2 Installation

There are different ways of installing PGF, depending on your system and needs, and you may need to install other packages as well as, see below. Before installing, you may wish to review the GPL license under which the package is distributed, see Section 2.5.

Typically, the package will already be installed on your system. Naturally, in this case you do not need to worry about the installation process at all and you can skip the rest of this section.

2.1 Package and Driver Versions

This documentation is part of version 1.01 of the PGF package. In order to run PGF, you need a reasonably recent TEX installation. When using LATEX, you need the following packages installed (newer versions should also work):

• xcolor version 2.00.
• xkeyval version 1.8, if you wish to use TikZ.

With plain TEX, xcolor is not needed, but you obviously do not get its (full) functionality.

Currently, PGF supports the following backend drivers:

• pdftex version 0.14 or higher. Earlier versions do not work.
• dvips version 5.94a or higher. Earlier versions may also work.
• dvipdfm version 0.13.2c or higher. Earlier versions may also work.
• tex4ht version 2003-05-05 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.
• vtex version 8.46a or higher. Earlier versions may also work.
• textures version 2.1 or higher. Earlier versions may also work.

Currently, PGF supports the following formats:

• latex with complete functionality.
• plain with complete functionality, except for graphics inclusion, which works only for pdfTEX.
• context should work as plain, but I have not tried it.

For more details, see Section 5.

2.2 Installing Prebundled Packages

I do not create or manage prebundled packages of PGF, but, fortunately, nice other people do. I cannot give detailed instructions on how to install these packages, since I do not manage them, but I can tell you were to find them. If you have a problem with installing, you might wish to have a look at the Debian page or the MikTEX page first.

2.2.1 Debian

The command “aptitude install pgf” should do the trick. Sit back and relax. In detail, the following packages are installed:

2.2.2 MiKTeX

For MiKTEX, use the update wizard to install the (latest versions of the) packages called pgf, xcolor, and xkeyval.

2.3 Installation in a texmf Tree

For a permanent installation, you place the files of the the PGF package in an appropriate texmf tree.

When you ask TEX to use a certain class or package, it usually looks for the necessary files in so-called texmf trees. These trees are simply huge directories that contain these files. By default, TEX looks for files in three different texmf trees:

• The root texmf tree, which is usually located at /usr/share/texmf/ or c:\texmf\ or somewhere similar.
• The local texmf tree, which is usually located at /usr/local/share/texmf/ or c:\localtexmf\ or somewhere similar.
• Your personal texmf tree, which is usually located in your home directory at ~/texmf/ or ~/Library/texmf/.

You should install the packages either in the local tree or in your personal tree, depending on whether you have write access to the local tree. Installation in the root tree can cause problems, since an update of the whole TEX installation will replace this whole tree.

2.3.1 Installation that Keeps Everything Together

Once you have located the right texmf tree, you must decide whether you want to install PGF in such a way that “all its files are kept in one place” or whether you want to be “TDS-compliant,” where TDS means “TEX directory structure.”

If you want to keep “everything in one place,” inside the texmf tree that you have chosen create a sub-sub-directory called texmf/tex/generic/pgf or texmf/tex/generic/pgf-1.01, if you prefer. Then place all files of the pgf package in this directory. Finally, rebuild TEX’s filename database. This is done by running the command texhash or mktexlsr (they are the same). In MikTEX, there is a menu option to do this.

2.3.2 Installation that is TDS-Compliant

While the above installation process is the most “natural” one and although I would like to recommend it since it makes updating and managing the PGF package easy, it is not TDS-compliant. If you want to be TDS-compliant, proceed as follows: (If you do not know what TDS-compliant means, you probably do not want to be TDS-compliant.)

The .tar file of the pgf package contains the following files and directories at its root: README, doc, generic, plain, and latex. You should “merge” each of the four directories with the following directories texmf/doc, texmf/tex/generic, texmf/tex/plain, and texmf/tex/latex. For example, in the .tar file the doc directory contains just the directory pgf, and this directory has to be moved to texmf/doc/pgf. The root README file can be ignored since it is reproduced in doc/pgf/README.

You may also consider keeping everything in one place and using symbolic links to point from the TDS-compliant directories to the central installation.

For a more detailed explanation of the standard installation process of packages, you might wish to consult http://www.ctan.org/installationadvice/. However, note that the PGF package does not come with a .ins file (simply skip that part).

2.4 Updating the Installation

To update your installation from a previous version, all you need to do is to replace everything in the directory texmf/tex/generic/pgf with the files of the new version (or in all the directories where pgf was installed, if you chose a TDS-compliant installation). The easiest way to do this is to first delete the old version and then proceed as described above. Sometimes, there are changes in the syntax of certain command from version to version. If things no longer work that used to work, you may wish to have a look at the release notes and at the change log.

2.5 License: The GNU Public License, Version 2

The PGF package is distributed under the GNU public license, version 2. In detail, this means the following (the following text is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation):

2.5.1 Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation’s software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

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We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

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Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed at all.

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2.5.2 Terms and Conditions For Copying, Distribution and Modification

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2.5.3 No Warranty

10. Because the program is licensed free of charge, there is no warranty for the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties provide the program “as is” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Should the program prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
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