How to install bangtex
Palash Baran Pal
Bangtex First released January 2001
Latest revision August 2003
Latest revision of this help page July 2020
Go to the main bangtex page
Contents
Installation in Linux systems
Installation for non-superusers in Linux
Installation on Unix systems
Installation of Postscript fonts
Installation of seicor
Installation on Windows systems
Installation on Mac systems
Words of advice for all systems
The necessary files
When you are reading this, you must have already downloaded the
following files from the source of bangtex:
- bfonts.tar.gz
- bsty.tar.gz
- bsample.tar.gz
If you have not, please go back to the source of bangtex by
clicking here
and download these files. Save them in any directory. For the sake of
definiteness, we will call this directory
/BT. This can be a directory in a user's area, or in the
system area.
These are all tarred zipped files. You need to unzip them before they
can be used. But first, we need to identify the directory where they
ought to be unzipped.
Identifying a certain directory
For this, you need to be the superuser. (If you do not have access to
the superuser account, you have to go to a different
section.) Log in as the superuser. Go to the topmost directory
(usually denoted just by a `/') and issue the command
find -name cmr10.mf
This will tell you where the file cmr10.mf is located. This is one of
the files in the
TeX/ LaTeX distribution system. If
the computer cannot find this file, there is something wrong with the
installation of
TeX/ LaTeX in your system. In this
case, forget about installing bangtex and rather
have TeX/
LaTeX installed in your computer properly. In the rest, I
assume that this is not the case, and the computer has given you some
reply to the find command issued
above. Unfortunately, the answer would vary from computer to computer,
depending on the version and distribution of
TeX/ LaTeX installed. However, all
answers should have the following generic structure:
/AAA/texmf/fonts/source/public/cm/cmr10.mf
where /AAA is a symbolic representation. This is the
part which varies from one computer to another. For example, on one
computer that I use frequently, /AAA is
/usr/share. This means that the answer to the `find'
command on this computer should yield
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/source/public/cm/cmr10.mf
But in another computer, the answer could be
/usr/lib/teTeX/texmf/fonts/source/public/cm/cmr10.mf
which would mean that /AAA is
/usr/lib/teTeX on this computer. Whatever it may be, you need
to remember the name of the /AAA directory for the
rest of the installation. In everything that follows, replace
/AAA by the name of the directory that you have just
determined for your computer.
Installing the font files
Go to the directory
/AAA/texmf/fonts/source
by issuing the command
cd /AAA/texmf/fonts/source
where /AAA stands for the directory/subdirectory
determined above. In this directory, copy the file
bfonts.tar.gz (which was originally stored in the directory
called /BT) by issuing the command
cp -p /BT/bfonts.tar.gz .
(Don't forget the dot at the end!)
And then unpack the contents of the zipped file by giving the command
tar xvfz bfonts.tar.gz
This command will create a subdirectory for keeping the bangla font
files, unpack the font files and keep them there.
Installing the macro files for LaTeX
LaTeX needs extra macro files for formatting a document. For a
document written in Bangla, we need to have the macros such that the
headings for chapters, sections, etc appear in Bangla, and so do the
captions for tables and figures. For this, extra files need to be
installed.
You now need to go to another directory. Issue the command
cd -p /AAA/texmf/tex/latex
where, as before, /AAA is symbolic here. In this
directory, copy the file bsty.tar.gz (which was
originally stored in the directory called /BT) by
issuing the command
cp -p /BT/bsty.tar.gz .
And then unpack the contents of the zipped file by giving the command
tar xvfz bsty.tar.gz
This command will create a subdirectory for keeping the bangla font
files, unpack the font files and keep them there.
If you are updating...
If this is the first time you are installing bangtex on your computer,
ignore this part and go to the next section. If
you already have an earlier version of bangtex installed, you must
eliminate some files of that earlier version so that the new ones
work.
For this, you need to identify two more directories. Go to the topmost
directory and issue the commands in succession:
find / -name bang*.tfm
find / -name bang*.*pk
Suppose they show you that you have some tfm files in the
directory /TTT and some pk files in the directory
PPP. Then issue the commands
rm -f /TTT/bang*.tfm
rm -f /PPP/bang*.*pk
Of course the directory names are symbolic, and you need to substitute
the real names in the commands.
Initializing the files
You now have all the files in their proper places. You still have to
pass on this information to the computer. In other words, when the
computer will run TeX or LaTeX, it should know to look for the files
in these locations. This can be done by going to the top directory
through the command
cd /
and issuing the command
texhash
You will see the names of a lot of files flashing on the
screen. Finally, when it is done, the installation is complete.
If for some reason, texhash does not work, you can
instead issue the command
texconfig
This will open a window with many options. You can choose the option
rebuild ls-R database
with the arrow keys on your keyboard and hit the
enter key. This has the same effect as the command
texhash. Once you are done, choose the exit
option and hit return to exit texconfig and finish
installation.
Checking the installation
As we mentioned, all the operations mentioned after the downloading of
the source files must be performed by logging in as the superuser. Now
that the installation is complete, this restriction does not apply any
more. In fact, any user now should be able to use the Bangla fonts.
To know how to do that as well as to check that the installation was
successful, we have provided some sample files in
bsample.tar.gz, which includes the manual. So, in any
directory where the file bsample.tar.gz resides,
issue the command
tar xvfz bsample.tar.gz
As this unpacks, you will see the names of some files, including one
called manual.tex. This is a
LaTeX file containing the manual. Run
LaTeX on it:
latex manual
In the process, you will see the computer creating the fonts. It might
give some error messages during this stage. Ignore them. None of them
is serious.
When it is done, you can see the dvi file on the
screen or print it out as you would print any file formatted by LaTeX. This will give you instructions about
how to use the Bangla fonts. See also the other files that came out of
bsample.tar.gz in order to learn various features of
creating a Bangla document. Before leaving this page, please read the
sections on the installation of postscript
fonts, and on some advisory remarks which
also appear on this page.
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If you do not have the power of the superuser, you can still use
bangtex, but with some restrictions. The installation in this case is
easier. You merely download the following files in a directory
- bfonts.tar.gz
- bsty.tar.gz
- bsample.tar.gz
If you have not done so already, do it now from the source of bangtex by
clicking here.
We suggest that you keep them in a directory where there are no other
files. Now unpack them, issuing the command
tar xvfz b*.tar.gz
This completes the installation. You can now check
the installation and try to print out the manual for using
bangtex. Before leaving this page, please read the sections on the installation of postscript fonts, and on some advisory remarks which also appear on this page.
Although the installation is much simpler this way, there is a serious
disadvantage of this method. You will be able to use bangtex
only in the directory where you had unpacked the tarred files
mentioned above. You cannot use it even from any other directory in
your own user area. Needless to say, we recommend that you do not
install bangtex this way unless all possibilities of getting superuser
access fails.
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You need to follow the instructions provided for Linux
systems. The only difference is in unpacking the downloaded files. For
example, when you come to the stage in the installation where you have
to unpack the file bfonts.tar.gz, issue the series of
commands
gunzip bfonts.tar.gz
tar -xvf bfonts.tar
Keeping this in mind, go to the section on Linux
systems.
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The postscript fonts, as well as the related instruction material, has
been created by Ananda
Kumar Samaddar. I thank him for allowing me to include this
program in the main bangtex distribution.
The entire package can be downloaded as a single tarred & zipped file
called bpsf.tar.gz. If you have not already
downloaded this file, please go back to the source of bangtex by
clicking here
and download it. I assume that you have kept it in the directory we
have denoted by /BT. Go to that directory and issue
the command
tar xvfz bpsf.tar.gz
Once this is done, you will notice that a new subdirectory called
bpsf has been created under the directory
/BT. It should contain 11 files. Go
through the file called README first.
That should answer other questions like how the postscript fonts have
to be installed, and why they are useful. Any question, comment and
appreciation on the installation or use of this program should be sent
directly to the its creator by clicking on his name above.
This program has been created by
Somendra Mohan Bhattacharjee. I thank him for allowing me to
include this program in the main bangtex distribution.
If you have not already downloaded seicor, I recommend
that you go back to the source of bangtex by
clicking here
and download it. Then click here on the name of the program seicor to find out
how to install it. Once installed, you can also see some detailed instructions about its use.
Any question, comment and appreciation on the installation or use of
this program should be sent directly to the its creator by clicking on
his name above.
(Courtesy: Pradipta Bandopadhyay)
Prerequisites
In the instructions below, I am assuming that you are using the
MikTeX installation of TeX and LaTeX. Though not absolutely
essential, I recommend that you get some familiarity with the program
itself if you do not have it already, without worrying about the
Bangla files or fonts.
Now, to use the Bangla fonts, first make sure that you have already
downloaded the following files from the source of bangtex:
- bfonts.tar.gz
- bsty.tar.gz
- bsample.tar.gz
If you have not, please go back to the source of bangtex by
clicking here
and download these files. Save them on your Desktop. Don't be bothered
if they clutter your Desktop. Once the installation is complete, you
can delete them.
Identifying a certain directory
In everything that follows in this section, a click should mean
clicking the left button of the mouse. Start by the following clicks:
| Start |
Find |
Files or Folders |
It means that you start by clicking the button at
the lower left corner of the screen with the left button of your
mouse. Among the possibilities which open up, choose the
option, followed by by clicking on them. This kind of abbreviation for
clicks will be used throughout this section.
The clicks described above will open a box where you can put in the
name of a file you want to search. Type the name
cmr10.mf
in that box and ask it to search it in the C: directory. Then click the button for
.
This will tell you where the file cmr10.mf is
located. This is one of the files in the
TeX/ LaTeX distribution system. If
the computer cannot find this file, there is something wrong with the
installation of TeX/ LaTeX in your system. In this case, forget
about installing bangtex and rather have
TeX/ LaTeX installed in your
computer properly. In the rest, I assume that this is not the case,
and the computer has given you some reply to the commands issued
above. The answer might vary from one computer to another, depending
on the version and distribution of
TeX/ LaTeX installed. However, all
answers should have a common generic structure, viz., you should see
that the file cmr10.mf is sitting in a directory whose
name is of the form
AAA\texmf\fonts\source\public\cm
where AAA is a symbolic representation. This is the
part which varies from one computer to another. For example, on one
computer that I have checked, AAA is C:. This means that the answer to the `find now'
command on this computer gave me the folder name
C:\texmf\fonts\source\public\cm
But in another computer, the answer could be different. Whatever it
may be, you need to remember the name of the
AAA directory for the rest of the
installation. In everything that follows, replace AAA
by the name of the directory that you have just determined for your
computer.
Installing the font files
Now go back to your Desktop and double click on the
file bfonts.tar.gz that had been sitting there. This
is a zipped file, so the double click will cause
WinZip to start working. Choose the Extract
option. It will ask you which folder to extract the file into. In the
box provided for the answer to this question, write
AAA\texmf\fonts\source
Remember that AAA is symbolic
here. It should be replaced by the appropriate thing, as described
above. If you now click on Extract again, the fonts
files will be unpacked and placed in proper places.
Installing the macro files for LaTeX
LaTeX needs extra macro files for formatting a document. For a
document written in Bangla, we need to have the macros such that the
headings for chapters, sections, etc appear in Bangla, and so do the
captions for tables and figures. For this, extra files need to be
installed.
For this, double click on the file bsty.tar.gz on
your Desktop and follow exactly the same steps as for installing the
font files, with the exception that you put in the folder name
AAA\texmf\tex\latex
when you are asked for one. Here also, AAA is
symbolic as before.
If you are updating...
If this is the first time you are installing bangtex on your computer,
ignore this and go to the next section. If you
already have an earlier version of bangtex installed, you must
eliminate some files of that earlier version so that the new ones
work.
For this, do
| Start |
Find |
Files or Folders |
once again. This time, ask the computer to search for the following
file:
bang10.tfm
Again, it will show you the folder where this file is in. For example,
on my computer, it returns with the following folder name:
C:\localtexmf\fonts\tfm\bangla
Start clicking on the widget on your
desktop until you see this folder. Then drag the entire folder to the
on your desktop.
Now go one level up in the folder list by clicking the symbol on the window. You should see two folders now,
one called tfm and the other called
pk. Double click on the pk folder. You
should see a folder called ljfour. Double click on
it. There should be a folder called Bangla sitting
here. Drag this entire folder to the
as well.
Initializing the files
You now have all the files in their proper places. You still have to
pass on this information to the computer. In other words, when the
computer will run TeX or LaTeX, it should know to look for the files
in these locations. This can be done by clicking the following buttons
in succession:
| Start |
Programs |
MikTeX |
MikTeX options |
This will open a box. It has several pages. Hopefully it will open on
a page titled General. If not, click on the name of
that page and it will open. You will see different things on this
page. One of them is called File Name Database. It
should have a button called . Click on this
button. Wait until the computer does the refreshing. Once it is done,
click on the cross button on the upper right to close the window for
.
Checking the installation
The installation is now complete. Bangtex is now ready to be used. To
know how to use it as well as to check that the installation was
successful, we have provided some sample files in
bsample.tar.gz, which includes the manual. It is best first to
try to print the manual out, which will give you further instructions
for creating documents on your own.
For this, double click on the name of the file
bsample.tar.gz sitting on your Desktop. Store the extracted
files in any folder you want, but it is recommended that you do not
store it in the texmf or localtexmf
folders, or any other system folder like C:\Windows. For the sake of definiteness, let us
say that you have saved the extracted files on a directory named C:\btfiles. If you have chosen some other name
instead, change the ensuing instructions accordingly.
It is now best to go to the MS-DOS prompt by clicking
| Start |
Programs |
MS-DOS prompt |
At the prompt, type
cd C:\btfiles
Once in the directory, issue the command
latex manual
and let the computer do what it wants to do. It will take a while,
because it will have to create all the Bangla fonts. This will happen
only the first time. If you run latex subsequently, it will be much
faster because the fonts will then already be there on the disk.
Once this is done, you can go back to the Windows Desktop and click
| Start |
Programs |
MikTeX |
Dvi viewer |
This will open a window to view the file. Click on the
`File' option, and then the `Open'
option. In the window provided, either type in the name of your file,
e.g.,
C:\btfiles\manual
and then click `Open', or double click on the folder
name on top successively until you double click your folder and your
file. Now you can see the file as it would appear in print. If you
want, you can print it out. If you have come to this point
successfully, the installation is complete and perfect, and you can
throw away the files tar.gz files that you had
downloaded.
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(Courtesy: Suratna Das)
It will be assumed that MacTex is installed on your computer. This is
the basic step for using
TeX/LaTeX in MacOS. The distribution
files for bangtex can be downloaded before you start the procedure
outlined below, or can be downloaded during the installation, as
indicated in these instructions.
Global installation for all users on a given computer
You will need superuser privileges for doing this. Either log in as
superuser, or use sudo in front of every command shown
below.
- Check whether the folders /Library/texmf/tex/latex
and /Library/texmf/fonts/source exist on your
computer. They should. If not, create them with the
command mkdir.
-
Download bfonts.tar.gz and move it to
the /Library/texmf/fonts/source folder by using the
command
mv bfonts.tar.gz /Library/texmf/fonts/source/
- Go to the
folder /Library/texmf/fonts/source and untar the
fonts file by issuing the commands
cd /Library/texmf/fonts/source
tar xvfz bfonts.tar.gz
- Similarly download bsty.tar.gz, move it to the folder
/Library/texmf/tex/latex, go to that folder and
untar it:
cd /Library/texmf/tex/latex
tar xvfz bsty.tar.gz
- At this stage, you can delete the
files bsty.tar.gz
and bfonts.tar.gz if you want. They will not be
needed again.
That completes the installation. To check whether the installation
has been successful, download bsample.tar.gz in any
folder. Let us say the name of this folder is /SAM.
Go to that folder and untar this file:
cd /SAM
tar xvfz bsample.tar.gz
You will see a few files coming out in the process.
Run LaTeX on any one of these sample
files. The most important one is the manual file, which you should
run LaTeX on, and read for preliminary
instructions for using bangtex.
Installation for a single user
This kind of installation is not recommended. But, if you do not have
superuser access and are desperate to install bangtex, you can follow
these steps.
- Create two folders ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex
and ~/Library/texmf/fonts/source. Note that,
initially the ~/Library folder will not have
the texmf folder. So you will have to create the
folder sequentially. For example, to create the first one, issue
the commands
cd ~/Library
mkdir texmf
cd texmf
mkdir tex
cd tex
mkdir latex
For the other one, the commands are similar, with obvious change of
some names.
- Now follow the steps for superuser installation starting from
step 2, except that anywhere you see the directory
name /Library, replace it
by ~/Library.
Whether you are using the program in Linux or Unix or Windows, the
following remarks may be of help.
- Latex files with cross references need to be run at least twice
before the cross references are properly displayed. This applies for
the file manual.tex included in the distribution, and
any file with cross references that you might prepare.
- The
sample file called samptex.tex has to be run with
plain TeX rather than LaTeX. All other sample files in the
distribution, including the manual file, are
LaTeX files.
- You can look into the sample files to learn
some tricks. For example, if you are preparing a plain TeX document and don't know how to make the
page numbers appear in Bangla, look into the file
samptex.tex to find out the solution.
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