I've forked the github repo for a package that is on CTAN and distributed with TeXLive. I'd like to do some development on it, and use it locally before committing back. This seems a pretty standard workflow for package development.
Previously I was on Windows and could use an absolute path to the local development version of the package. I've since moved to Linux (Ubuntu) and just like this issue cannot use an absolute path. The answers there are fine for installing a new local package, but not one that conflicts with a package already distributed in TeXLive.
I've tried renaming the TeXLive version *.sty file to *.sty.tmp and using a symbolic link to my development version, but the symlink gets removed for some reason and the CTAN version restored (I presume tlmgr is 'smart' and is watching/updating/correcting its folders).
So how can I point latex to my development version of a CTAN package in Linux?
l3build
mechanism for building and installing the packages, like say for example, the datestamp package, you can clone its git repository,cd
to the package directory (which in case ofdatestamp
will requirecd datestamp/datestamp
) and issue thel3build install
command. This will locally install the package. Just one command and you are done. You can make changes in the dtx and issue this command multiple times to change the locally installed version.