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Installing LaTeX Classes and Packages

Installing LaTeX Classes and Packages

Daniel Weibel

Created 5 Aug 2014

Download the package from CTAN
If there is a .sty (package) or .cls (class) file, go to Step 4
If there is no .sty or .cls file, but a .dtx and .ins file, run:
```
 latex file.ins
```
This creates the .sty or .cls file.

For creating the documentation in PDF format, run:
```
 pdflatex file.dtx
```
Locate the local installation directory tree in your TeX directory structure
- On Mac, this might be one of the following:
```
  /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local
  /Users/username/Library/texmf
```
Install the package or class
- If installing a class, move the .cls file to the following directory under the local TeX installation tree (create folder base if it doesn’t exist):
```
  tex/latex/base
```
- If installing a package, move the .sty file to the following directory under the local TeX installation tree (the folder package_name has to be created and named equal to the package):
```
  tex/latex/package_name
```
- In any case make sure to install the files under the local installation dir tree, where the user-added packages are, and not under the distribution installation dir tree, where the pre-installed packages of the distribution are. In this way, the new packages don’t overwrite existing ones, and if the TeX distribution is updated, the new packages persist.
Run:
```
 sudo texhash
```