How to install “vanilla” TeXLive on Fedora?

Question

Fedora has provided a very good texlive packaging. But, I think it's best to install texlive directly, using ./install-tl command. I have installed texlive directly on Ubuntu system before, by using this guide:

How to install "vanilla" TeXLive on Debian or Ubuntu?

(thanks to Torbjørn T, for the complete guide).

Now, I'm currently using Fedora 23 Workstation. Is there a way to install texlive directly on Fedora 23 ? Is there any fake packages to make Fedora think that we have already installed the texlive, i.e, similar to equivs package on Debian?

Answer 1

How to install TeX Live in Fedora – a quick guide for ducks

^{No ducks were harmed during the making of this guide.}

Step one: Obtain the official Unix installer from TUG. If you want to use the terminal directly, open it and type:

$ wget http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz

Step two: Time to unpack the installer and run it! Personally, I like the command line, so in the terminal, go to the directory where you downloaded install-tl-unx.tar.gz and type:

$ tar xvzf install-tl-unx.tar.gz

You will get a directory named install-tl-<build date>, where <build date> is the date referring to the latest installer build (your mileage may vary). Let us delve into the installation, so type:

$ cd install-tl-*
$ sudo ./install-tl

The installer will appear in your terminal screen:

< verbose output, suppresed here because it is too complex for ducks >

 <O> options:
   [ ] use letter size instead of A4 by default
   [X] allow execution of restricted list of programs via \write18
   [X] create all format files
   [X] install macro/font doc tree
   [X] install macro/font source tree
   [ ] create symlinks to standard directories

 <V> set up for portable installation

Actions:
 <I> start installation to hard disk
 <H> help
 <Q> quit

Enter command: 

Now, simply choose I and wait until the installation finishes.

Step three: Let us add a symbolic link to the TeX Live binary directory! Open the terminal and type the following:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/texlive/<year>/bin/<arch> /opt/texbin

Please, replace <year> and <arch> by the correct year and architecture. In my case, I'd run:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-linux /opt/texbin

Now, we can refer to the TeX Live binaries by providing the symbolic reference /opt/texbin. When installing newer versions, it's just a matter of simply updating the symbolic link and everything is ready to go.

Step four: In your terminal, type the following:

$ gedit texlive.sh

The GEdit editor will appear with a blank document named texlive.sh. Copy and paste the following text (courtesy of egreg):

#!/bin/bash
pathmunge () {
    if ! echo $PATH | /bin/egrep -q "(^|:)$1($|:)" ; then
        if [ "$2" = "after" ] ; then
            PATH=$PATH:$1
        else
            PATH=$1:$PATH
        fi
    fi
}
pathmunge /opt/texbin
unset pathmunge

Save the file in GEdit and close it. You will be back to the terminal screen. Now type:

$ sudo mv texlive.sh /etc/profile.d/

This script ensures the /opt/texbin entry will be in your path, before any other entry. After running the command, close your terminal and open it again (this is important). Now, try running:

$ which pdflatex
/opt/texbin/pdflatex

If you get the output shown above, everything is set up perfectly!

Step five: Now, let us configure the OpenType fonts from TeX Live. Open the terminal and type:

$ sudo cp $(kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFSYSVAR)/fonts/conf/texlive-fontconfig.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/09-texlive.conf
$ sudo fc-cache -fsv

Wait a couple of seconds (or minutes) and we are done!

Have fun with TeX Live and Fedora!