Installing TeX locally
The default TeX install that comes with our desktops in the CAAM department is antiquated: may packages are missing and those we do have are several years behind. Early on, this isn't much of a problem, but once you get more advanced, you'll want to use more of the features available in modern TeX.
Local install
Hard drive space in your home directory is limited, so we will do the instillation in the /scratch directory. This is located on the physical hard drive associated with your desktop. Start by downloading the current TeXLive sources:
Now unpack this file
Go to the directory this extracts and run the install script
We now need to change a few of the install settings. By default, TeXLive wants to install to /usr/local/texlive. We don't have write access to that directory, so we'll install to the /scratch directory. Select D and then 1 and change the directory to /scratch/texlive. As we live in the United States, it also makes sense to configure the default paper size to letter instead of A4. Select O and then P to change the default. Now, select I to install and go have lunch. This takes a while!
Updating Path
The last step is to update our path such that our installed version of TeX is called when we run latex. In the ~/.bashrc file (assuming you're using bash), add the following line
We need to add our new path to the left of the existing path so that it is scanned first; see 1.
While we're editing the bashrc file, it is a good time to add new directories for TeX and BibTeX to search.
Updating
To update texlive, run the program
