If you have problems with the network installation, or have several local machines to install or keep up to date, you may find it helpful to separate the operations of downloading TeX Live and the actual installation or update. Thus, “mirroring the TeX Live repository”. The “repository” contains each TeX Live package in (up to three) separate .tar.xz files. (This repository is what is used by the network installer and by tlmgr for updates.)
The most efficient method of mirroring is rsync:
rsync -a --delete rsync://somectan/somepath/systems/texlive/tlnet/ /your/local/dir
Here, somectan is a CTAN
mirror that offers rsync and is nearby to you. The
/somepath is the top-level CTAN directory on that mirror. If
you want to see all the files that get transferred, add -v. If
you want a statistics report at the end, add --progress. (See
rsync
documentation.)
If rsync is problematic for whatever reason, you can use wget (or
other tools) to mirror via http or ftp. Here is a sample wget
invocation:
wget --mirror --no-parent ftp://somectan/somepath/systems/texlive/tlnet/ /your/local/dir
with the same somectan and somepath as above.
(Tip: you may also find the --background,
--no-host-directories, and/or --cut-dirs options
convenient. Check the wget documentation.)
After successfully mirroring, you can run one of the install-tl* scripts directly in the repository: follow the installation instructions or read the documentation, which has an item about the -in-place installation option.
If you are on Windows, you must ensure that all the *.bat, *.dll, and *.manifest files are executable. Either the mirroring software or the original mirror usually clears executable permissions. Using install-tl.zip may be simpler.
Information about installing TeX Live directly over the Internet is available separately, as well as other ways to acquire TeX Live.