Document how to install missing package files

[vks]

In forum the following is suggested:

Copy the package files into the directory containing your document

This is the simplest answer, in a certain sense. If a certain file is missing from Tectonic’s bundle, you can just put a copy of it next to your main document file. If the package you need involves multiple support files, it is generally fine to just put them all next to your input file in the same way. This starts getting messy at a certain point, but it’s a simple and effective solution in a lot of cases.

However, the file provided by CTAN are in the .dtx and .ins format, which can be extracted by running latex. Running tectonic on them does not seem to work, making it impossible to get the .sty files.

[pkgw]

Hi @vks, this is a good point. I would be interested to check out this workflow and see what we can provide. Do you have an example of a package where you wanted to process a .dtx or .ins file to generate a .sty file?

[walling]

I want to install the accessibility package. I have the .dtx and .ins files, but I can't make it work, e.g. for the .ins file:

$ tectonic accessibility.ins
note: this is a BETA release; ask questions and report bugs at https://tectonic.newton.cx/
Running TeX ...
note: indexing https://archive.org/services/purl/net/pkgwpub/tectonic-default
note: resolved to https://tectonic.newton.cx/bundles/tlextras-2018.1r0/bundle.tar
note: downloading SHA256SUM
note: downloading docstrip.tex
Running xdvipdfmx ...
error: cannot open "accessibility.xdv"

And for the .dtx file:

$ tectonic accessibility.dtx
note: this is a BETA release; ask questions and report bugs at https://tectonic.newton.cx/
Running TeX ...
note: indexing https://archive.org/services/purl/net/pkgwpub/tectonic-default
note: resolved to https://tectonic.newton.cx/bundles/tlextras-2018.1r0/bundle.tar
note: downloading SHA256SUM
note: downloading keyval.tex
error: something bad happened inside TeX; its output follows:

===============================================================================
(accessibility.dtx
LaTeX2e <2018-04-01> patch level 4
Babel <3.20> and hyphenation patterns for 84 language(s) loaded.

LaTeX Warning: You have requested package `',
               but the package provides `accessibility'.

(xkeyval.sty (xkeyval (xkvutils (keyval)))

! Package xkeyval Error: xkeyval loaded before \documentclass.

See the xkeyval package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...

l.62 ...yval loaded before \protect\documentclass}
                                                  %
No pages of output.
Transcript written on accessibility.log.
===============================================================================

error: the TeX engine had an unrecoverable error
caused by: halted on potentially-recoverable error as specified

How to proceed? Do I need to install xelatex to process the file? Would it be possible to support the accessibility package directly in tectonic?

[vks]

@pkgw I don't remember which package it was, but I think I was able to use texlive to extract the files, which tectonic was able to use.

[pkgw]

@vks That is helpful to know. It would definitely be great if we could devise and/or document a workflow that didn't depend on TeXLive at all. I'm sure it's possible, someone just needs to sit down, figure it out, and write it up.