tlbuild: tlmgr USER MODE
B.9 USER MODE
=============
'tlmgr' provides a restricted way, called "user mode", to manage
arbitrary texmf trees in the same way as the main installation. For
example, this allows people without write permissions on the
installation location to update/install packages into a tree of their
own.
'tlmgr' is switched into user mode with the command line option
'--usermode'. It does not switch automatically, nor is there any
configuration file setting for it. Thus, this option has to be
explicitly given every time user mode is to be activated.
This mode of 'tlmgr' works on a user tree, by default the value of
the 'TEXMFHOME' variable. This can be overridden with the command line
option '--usertree'. In the following when we speak of the user tree we
mean either 'TEXMFHOME' or the one given on the command line.
Not all actions are allowed in user mode; 'tlmgr' will warn you and
not carry out any problematic actions. Currently not supported (and
probably will never be) is the 'platform' action. The 'gui' action is
currently not supported, but may be in a future release.
Some 'tlmgr' actions don't need any write permissions and thus work
the same in user mode and normal mode. Currently these are: 'check',
'help', 'list', 'print-platform', 'print-platform-info', 'search',
'show', 'version'.
On the other hand, most of the actions dealing with package
management do need write permissions, and thus behave differently in
user mode, as described below: 'install', 'update', 'remove', 'option',
'paper', 'generate', 'backup', 'restore', 'uninstall', 'symlinks'.
Before using 'tlmgr' in user mode, you have to set up the user tree
with the 'init-usertree' action. This creates _usertree_'/web2c' and
_usertree_'/tlpkg/tlpobj', and a minimal
_usertree_'/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb'. At that point, you can tell 'tlmgr'
to do the (supported) actions by adding the '--usermode' command line
option.
In user mode the file _usertree_'/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb' contains only
the packages that have been installed into the user tree using 'tlmgr',
plus additional options from the "virtual" package
'00texlive.installation' (similar to the main installation's
'texlive.tlpdb').
All actions on packages in user mode can only be carried out on
packages that are known as 'relocatable'. This excludes all packages
containing executables and a few other core packages. Of the 2500 or so
packages currently in TeX Live the vast majority are relocatable and can
be installed into a user tree.
Description of changes of actions in user mode:
Menu
Info Catalog
tlbuild: tlmgr CRYPTOGRAPHIC VERIFICATION
tlbuild: tlmgr
tlbuild: tlmgr MULTIPLE REPOSITORIES