CTAN snapshot on TeX Collection DVD
by DANTE e.V.,
and TUG
The DVD contains a nearly complete mirror of the "Comprehensive TeX Archive Network"
(CTAN). CTAN is a network of many servers containing a large
collection of TeX software. Here you will find complete TeX systems
for various operating systems, macro packages like LaTeX, and
utilities and tools around TeX.
The CTAN backbone consists of the servers
- ftp.tex.ac.uk (cam.ctan.org) in the UK,
- ftp.dante.de (dante.ctan.org) in Germany,
whose contents will be mirrored to many other servers.
From http://mirror.ctan.org/ you will be redirected to a server close
to your location.
The snapshot was produced in June 2013 from ftp.dante.de by
DANTE, Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX e.V.
CTAN is a collection of software for different purposes and
operating systems, therefore there is no "CTAN installation
program". A complete installation of this mirror is not necessary.
This readme is an introduction into the structure of CTAN, to help
with selecting the correct components.
Likewise, there is no single licensing scheme for the files
included here; in particular, it's definitely not allowed to
redistribute the contents as-is without permission from some
authors. See the LICENSE.CTAN file and the notes at the
nonfree item below.
Contents of CTAN snapshot:
- ctan/biblio
- Systems for maintaining and presenting bibliographies within
documents typeset using TeX
- ctan/digests
- Collections of TeX mailing list digests, TeX-related
"electronic magazines", indexes, and of printed publications
- ctan/dviware
- Printer drivers and previewers for .dvi files produced by TeX.
Most TeX systems install these for a variety of standard printers
automatically.
- ctan/fonts
- Fonts written in Metafont, and support for using fonts from
other sources (e.g., those in Adobe Type 1 format)
- ctan/graphics
- Systems and TeX macros for producing graphics
- ctan/help
- FAQs and similar direct assistance, for example the TeX
catalogue (see the ctan/help/Catalogue/catalogue.html)
- ctan/indexing
- Systems for maintaining and presenting indexes of documents
typeset using TeX
- ctan/info
- Manuals and extended how-to information; errata and examples
for TeX-related publications, collections of project (e.g., LaTeX
and NTS) documents, etc.
In particular, the directory ctan/info/lshort contains various
translations of the "Short introduction to LaTeX".
- ctan/language
- Support for various languages; hyphenation patterns
- ctan/macros
- TeX macros; several directories have significant subtrees:
- ctan/macros/context:
- The ConTeXt distribution
- ctan/macros/generic:
- Macros that work in several environments
- ctan/macros/latex:
- The LaTeX distribution (ctan/macros/latex/base and
macros/latex/required) and contributed matter
(ctan/macros/latex/contrib)
- ctan/macros/plain:
- Donald Knuth's example macro set and contributed material
- ctan/nonfree
- Material which is not freely-usable (shareware, or of
restricted usage, such as no-commercial or no-military use, or may
not be included in commercial distributions). Users of the archive
should check that they are entitled to use material downloaded from
the ctan/nonfree/ tree. (The creators of this snapshot obtained
specific permission from authors where necessary.)
Subdirectories follow the same scheme as the main CTAN tree
- ctan/support
- TeX support programs and the like (converter, spell checker,
etc.)
- ctan/systems
- Complete TeX systems for Mac, Unix and MS Windows.
- ctan/tds
- The "TeX Directory Structure" standard
- ctan/usergrps
- Information supplied by the TeX user groups (the English FAQ can be
found in ctan/usergrps/uktug/faq).
- ctan/web
- Literate Programming tools and systems
List of TeX software for popular operating systems:
- MS Windows
- TeX software for Windows is located in ctan/systems/win32.
- Free TeX systems:
- MiKTeX: because MiKTeX is a part of proTeXt we excised it from
the CTAN part. Just use the proTeXt installation program. Ditto TeX Live.
- Shareware:
- BaKoMa: ctan/nonfree/systems/win32/bakoma/
MiKTeX consists of a set of command line driven programs.
Several GUIs exist which support MiKTeX, e.g.:
- Free GUIs:
- TeXworks: included in MiKTeX and TeX Live
TeXnicCenter: ctan/systems/win32/TeXnicCenter
winshell: ctan/systems/win32/winshell
- Shareware:
- WinEdt: ctan/nonfree/systems/win32/winedt
- GNU/Linux/Unix
- The TeX Collection DVD contains TeX Live, a complete TeX system for
GNU/Linux/Unix, as well as MacOSX and Windows, in the directory
texlive.
- MacOSX
- The TeX Collection DVD contains MacTeX for MacOSX; it builds on the
full TeX Live with some Mac-specific tools and features.
- Macintosh
- OS/2
- MS DOS
- Atari
- Amiga
-
Due to space constraints we left out the software for those systems.
Some technical remarks:
In its root directory the DVD contains a file FILES.DVD with a
listing of all files on the DVD. Additionally there is a file
ctan/FILES.ORI which contains a complete directory, listing the
complete contents of CTAN.
The DVD was prepared under
Ubuntu Linux using the programs
mkisofs and
growisofs.
The DVD uses the ISO 9660 file system with Rock Ridge and Joliet
extensions. Thus, the majority of computers running under Unix or
Windows should be able to display long
filenames.
Computers running under operating systems not supporting Rock
Ridge or Joliet extensions for DVD will only display 8.3 file
names. Each directory contains a file TRANS.TBL that relates the
short file names to the long ones. (This file will not usually be visible
using Windows).
All text files on the DVD use the UNIX style line endings (LF). This
might cause problems with some editors under operating systems
using different line end conventions. One possible solution is to
use the Info-ZIP programs by compressing a file with "zip" and
uncompressing it with "unzip -a" where the proper line endings for
the used operation system are automatically produced. Info-ZIP's
software (Zip, UnZip and related utilities) is free and can be
obtained as source code or executables from Internet/WWW sites,
including
http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/.
For those preferring a graphical frontend, the freeware Filzip
could be used. Filzip is available from ctan/tools/zip/filzip or
can be downloaded from the Internet
http://www.filzip.com/en/index.html.
The DVD was produced in cooperation of TUG (TeX Users Group),
USA, and DANTE, Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX e.V.,
Heidelberg, Germany. We hope that all members of DANTE e.V., of
various international TeX user groups, and all others who are
interested in TeX will find this snapshot of the CTAN archive useful.
Involved in the preparation of the CTAN snapshot were:
For DANTE e.V.:
- Manfred Lotz, Frankfurt, Germany
- Klaus Höppner, Darmstadt, Germany
Acknowledgments:
We'd like to thank Walter Schmidt and Thomas Neumann for their help
with the German version of this readme.