A package is a file or collection of files, which provide add-on features for
. Most of
installations come with pre-installated packages, which are sufficient for catering the majority of our requirements.
packages are stored under texmf tree, i.e., in subdirectories of texmf/tex/latex named after each package. CTAN has more than 4500 packages which can be downloaded from here.
I prefer to install the additional packages in home or local directory. The advantage is when you are migrating to a new computer you just need to copy your personal texmf tree.
Here are the instructions to install a package in the home directory (Ubuntu OS) of a user.
Package Installation in home
- Create a personal texmf tree in home directory(Only for the first time when installing a package),
cd ~ mkdir -p texmf/tex/latex/
- Download the package you want to install, from CTAN. Let’s say it is CirciTikz.
- Unzip the package now.
gunzip circuitikz.zip
Check for .sty and other files in the extracted ‘circuitikz’ folder.
- Move the unzipped ‘circuitikz’ directory to ~/texmf/tex/latex/
mv circuitikz ~/texmf/tex/latex/
- Now, make LaTeX to recognize the new package:
texhash ~/texmf
The disadvantage of installing packages in personal texmf tree is that those packages are not available to other users in a multi-user computer. Other users have to copy whole personal texmf tree to make use of these packages.