summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-install-unpack.html
blob: 7a4f393dbcfa8c0b037d24d5ecbcafc6cd6b1615 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label install-unpack</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Unpacking LaTeX packages</h3>
<p/>As discussed <a href="FAQ-dtx.html">elsewhere</a>, the &#8216;ordinary&#8217; way to
distribute a LaTeX package is as a pair of files <i>package.dtx</i>
and <i>package.ins</i>.  If you&#8217;ve acquired such a pair, you simply
process <i>package.ins</i> with LaTeX, and the files will appear,
ready for installation.
<p/>Other sorts of provision should ordinarily be accompanied by a
<i>README</i> file, telling you what to do; we list a few example
configurations.
<p/>Sometimes, a directory comes with a bunch of <code>.dtx</code> files, but
fewer (often only one) <code>.ins</code> files (LaTeX itself comes
looking like this).  If there is more than one <code>.ins</code> file,
and in the absence of any instruction in the <i>README</i> file, simply
process the <code>.ins</code> file(s) one by one.
<p/>If you&#8217;re missing the <i>package.ins</i> altogether, you need to play
around until something works.  Some <code>.dtx</code> files are
&#8220;self-extracting&#8221; &#8212; they do without an <code>.ins</code> file, and once
you&#8217;ve processed the <i>package.dtx</i>, <i>package.sty</i> has
automagically appeared.  Various other oddities may appear, but the
archivists aim to have <i>README</i> file in every package, which
should document anything out of the ordinary with the distribution.
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=install-unpack">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=install-unpack</a>
</body>