summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-tds.html
blob: d1960c68ae61470cb3f04931e4c1b6bcc1c23b9e (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
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label tds</title>
</head><body>
<h3>What is the TDS?</h3>
<p/>    TDS stands for the TeX Directory Structure, which is a standard
way of organising all the TeX-related files on a computer system. 
<p/>    Most modern distributions conform to the TDS, which
provides for both a &#8216;distribution&#8217; and a (set of) &#8216;local&#8217; directory
trees containing TeX-related files.  The TDS reserves the
name <code>texmf</code> as the name of the root directory (folder) of the
hierarchies, and most distributions use that name for their &#8216;own&#8217;
trees.  Files supplied as part of the distribution are put into the
distribution&#8217;s tree.  The location of the distribution&#8217;s hierarchy is
system dependent, but on a Unix system it might be at 
<i>/usr/share/texmf</i> or
<i>/opt/texmf</i>, or
a similar location, but in each case the TeX files will be in the
tree starting at the <i>/texmf</i> subdirectory.
<p/>There may be more than one &#8216;local&#8217; hierarchy in which additional files
can be stored.  In the extreme an installation can have a local
hierarchy and each user can also have an individual local hierarchy.
The location of any local hierarchy is not only system dependent but
also user dependent.  Again, though, all files should be put under a
local <i>/texmf</i> directory.
<p/>The TDS itself is published as the output of a TUG 
<a href="FAQ-TUGstar.html">Technical Working Group</a>.  You may browse an
<a href="http://tug.org/tds/">on-line version</a> of the standard, and
copies in several other formats (including source) are available on
CTAN.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>TDS specification</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/tds.zip">tds</a> (or <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/tds/">browse the directory</a>); <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/help/Catalogue/entries/tds.html">catalogue entry</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=tds">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=tds</a>
</body>