Formatting Information

Extract the class or package files from the .dtx/.ins files

Use your directory browser or file manager (eg My Computer, Finder, Thunar, Dolphin, etc) to find the subfolder in your Personal TEX Directory below tex/latex into which you unzipped or downloaded the package file[s].

Run LATEX on the .ins file. That is, open the file in your editor and process it as if it were a LATEX document (which it is), or if you prefer, type latex followed by the .ins filename in a command window in the directory where the file is.

This will extract all the files needed from the .dtx file (which is why you must have both of them present in the directory).

Warning

If this is a non-TDS zip file, or individually-downloaded files, note down or print the names of the files created if there are a lot of them (read the log file if you want to see their names again).

Create the documentation if not already done

Some packages come with the PDF documentation already there. If so, ignore this step.

To [re]create the PDF documentation, run LATEX on the .dtx file twice. This will create a .pdf file of documentation explaining what the package is for and how to use it. Two passes through LATEX are needed in order to resolve any internal crossreferences in the text. If there is a BIBTEX file of references, or if you need the Index, you will need to process bibtex, biber, makeindex, or other ancillary programs. I very strongly recommend doing this with the Build menu of your editor, or with the latexmk tool.

Install the files if needed

This step is only needed if you unzipped and processed the file in some other location (eg your temporary directory), or if the processing extracted more than just the .cls or .sty file. Other types of files belong in different places in the TDS.

Move the files created in step 1 above to the right subdirectories in your Personal TEX Directory as shown in Table 3.1 below. Always put the files in subdirectories of your Personal TEX Directory, a ) to prevent your new package accidentally overwriting master files in the main TEX directories and b ) to avoid your newly-installed files being overwritten when you next update your version of TEX. Never, never, NEVER put files into your TEX distribution’s main directory tree. If you are a system administrator updating a shared system, however, you SHOULD put the files into the local (shared) TEX directory tree.

‘The Right Place’ sometimes causes confusion, especially if your TEX installation is old or does not conform to the TDS. For a TDS-conformant system, ‘The Right Place’ is your Personal TEX Directory tree unless you are a systems manager updating a shared machine, in which case it’s the local TEX directory tree. Your Personal TEX Directory tree is in your home directory (folder):

• Unix & GNU/Linux systems: ~/texmf/

• Apple Macintosh OS X: ~/Library/texmf/

• Windows systems: Computer\System\Users\your~name\texmf (on obsolete Windows systems you can use C:\texmf).

Create this directory if it does not already exist. You will need to create subdirectories within this directory: see Table 3.1 below.

Often there is just a .sty file to move but in the case of complex packages there may be more, and they belong in the different locations shown in Table 3.1 below. It is important to create a subdirectory for the package within your Personal TEX Directory, rather than dump the files into misc along with other unrelated stuff.

Shared systems and MIKTEX: update your index

On Unix & GNU/Linux systems (including Apple Macintosh OS X) you MUST NOT run the TEX indexer program or create an ls-R database in your Personal TEX Directory. These systems search your Personal TEX Directory automatically.

Otherwise:

• Windows MIKTEX users (only) MUST use the MIKTEX Administration program to add your new Personal TEX Directory to MIKTEX’s search tree when you first create it.

  After that, each time you update files in there, you MUST run the File Name Database (FNDB) updater in the MIKTEX Administration program, otherwise TEX will never see your newly-installed files.

• If you are updating a shared system, putting the files into the local TEX directory tree, you MUST run your TEX indexer program afterwards to update the package database.

  This program comes with every modern version of TEX and is variously called texhash, mktexlsr, or even configure, or it might just be a mouse click on a button or menu in your configuration system (like MIKTEX’s). Read the documentation that came with your installation to find out which it is.

Download and install the latest version of the enumitem package

Find the installation directory of your main TEX distribution:

$ find / -type d -name texmf-dist 2>/dev/null

Change to that directory:

$ cd /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist

(using whatever directory the first command identified)

Replicate its subdirectories:

$ find . -type d -exec mkdir -p ~/texmf/{} \;

On a Mac, use ~/Library/texmf instead of ~/texmf.

The operation may take a minute to complete