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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label findfiles</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Finding (La)TeX files</h3>
<p/>Modern TeX distributions contain a huge array of support files of
various sorts, but sooner or later most people need to find something
that’s not in their present system (if nothing else, because they’ve
heard that something has been updated).
<p/>But how to find the files?
<p/>Some sources, such as these FAQ answers, provide links to
files: so if you’ve learnt about a package here, you should be able to
retrieve it without too much fuss.
<p/>Otherwise, the CTAN sites provide searching facilities, via the web.
The simplest search, locating files by name, is to be found on the
Dante CTAN
at <a href="http://www.dante.de/cgi-bin/ctan-index">http://www.dante.de/cgi-bin/ctan-index</a>; the script scans a
list of files (<i>FILES.byname</i> — see below) and returns a list
of matches, arranged very neatly as a series of links to directories
and to individual files.
<p/>The <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/search">UK</a> and
<a href="http://www.ctan.org/search">USA</a> CTANs offer a
search page that provides
<ul>
<li> a file-name search similar to the Dante machine’s (above);
<li> a keyword search of the archive catalogue (see below): this is a
pretty powerful tool: the results include links to the catalogue
“short descriptions”, so you can assure yourself that the package
you’ve found is the one you want; and
<li> a search form that allows you to use <i>Google</i> to search
CTAN.
</ul>
<p/>An alternative way to scan the catalogue is to use the catalogue’s
<a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/bytopic.html">“by topic” index</a>;
this lists a series of topics, and (La)TeX projects that are worth
considering if you’re working on matters related to the topic.
<p/>In fact, <i>Google</i>, and other search engines, can be useful
tools. Enter your search keywords, and you may pick up a package that
the author hasn’t bothered to submit to CTAN. If you’re using
<i>Google</i>, you can restrict your search to CTAN by
entering
<blockquote>
<code>site:ctan.org tex-archive <<i>search term(s)</i>></code>
</blockquote><p>
in <i>Google</i>’s “search box”. You can also enforce the
restriction using <i>Google</i>’s “advanced search” mechanism;
other search engines (presumably) have similar facilities.
<p/>Many people avoid the need to go over the network at all, for their
searches, by downloading the file list that the archives’ web
file searches use. This file, <i>FILES.byname</i>,
presents a unified listing of the archive (omitting directory names and
cross-links). Its companion <i>FILES.last07days</i> is also useful, to
keep an eye on the changes on the archive. Since these files are
updated only once a day, a nightly automatic download (perhaps using
<i>rsync</i>) makes good sense.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>FILES.byname</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/FILES.byname">FILES.byname</a>
<dt><tt><i>FILES.last07days</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/FILES.last07days">FILES.last07days</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=findfiles">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=findfiles</a>
</body>
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