TeX Live 2003
› TeX Live
› Buying TeX Live
› Supported Systems
› Redistribute
› Contribute
TEX Live is by common consensus the single easiest way to get up and running with TEX . It provides a ready-to-run TEX system for most types of Unix, MacOS X, and Windows, and includes all major TEX -related programs. It also includes a complete tree of fonts and macros, with support for many languages.
TEX Live has been developed since 1996 by collaboration between virtually all of the TEX user groups. It is extensively tested before its release, but bugs undoubtedly remain. Please report problems to the tex-live mailing list, but first check the list of known bugs and updates.
For TEX Live 2003, the last update of packages and programs was made on 20 September 2003. For the latest versions, please consult CTAN.
The general documentation for TEX Live, including installation instructions, is included in the distribution. It's also available online:
For a list of the most important changes in this year's release, see the "Release history" section at the end of the documentation.
topTEX Live is distributed as a benefit of membership to TUG members each year. So, if you wish to obtain the TEX Live through TUG, please become a TUG member. You'll also receive a year of TUGboat and the CTAN CD set, among other benefits. Alternatively, you can purchase any of these items separately from the TUG store.
The Indian TEX Users Group also make TEX Live available to their members at a cost of Rs. 1,000 (Rupees One thousand only) which includes forwarding and shipping costs since admission to TUGIndia is free; please contact whichever you are interested in for details. TUG encourages you to join whichever user group is right for you. In case you want to buy TEX Live from TUGIndia, you may kindly send a demand draft for Rs. 1000 favouring Indian TEX Users Group drawn on any bank in Trivandrum and mailed to TUGIndia (address given at the top of this page).
It is also possible to download compressed ISO image files from http://sarovar.org/projects/texlive and burn your own CD or DVD. We do not encourage this for the average user, as it is a BIG download (reputed to take 15 hours over a modem), but if you prefer or if other methods fail, it is available.
You can also download the image and make it available as a file system, without burning an actual disc, under capable operating systems. For example, under Linux:
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop texlive-live.iso /mnt/texliveto mount the file system contained in the file texlive.iso on the directory /mnt/texlive.
You can also browse the contents of TEX Live online.
Images for some older releases are also available.
topAs of 2003, space limitations of CD-ROM format have forced us to divide TEX Live into three distributions:
See the top-level README and the main documentation for more details on all of this.
Thus, the following systems are supported in all of the TEX Live distributions:
Whereas these systems are supported only in the live and inst distributions:
If you're interested in redistributing or modifying TEX Live, please see the copying conditions. In summary, to the best of our knowledge, all the software in TEX Live meets the requirements of the Free Software Foundation's definition of free software, and the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
In essence, this means that all the material in TEX Live may be freely used, copied, modified, and redistributed, subject to the sources remaining freely available. (Note: this is not true of all the software in the CTAN snapshot, which is sometimes distributed alongside TEX Live.)
However, you cannot yourself claim copyright (especially a proprietary copyright) on TEX Live if you redistribute it! Again, please see the copying conditions.
topIf you have questions, problems, or suggestions for TEX Live, please email the developers. (Mailing list archives are available.) But if you're reporting problems with a particular program, as opposed to the general TEX Live packaging, then please report it to the maintainers of that program.
If you wish to contribute TEX nically, please email to arrange for access to the source tree. TEX Live is made possible only by the efforts of volunteers worldwide; we welcome all newcomers.
Finally, if you wish to contribute financially :), we ask that
you support your local TEX user group, or perhaps contribute to the TEX Development Fund.
Principal perpetrator: Sebastian Rahtz, Oxford University Computing Services, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Contact TUGIndia; TUGIndia home page.