MiKTeX package sets

Question

I see that MiKTeX has 3 package sets:

--package-set=SET
Set the package set (one of: essential, basic, complete).

However I could not find a list of what is included with these. I tried this with no luck:

$ miktexsetup --print-info-only download
initializing setup service...
setup task: download
local package repository: "D:\Desktop\MiKTeX Download Files"
package set: complete
remote package repository: http://ctan.math.washington.edu/tex-archive/systems/
win32/miktex/tm/packages/

Answer 1

Run this command instead, and just cancel after few seconds:

$ miktexsetup --verbose download
initializing setup service...
starting downloader...
starting download...
repository: https://mirrors.rit.edu/CTAN/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/
download directory: "D:\Desktop\MiKTeX Download Files"
visiting repository https://mirrors.rit.edu/CTAN/systems/win32/miktex/tm/
packages/...
repository type: remote package repository
loading package repository manifest...
downloading https://mirrors.rit.edu/CTAN/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/
miktex-zzdb1-2.9.tar.lzma...

The last line is a link to an archive, containing the manifest file mpm.ini. Here is a section:

[12many]
CabMD5=78e41f641a1a0b49c79e94b6421e1988
CabSize=383872
Level=L
MD5=1c74ba5c710b75403c69a7446690c919
TimePackaged=1310767635
Type=TarLzma
Version=0.3

The important part is Level=L. Full list:

$ grep Level mpm.ini | sort | uniq -c
3555 Level=L
  83 Level=M
 193 Level=S
  62 Level=T

This was confusing to me, as the help lists 3 levels, not 4. So what is the last level? I found the answer here:

MIKTEX_ASSERT(
PackageLevel::None < PackageLevel::Essential
&& PackageLevel::Essential < PackageLevel::Basic
&& PackageLevel::Basic < PackageLevel::Advanced
&& PackageLevel::Advanced < PackageLevel::Complete);

https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex/blob/a4a7a810/Libraries/MiKTeX/PackageManager/PackageInstallerImpl.cpp#L97-L101

after some testing, this is my finding:

Level=S (small): essential
Level=M (medium): basic
Level=L (large): advanced
Level=T (total): complete