[OS X TeX] Fink

[Axel E.Retif]

> A silly question, no doubt, but messing with Gerben's TeX installation 
> is not something I will tolerate.  So, I want Octave, Gnu-Plot, et 
> al., but I don't want anything about my TeX installation messed with.  
> How does one use Fink, and not screw-up my all-important 
> Gerben-related TeX stuff?

This is what´s worked _for me_, without problems... so far (Mac OS X 
10.3.x).

I have a .bash_profile in my home directory with some path things you 
say you don´t want to deal wtith, but the important line is

. /sw/bin/init.sh

(that´s dot space, etc.). Fink offers to put this line when you install 
it, but I prefer to do it my self.  Read carefully Fink´s instructions 
about first install.

I advice you to use Apple´s X11 as your X system, so you will have to 
install it if you haven´t. If you follow this path, tell Fink to 
install system-xfree86.

Next, tell Fink to install system-tetex. This, quoting Fink, is a
--------
Placeholder package for manually installed teTeX

  Install this package if you have installed teTeX separately from Fink, 
  for example, by using Gerben Wierda's distribution (see  
http://www.rna.nl/tex.html ). The package checks to see if you have a 
valid installation of teTeX in /usr/local/teTeX.
--------

Then, when a package has a dependency on TeX, it will ask you first how 
to fulfill it, with teTeX or system-tetex. Always choose system-tetex. 
If it only gives you the option of teTeX, don´t install it (use the -v 
option to be sure: sudo fink -v install package_name).

If at any time you suspect a problem with Fink, comment out the `` Fink 
line ' ' in your .bash_profile:

#. /sw/bin/init.sh

and then log out and log back in. Fink will become inoperable. (One 
more advice, even if Fink works fine for you: before upgrading Mac OS, 
comment out this line temporally as well.)

Best regards,

Axel
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