[OS X TeX] Permissions

[Gerben Wierda]

On Jan 10, 2005, at 23:24, Holger Frauenrath wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> I had to reinstall a couple of computers in our lab. After I had
> reinstalled TeX using i-Installer which I had done as "adminstrator"
> (i.e. the only account with adminstrative rights on the machines), no
> normal user including myself was able to use TeX anymore. Here is what
> TeXShop says:
>
>> /usr/local/teTeX/texmf.cnf: Permission denied
>> This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.141592-1.20b-rc5-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3)
>>  \write18 enabled.
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
>> /usr/local/teTeX/texmf.cnf: Permission denied

TeX is trying to rebuild (missing) compiled formats using mktexfmt. 
They should not be missing after the Configure stage has run. 
Permission denied on texmf.cnf seems to point to other problems as 
well.

> [snip]
>
>> fmtutil: format `pdflatex' not available.

fmtutil is the command called by mktexfmt

>> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!

TeX complains the auto-making of the format has failed.

> I redid the Configure stage, and chose to check the TeX ownership this
> time. It was set to "System Administrator" (which is root, I guess,
> right?) which seems the appropriate choice compared to the other
> individual users.

Correct, but for usage it should not matter.

> Also, I had never even bothered to check before and
> never had a problem. I tried to set it to something else, but, of
> course, only the particular user I had chosen was able to use TeX then
> (at least it showed that the installation was functional).
>
> Can somebody point me to what I have done wrong - or what I need to do?
> I checked the list archives and the TeX FAQ but could not find
> anything. If I overlooked something, just a little pointer to where I
> can read about it would be nice.

Try the following Terminal commands:

	env
	ls -l /usr/local
	ls -l /usr/local/teTeX
	ls -l /usr/local/teTeX/share/
	ls -l /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/web2c

to see what could be wrong. Try

	1. repair permissions on your hard disk
	2. reinstall & configure tex

When the configure has finished, look at subprocess output to see if 
formats have been created OK.

G

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