TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Using TeX Live Utility to install "normal" packages

[kaosoft]

Hello.

I recently acquired a MacBook, and I also just installed the MacTeX 2010 distribution. How convenient to have been updated just recently, hehe.

Well, the thing is, I've used MikTeX before on my desktop machine. With MikTeX's package manager, I could check all (I think) of CTAN packages, whether with the TeX Live Utility I can only check the TeX Live packages, that is: /systems/texlive/tlnet/.

Is there a compatibility problem or reason why I can't use other packages by default? Is there a way to install these other packages using this tool, or is it all through command-line? In any case, how can I install non-TeX Live packages?

Thanks in advance for your support.

[frabjous]

TeXlive uses the CTAN repositories for most packages, or can be configured to.

I'm not that familiar with MacTeX, but TeXlive can be installed in different "schemes" that contain more or fewer packages depending on which one you pick. The "full" scheme contains nearly all all the packages on CTAN, aside from some platform-specific ones, or obsolete ones. I guess you don't have that. But you can install them on as-needed basis.

You should familiarize yourself with the TeXlive package manager, tlmgr. (See the TeX Live Guide and the tlmgr man page for more info.) It can be used from the commandline to install a package as follows:

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sudo tlmgr install <package-name>

It has lots of other features too.

There are various ways to get a graphical front-end to tlmgr. With a mac and MacTeX, you could try out mactlmgr. (I don't use a mac, so I've never tried it personally.)