TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Tex Live files/binaries missing for i386-linux

[folofjc]

I downloaded the TexLive2009.iso.xz file from one of the mirrors and installed them on a linux machine. After putting the bin directory in my path (texlive/2009/bin/i386-linux), all the commands in that directory were found. The problem is that many of the scripts that should be there are empty - zero file size. So when I run something like pdflatex, it does absolutely nothing. I looked and in the .iso file they have zero file size there as well.

I get no errors during the install, and I did a full-schema install. I noticed that these commands appear to have a zero file size in many of the bin directories. I have spent many hours with Google and no one else seems to have this problem. I am not sure what I am missing.

[frabjous]

Are you sure these apparently empty files aren't links to files located elsewhere?

Could you explain what you mean when you say "they do absolutely nothing"? Suppose you run it from a terminal. Does it report an error such as

pdflatex: command not found

Or does it just sit there? Or does another command prompt show up with nothing in between?

Personally I've never installed TeXlive from the DVD. I've always either installed the prepackaged version for my linux distribution (--you didn't mention which yours was--), or else, installed TeXlive from the online installer script. That has an install option to add symlinks into your path for the executables, and if you choose that, you don't need to add anything (else) to your path. I'd be surprised if the DVD installer didn't have that too.

These shouldn't be scripts, anyway. pdflatex just calls pdftex, and pdftex is a full on binary.

[folofjc]

I first thought that they would be links to other files as well, but they are not. They are just empty files, like when you open something in vi and then save it. It does not say command not found, it simply returns to another prompt with nothing in between. I think this is because I put the bin directory in my path like it said, so it is finding the command, it is just that the command does nothing. I searched for them in other bin directories, and the only place that has them as something with a non-zero file size in the win32 (where they are .exe files). They are empty files in all of the i386 linux-like directories (cygwin, solaris, etc).

I at first tried the install script for texlive, however unfortunately the system is behind a firewall which doesn't allow it to connect (which is why I downloaded the .iso file). The linux distro is redhat 5, but texlive wasn't installed on our network, so I am trying to install to my home directory to see how it works and then have the IT people install it on the network. I figured this might be a problem, but since the documentation just says to install it on /usr/local I didn't think that my home directory would be any different. So what I did is download the iso.xz, decompress it to an iso, then use the Archive Manager in linux to extract it to a directory path (since I am not root to mount it). Then I ran the install script.

The iso install did give the option for the sym links, but it said that that just made three sym links to the bin, man, and info directories and was the same as changing the PATH, MANPATH, and INFOPATH environment variables.

As a test, I went and found the latexmk perl script (in texmf-dist/scripts/latexmk/latexmk.pl) and ran it directly (It was one of the files in the bin that had nothing in it). I ran it in perl and it seemed to work until it got to pdflatex, in which case it just returned to the prompt.

There is a binary for pdftex, I guess I could just use that for now. I just assumed that the installer would do something with those files and make sure that they pointed to the correct place.

[folofjc]

Alright, I figured it out. When you use the archive manager to extract the .iso (or 7-zip in windows), it breaks all the symbolic links and makes them empty files. I burned it to a DVD (the step I was trying to skip) and they were sym links. Since both 7-zip and the archive manager in linux both showed them as empty files (even when just viewing the .iso) I didn't know until I burned the disc. Interesting "feature".

[meho_r]

Yeah, never "extract" an ISO file Just mount it or burn it. That's all. BTW, installation from a mounted ISO file which resides on your hard disk is much faster than from burned one (i.e. from a DVD disc).

[folofjc]

Well, I was not root, so I couldn't mount it. And the computer did not have a burner. So I was trying to skip the step of going somewhere else to burn the DVD. Apparently an iso extractor should handle the sym links correctly, I just didn't use the right one.