Installer/Updater/Layout ======================== layout ------ root directory ROOT (texlive2008 or texlive-2008 or ...) ROOT/texmf-dist ROOT/texmf ROOT/texmf-config ROOT/texmf-var ROOT/bin ROOT/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb ROOT/tlpkg/tlpobj ROOT/tlpkg/ ... As suggested by Reinhard, and discussed with Karl, I propose to put the texlive.tlpdb NOT into ROOT, but "hide" it somehow, i.e., put it into ROOT/tlpkg distribution methods -------------------- inst CD/DVD contains all the packages in zip (or lzma or ...) form, plus the installer and the texlive.tlpdb live DVD contains a live tree, no zip media, plus the texlive.tlpdb network zip files "package version" file texlive.tlpdb (??? necessary, could be ignored) format of the zip files ---------------------- (can be another compression method) The zip files contain the files with pathes relative to ROOT, i.e., ./texmf-dist/... ./texmf/... ./bin/... Furthermore, the zip file contains a TLPOBJ file in ./tlpkg/tlpobj/NAME.tlpobj This allows the distribution of "packages" even from outside of TeX Live (imagine that someone creates a minion-pro.zip for installation into the TeX Live installation). OTOH this is a duplication in some cases since the inst and live media the same information is present in the texlive.tlpdb. But I think that the win of "self containment" over "no duplication" is more important. Furthermore, Karl suggested that some people may want to recreate the texlive.tlpdb in case it was destroyed. For this we have to ship the tlpobj files. Installation procedure ---------------------- - from inst CD -------------- files in the zip tlpobj data from shipped texlive.tlpdb or the zip file - from network (used also for the updater) ------------------------------------------ files in the zip tlpobj data from the zip file or from the network tlpdb (if present) - from full/live DVD: --------------------- files from the DVD tlpobj data from the shipped texlive.tlpdb (from here on action for all)