LaTeX on DICE

This page is about LaTeX on DICE computers. For more about LaTeX, see the LaTeX page.

• ⇒ LaTeX

TeX Live

The LaTeX distribution on DICE computers is TeX Live 2019. (But see below.)

• ⇒ TeX Live (TeX Users Group)

It has comprehensive help - so comprehensive that it's too big to put on all computers. To get the TeX Live help onto your DICE computer, ask Computing Support.

• ⇒ How to contact Computing Support

Which version?

We strongly recommend that you use the latest, default TeX Live wherever possible.
To determine the version you're using, run:

[host]user$ pdflatex --version

and expect to see (TeX Live 2018) amongst the output.
Otherwise you will see an older year (2012 or 2013).

TeX Live 2012 (SL7)

As well as TeX Live, DICE also has part of TeX Live 2012 installed - mainly because it's too deeply embedded into the operating system to be removed. You may sometimes find yourself using TeX Live 2012 by mistake - for example if an application has been configured to use the wrong version of LaTeX.

How to access TeX Live 2019+ (SL7)

If you're seeing the older version, you can still use the 2018 version:

[host]user$ /opt/texlive/2018/bin/x86_64-linux/pdflatex --version

Make it the default for your current session by adding the above directory (/opt/texlive/2018/bin/x86_64-linux) to your $PATH.

• ⇒ How does the DICE bash start-up mechanism work?

Or, run this command in a shell before running LaTeX commands:

[host]user$ module add texlive2018

If you want to undo this, type:

[host]user$ module rm texlive2018

How to install your own TeX Live packages

Modern TeX Live lets you install your own TeX packages. This is done with the tlmgr command.
For details type:

[host]user$ tlmgr --help

Look specifically at the USER MODE section. In short:

[host]user$ tlmgr init-usertree
[host]user$ tlmgr --usermode install pgf
tlmgr: package repository http://mirrors.x.y[...] (verified)
[1/1] install: pgf [10372k]
running mktexlsr ...
done running mktexlsr.
tlmgr: package log updated: ~/texmf/web2c/tlmgr.log

If there's something that you think must be installed centrally, computing support can generally fulfil requests for updates and additional packages - though this is subject to the usual restrictions on new software. Please see our software pages for details.

• ⇒ Software.

For more information

To find out more about LaTeX see the LaTeX page.

• ⇒ LaTeX