TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Minimal TeXLive install?

[ken18]

Hello,

Can someone explain how to perform a bare minimum install on Debian Linux? I only have need (at the moment) for 3-4 packages and would prefer to not install a large number of packages I never intend to use.

I've already done a complete install by downloading and unpacking install-tl-unx.tar.gz and executing install-tl. The install took 1.5 hours and included a very long list of packages. I want to back out the installation and start over with a bare bones TeXLive install.

I could have installed TexLive using Synaptic, but the result is still very large and doesn't include tlmgr for package management.

Appreciate any hints/suggestions. Thanks.

[Johannes_B]

Debian has some (La)TeX stuff in it's repositories, i think it is even up-to-date stuff, but i am not sure. texlive-base should give you the bare minimum.
Using the installer you mentioned gives you options to select while installing. You don't have to install everything (tough it is not a bad idea and disk space is cheap these days).

You said you only want to use 3 to 4 packages. But the packages themselve require other packages. Write \listfiles at the first line of your document and have a look at the end of the log file. I bet there are (at least) a few more listed there.

[ken18]

Thanks for your reply. I did a lot of digging last night and discovered the trick is to use the -gui=perltk option for install-tl which presents options for what gets installed. I'd previously used the -gui=wizard option which doesn't appear to expose any choices for what is installed.

I installed TexLive several times choosing different options to get a feel for what is actually installed. What I'm not sure about is how to properly uninstall each time. I've been just using rm -rf /usr/local/texlive/2014 acting as root.

[Johannes_B]

rm -rf seems to be about right, but be very very careful. I think you know, that this can get you into serious trouble. It can eat up your whole system if wrongly used. Please always be careful using the -rf flag.