How to generate a TeX-file containing information of all installed packages of an actual TeXLive

Question

Is it possible to generate a TeX-file with all information needed about the installed packages of a TeXLive distribution?

If you want only certain elements of the table, you can use this snippet. :-)

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.lua}
 dofile( assert( kpse.find_file( "tlpdb.tlu", "texmfscripts" ) ) )
 tlpdb = read_tlpdb( kpse.var_value("SELFAUTOPARENT") )
 for name, pkg in pairs( tlpdb ) do 
  texio.write_nl( name )
  tex.print( "\\section*{" )
  tex.print( name )
  tex.print( "}" )
  tex.print( "" )
  if pkg.longdesc ~= nil then
    tex.write( tostring(pkg.longdesc) )
    tex.print( "" )
  end
  if pkg. revision ~= nil then
    tex.write( tostring(pkg.longdesc) )
    tex.print( "" )
  tex.print( "\\clearpage" )
end
\end{filecontents*}

Answer 1

The information about installed packages is stored in a plain text database <installation root>/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb. For a simple list of packages in a database you can use this one-liner:

awk '/^name/ {print $2}' texlive.tlpdb

For anything more complicated you would need to parse the database file yourself (if you know perl or lua you could use some code from TeX Live for that purpose).

Edit: here's an example using luatex that prints info about each package on a separate page (Edit2: with package names sorted alphabetically).

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.lua}
dofile( assert( kpse.find_file( "tlpdb.tlu", "texmfscripts" ) ) )
tlpdb = read_tlpdb( kpse.var_value( "SELFAUTOPARENT" ) )
pkglist = {}
for name in pairs( tlpdb ) do 
  table.insert( pkglist, name )
end
table.sort( pkglist )
for i, name in ipairs( pkglist ) do 
  texio.write_nl( name )
  tex.print( "PACKAGE: " .. name )
  tex.print( "" )
  for field, value in pairs( tlpdb[name] ) do 
    if type( value ) ~= "table" then
      tex.write( field .. ": " .. tostring( value ) )
      tex.print( "" )
    end
  end
  tex.print( "\\clearpage" )
end
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\directlua{ dofile "\jobname.lua" }
\end{document}

Answer 2

I took up the challenge with pdf(La)TeX (and the code could easily be modified to use only eTeX). It ain't pretty. It should produce a ~5000 pages long pdf file with all the info (and it takes forever to compile... like, 4hrs). I had to hard-code the path of the texlive install (first line of the code).

\def\tlpath{/usr/local/texlive/2011}
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\makeatletter
\newread\tl@read
\openin\tl@read \tlpath/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb\relax
\newif\if@tl@itemize
\def\tl@analyse#1 {%
  \ifcsname #1\endcsname
    \csname #1\expandafter\endcsname
  \else
    \tl@open@if@new{#1}{#1\begin{itemize}}\@tl@itemizetrue{}%
    \def\tl@current{#1}%
    \expandafter\tl@unknown
  \fi}
\def\tl@open@if@new#1#2#3#4%
  {%
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{#1}{\tl@current}=0\relax
      \g@addto@macro\tl@text{#4}%
    \else
      \ifx\tl@text\empty\else
        \if@tl@itemize
          \g@addto@macro\tl@text{\end{itemize}}%
        \fi
      \fi
      \@tl@itemizefalse
      #3%
      \g@addto@macro\tl@text{\item#2}%
    \fi
    \def\tl@current{#1}%
  }
\def\tl@unknown#1\relax{%
  \if@tl@itemize
    \g@addto@macro\tl@text{\item#1}%
  \else
    \g@addto@macro\tl@text{#1}%
  \fi}
\let\tl@current\empty
\let\tl@name\empty
\def\tl@i{}
\def\tl@i@relax#1#2\relax{#1}
\def\tl@flush{%
  \tl@open@if@new{*}{}{\@gobblefour{}}{}%
  \ifx\tl@name\empty\else
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{\expandafter\tl@i@relax\tl@name\relax}{\tl@i}=0\relax
    \else
      \edef\tl@i{\expandafter\tl@i@relax\tl@name\relax}%
      \chapter{Packages starting with \tl@i}%
    \fi
    \section{\rmfamily\tl@name
      \ifx\tl@category\empty\else\space(\tl@category)\fi
      \ifx\tl@revision\empty\else \space r. \tl@revision\fi}%
    \begin{itemize}\tl@text\end{itemize}%
  \fi
  \let\tl@text\empty\let\tl@category\empty
  \let\tl@name\empty\let\tl@revision\empty}
\def\name#1\relax{\tl@flush\def\tl@name{#1}}
\def\category#1\relax{\def\tl@category{#1}}
\def\revision#1\relax{\def\tl@revision{#1}}
\def\tl@oneliner#1#2#3\relax{\tl@open@if@new{#1}{#2: #3}{}{}}
\def\tl@def@oneliner#1#2{\expandafter\def\csname#1\endcsname
  {\tl@oneliner{#1}{#2}}}
\tl@def@oneliner{catalogue}{Catalogue}
\tl@def@oneliner{shortdesc}{Short description}
\tl@def@oneliner{relocated}{Relocated}
\tl@def@oneliner{containersize}{Container size}
\tl@def@oneliner{containermd5}{Container md5}
\tl@def@oneliner{doccontainersize}{Doc container size}
\tl@def@oneliner{doccontainermd5}{Doc container md5}
\tl@def@oneliner{srccontainersize}{Source container size}
\tl@def@oneliner{srccontainermd5}{Source container md5}
\tl@def@oneliner{catalogue-ctan}{On CTAN}
\tl@def@oneliner{catalogue-date}{Dated}
\tl@def@oneliner{catalogue-license}{License}
\tl@def@oneliner{catalogue-version}{Version}
\def\longdesc#1\relax{\tl@open@if@new{longdesc}{Long description: #1}{}{#1}}
\def\docfiles#1\relax{\tl@open@if@new{docfiles}%
  {Doc files: #1\@gobble}{\def\tl@current{}}{}}
\def\runfiles#1\relax{\tl@open@if@new{runfiles}%
  {Run files: #1\@gobble}{\def\tl@current{}}{}}
\def\srcfiles#1\relax{\tl@open@if@new{srcfiles}%
  {Source files: #1\@gobble}{\def\tl@current{}}{}}
\begin{document}
\title{All of the packages in \TeX{}live}
\author{}
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\endlinechar=-1\relax
\loop
\readline\tl@read to\tl@line
  \ifx\empty\tl@line
    \clearpage
  \else
    \expandafter\tl@analyse\tl@line\relax
  \fi
\unless\ifeof\tl@read
\repeat
\end{document}