URL package installed but cannot be found by pdflatex [closed]

Question

I recently installed a full version of TeXLive 2012 (around 3.2 GB installation). Following is a simple LaTeX code that I am unable to compile:

\listfiles
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\title{\LaTeX\ Document}
\author{Joe the Student}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
   \maketitle
   Hello world!
   My email is \href{mailto:my_email@server.org}{my\_email@server.org}
\end{document}

I get following error when I try to compile with pdflatex:

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012/Debian)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./tex.tex
LaTeX2e <2011/06/27>
Babel <v3.8m> and hyphenation patterns for english, dumylang, nohyphenation, lo
aded.
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/hyperref/hyperref.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/hobsub-hyperref.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/hobsub-generic.sty))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/kvoptions.sty)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/hyperref/pd1enc.def)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/hyperref.cfg)

! LaTeX Error: File `url.sty' not found.

Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)

Enter file name: 
)

Package hyperref Message: Driver (autodetected): hpdftex.

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/hyperref/hpdftex.def
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/rerunfilecheck.sty))
(./tex.aux) (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/hyperref/nameref.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/gettitlestring.sty))
(./tex.out) (./tex.out) [1{/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}]
(./tex.aux)  

*File List*
 article.cls    2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
  size10.clo    2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
hyperref.sty    2012/05/13 v6.82q Hypertext links for LaTeX
hobsub-hyperref.sty    2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset hyperref (HO)
hobsub-generic.sty    2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset generic (HO)
  hobsub.sty    2012/05/28 v1.13 Construct package bundles (HO)
infwarerr.sty    2010/04/08 v1.3 Providing info/warning/error messages (HO)
 ltxcmds.sty    2011/11/09 v1.22 LaTeX kernel commands for general use (HO)
ifluatex.sty    2010/03/01 v1.3 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO)
  ifvtex.sty    2010/03/01 v1.5 Detect VTeX and its facilities (HO)
 intcalc.sty    2007/09/27 v1.1 Expandable calculations with integers (HO)
   ifpdf.sty    2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO)
etexcmds.sty    2011/02/16 v1.5 Avoid name clashes with e-TeX commands (HO)
kvsetkeys.sty    2012/04/25 v1.16 Key value parser (HO)
kvdefinekeys.sty    2011/04/07 v1.3 Define keys (HO)
pdftexcmds.sty    2011/11/29 v0.20 Utility functions of pdfTeX for LuaTeX (HO)
pdfescape.sty    2011/11/25 v1.13 Implements pdfTeX's escape features (HO)
bigintcalc.sty    2012/04/08 v1.3 Expandable calculations on big integers (HO)
  bitset.sty    2011/01/30 v1.1 Handle bit-vector datatype (HO)
uniquecounter.sty    2011/01/30 v1.2 Provide unlimited unique counter (HO)
letltxmacro.sty    2010/09/02 v1.4 Let assignment for LaTeX macros (HO)
 hopatch.sty    2012/05/28 v1.2 Wrapper for package hooks (HO)
xcolor-patch.sty    2011/01/30 xcolor patch
atveryend.sty    2011/06/30 v1.8 Hooks at the very end of document (HO)
atbegshi.sty    2011/10/05 v1.16 At begin shipout hook (HO)
refcount.sty    2011/10/16 v3.4 Data extraction from label references (HO)
 hycolor.sty    2011/01/30 v1.7 Color options for hyperref/bookmark (HO)
  keyval.sty    1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC)
 ifxetex.sty    2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
kvoptions.sty    2011/06/30 v3.11 Key value format for package options (HO)
  pd1enc.def    2012/05/13 v6.82q Hyperref: PDFDocEncoding definition (HO)
hyperref.cfg    2002/06/06 v1.2 hyperref configuration of TeXLive
 hpdftex.def    2012/05/13 v6.82q Hyperref driver for pdfTeX
rerunfilecheck.sty    2011/04/15 v1.7 Rerun checks for auxiliary files (HO)
 nameref.sty    2010/04/30 v2.40 Cross-referencing by name of section
gettitlestring.sty    2010/12/03 v1.4 Cleanup title references (HO)
     tex.out
     tex.out
 ***********

)</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr1
    0.pfb></usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr12.pfb><
    /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr17.pfb>
    Output written on tex.pdf (1 page, 34458 bytes).
    Transcript written on tex.log.

Compilation halts at the prompt:

Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)

Enter file name:

and then proceeds and does create the pdf as expected. However I don't understand why I get the compilation error in the first place.

I successfully verified that packages hyperref and url are installed using command:

tlmgr show <pkg-name>

However, I read somewhere that url is part of ltxmisc and output of

ls /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ltxmisc/ 

has url.sty missing.

Please let me know what could be wrong.

Answer 1

url.sty is part of TeX Live package url and is installed as

/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/url/url.sty

If the file is present, it should be listed in

/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/ls-R

with the two lines:

./tex/latex/url:
url.sty

If not, then regenerate ls-R by running texhash /usr/share/texlive as user root (as user that has permissions for /usr/share/texlive/).

If the file url.sty is missing in this location, then you can try

$ find /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/ -name url.sty

to locate it.

Manual installation

CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/url/ contains the files for package url. They should be sorted into the following texmf/TDS locations:

TDS:doc/latex/url/miscdoc.sty TDS:doc/latex/url/url.pdf TDS:doc/latex/url/url.tex TDS:tex/latex/url/url.sty

Usually additional packages are installed in the local or home texmf tree. In this case, however, it would put them into the distribution tree:

TDS: ≡ /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/

The run texhash again.

I do not know your, why your full install misses the url package or why it cannot be reinstalled. Enable verbose/debug options for tlmgr if available and post the output, perhaps someone can see the reason. There is also a mailing list texlive for problems/bug reports regarding tlmgr.