrew-core, it should! They have the resources to manage the formulae.
This project is a work in progress, so please forgive us for any problems you run into and please help out by contributing a bug report, feature request, or pull request.
The main source of TeX software packages is TeX Live, which provides large, monolithic installations for Unix, Windows, and macOS (via MacTeX).
There are a few problems with the TeX Live approach:
-
They release only once every year, so their software versions can be quite out of date from the releases of the individual components.
-
They install all of their files into one directory (e.g.
/usr/local/texlive/2018). This has pros and cons, of course. The cons include having to set your$PATH,$MANPATH, etc. and non-TeX-Live software possibly not being able to work easily with TeX Live software. -
The installation is typically very large and does not support installing individual components.
Our plan, of course, is to distribute TeX-related software differently.
Goals
- Provide as many useful TeX-related formula as possible.
- Support fine-grained package installation.
- Source from original author where possible or TeX Live when it makes sense.
Motivation
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We want to be the source for TeX-related software on macOS just as each Linux distribution provides its own collection of TeX-related packages. It should be possible for someone to
brew installeverything they need for their TeX rather than install MacTeX. -
One should only have what one needs. We want to reduce the number of bytes downloaded, the number of bytes stored, and the number of different executables in the
$PATH. We may need to make trade-offs with build time or other resources to satisfy this goal. -
Authors don't always follow TeX Live's distribution schedule, and users often want updates more than once a year.
The current approach is to build a collection of TeX-related formulae from the ground up. That means we start with the core dependencies and add formulae that depend on those. We also add formulae that have no dependencies or depend only on homebrew-core formulae.
This is the current classification. As more formulae are added, it will likely change.
Core Libraries
Core Tools (using kpathsea)
Other