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I am currently looking for ways to minimise the size of my texLive installation. My question generally concerns all operating systems, but for now it would suffice for me to know this in the context of Windows: Can I safely delete the tlperl folder and still compile documents or is it somehow involved in the compilation process?

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    Most packages don't require Perl, but some do, for example the glossaries package. Also, it might be that TeXLive itself needs Perl for housekeeping tasks; I don't know for certain. If you want to save space, just delete Windows instead ;-) Jul 9, 2017 at 14:34
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    @MichaelPalmer +1 for the suggestion to delete Windows. I think tlmgr needs Perl, too. On this site under "Disaster recovery" Perl is mentioned. Biblatex's biber also uses Perl, I guess.
    – Skillmon
    Jul 9, 2017 at 14:51
  • Ok, but would it affect the compilation of basic documents that only rely on very basic packages (amsmath, babel and the like)?
    – PLO
    Jul 9, 2017 at 15:44
  • @PLO why don't you just cut and move it to an other location and try? I don't think it'll break very basic documents but don't guarantee it.
    – Skillmon
    Jul 9, 2017 at 16:19
  • Because I don't have access to a Windows machine at the moment and my attempts to install it with Wine failed.
    – PLO
    Jul 9, 2017 at 16:44

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No, please don't delete it! Many scripts in TeX Live, foremost the important scripts fmtutil and updmap are written in Perl and require tlperl. In case you delete the folder you will be able to run already built formats, but anything else (like updates, missing formats, ...) Will not work.

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