Can You Run LaTeX from a USB Drive?

[zeta101]

Is it possible to "install" LaTeX (for windows) on, say, a USB pocketdrive? Or better yet could I just copy over all the directories from an existing computer and then be able to compile .tex files using the packages I have installed?

I know you can get other pieces of software that run off USB drives (i.e., Firefox) but there needs to be certain modifications made to the binary etc. because each time you plug a USB drive into a different machine the drive letter that gets assigned (on windows, don't know about *nix) could, and most likely will be, a different one...

Does anyone know if this would be a problem for LaTeX? if it is does anyone know if anyone else has made the modifications needed? I've tried various googling but I can't find anything relavent at all! I'd like to be able to do the same on an OSX machine too (obviously I'd need a separate installation with OSX binaries).

Thanks

 

[imabug]

Is it possible to "install" LaTeX (for windows) on, say, a USB pocketdrive? Or better yet could I just copy over all the directories from an existing computer and then be able to compile .tex files using the packages I have installed?

I know you can get other pieces of software that run off USB drives (i.e., Firefox) but there needs to be certain modifications made to the binary etc. because each time you plug a USB drive into a different machine the drive letter that gets assigned (on windows, don't know about *nix) could, and most likely will be, a different one...

Does anyone know if this would be a problem for LaTeX? if it is does anyone know if anyone else has made the modifications needed? I've tried various googling but I can't find anything relavent at all! I'd like to be able to do the same on an OSX machine too (obviously I'd need a separate installation with OSX binaries).

Thanks

as long as the TeX binaries know where to find all the components (style files, font metrics, etc) you should have no problem running TeX/LaTeX off a USB drive. It's largely a matter of setting a few environment variables correctly so that TeX/LaTeX knows where to find things.

 

[tacman]

for your question! Yes, it is possible to run LaTeX off of a USB drive. In fact, many users prefer to have a portable version of LaTeX for convenience and ease of use. There are a few ways to do this, and it depends on your operating system.

For Windows, you can use a program called MiKTeX Portable, which is a portable version of the popular MiKTeX LaTeX distribution. It can be downloaded and installed onto a USB drive, and all the necessary packages and directories will be included. You can then use it on any Windows computer without having to install anything.

For Mac OS X, there is a similar program called MacTeX Portable, which is a portable version of the MacTeX distribution. It works in a similar way, and can be installed on a USB drive for use on any Mac computer.

As for copying over directories from an existing computer, it is possible but not recommended. This is because the drive letter or path may be different on different computers, and this can cause issues with compiling and running LaTeX documents. It is better to use a dedicated portable version of LaTeX.

I hope this helps and happy LaTeXing!