reitzig/texlive-full repository overview

⁠TeXlive Docker Image (full)

Yet another attempt at coming up with working and generally applicable Docker images for TeXlive⁠.

The basic concept is to provide small-ish base images which install additional packages from CTAN if and when needed.

These images attempt to cover the following use cases:

• Replace local TeXlive installations.
• Build LaTeX documents in CI/CD pipelines.
• Build legacy documents with old package versions.

We currently publish the following images based on different selections from the TeXlive collections suggested by the installer⁠; from smaller to larger:

• reitzig/texlive-minimal⁠ (profile⁠)
• reitzig/texlive-base⁠ (profile⁠)
• reitzig/texlive-base-luatex⁠ (profile⁠)
• reitzig/texlive-base-xetex⁠ (profile⁠)
• reitzig/texlive-full⁠ (profile⁠)

We also provide PoCs to demonstrate that more involved applications can be built on top of the base images provided here:

• Serve a static set of pre-built documents.⁠

⁠Usage

The fastest way to build a document at hand (once) is this:

docker run --rm \
    --volume `pwd`:/work/src:ro \
    --volume `pwd`/out:/work/out \
    reitzig/texlive-base-luatex \
    work 'lualatex hello_world.tex'

Note:

• This assumes that all TeXlive packages beyond what is contained in the texlive-base-luatex image are listed in Texlivefile. You can also use image reitzig/texlive-full instead if you are happy with downloading a (way) larger image.
• This may overwrite files in out. Chose a folder name that you currently do not use.

See the scripts in examples⁠ for other ways to use the images.

⁠Dependencies

Place a file called Texlivefile with a list of required CTAN packages, one name per line, in the source directory. The container will install all packages on that list before running the work command.

⁠Parameters

You can adjust some defaults of the main container script⁠ by setting environment variables⁠

• BUILDSCRIPT (default: build.sh)
  If present, the given script will be executed unless a work command is specified.
• TEXLIVEFILE (default: Texlivefile)
  The file to read dependencies from.
• OUTPUT (default: *.pdf *.log)
  Shell pattern for all files that should be copied from the working to the output directory.

⁠Debugging

All output of the work command is collected in a single folder; extract it with:

docker cp $container:/work/tmp ./

⁠Build

Run

docker build -t texlive-base-luatex --build-arg "profile=base-luatex" .

to build an image locally. Exchange base-luatex for any of the profile names in profiles⁠ to start from another baseline.

⁠Customization

If you repeatedly need the same exact set of dependencies or even sources, it might make sense to create your own TeXlive Docker image. There are two ways to go about that:

• Extend one of the existing images using your own Dockerfile (see example⁠); install additional TeXlive (or even Alpine) packages, copy source files or additional scripts into the appropriate folders, fix the work command, or ...

• Use install-tl⁠ to create your own TeXlive installation profile. Make sure to

  1. select platform x86_64-linuxmusl and
  2. manually change line binary_x86_64-linux 1 in the resulting profile file to binary_x86_64-linux 0.

  If you want to use your profile across different TeXlive versions, replace all occurrences of the TeXlive version (e.g. 2019) with ${tlversion}.

  Copy the final file to profiles⁠ and run the regular build command.