[tex-live] a question about when gets the TL database refreshed in mirrors

[Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard]

On 06/10/2012 18:17, jfbu wrote:
> But then I am puzzled, because as I said the mirror I queried does have
> updated packages, compared to my computer;

What makes you think it does?

> so then why does tlmgr tell me there are no updates to install?
> 
One possible explanation is that there is actually nothing to update.

> I installed TL2012 only recently (circa a month ago) and so far all updates
> were done (via Tex Live Utility on my Mac) successfully once or twice a week
> when I saw packages announced on the ctan-ann RSS feed. But for the last week
> or so, TLU, and also tlmgr from the command line, both tell me agains all
> evidences (to the simple minded me ;-) ) that there are no updates to
> install.
> 
The packages aren't imported from CTAN automatically, a human coprocessor is
needed to start and supervise the process. It happens that Karl, who usually
handles this process alone, has been mostly offline for a few days. That
explains why updates are coming slower. (But you can expect a bunch of updates
tomorrow or the day after.)

However, three packages where added/updated recently: ocgx, media9 and abraces.
You may want to check if abraces is present in your installation (using 'tlmgr
info abraces' for example): if it is, your installation is up-to-date.
Otherwise, there may indeed be a problem on your side, since the package is
present at the oleane mirror and should be auto-installed (assuming
collection-latexextra is installed).

hth,
Manuel.

PS: your initial message looks like an example of the XYZ syndrom: you notice a
problem X (no update), think of a possible explanation Y (texlive.tlpdb not in
sync with actual packages on mirror) and than ask about Y, while the real
explanation is Z (maybe there aren't any updates). Please try to ask about X
first, next time :)