[OS X TeX] OS X TeX newbie needs help installing TeX on non-boot volume

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 10.09.2005 um 14:41 schrieb Rowland McDonnell:

> What I'd like to do is install everything I need on a volume other than
> the boot volume (I keep all added software and user data off my boot
> volume for safety's sake - at least, in those cases where I can work 
> out
> how to do this safely).  I've read the documentation I can find and
> can't work out how to do this.
>

I think there is nowhere a place to change the location where 
i-Installer installs teTeX ...

I can think of two things that might do the job -- and they might be 
combined.

1. Set an environment variable TEXMF in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist 
that points to a teTeX 'root' directory on the other volume. Log off 
and log in again, maybe as the owner of the TeX software, so that the 
setting becomes valid. If i-Installer follows the usual guide lines it 
will read $TEXMF's value and install TeX there. If not: next try.

2. Create on the command line a sym-link! First you should have created 
a new and empty directory (folder), let's re-use the name teTeX for 
this exactly mixed-case as written here, on the other volume. In 
Terminal you enter 'ls -l /usr/local' and check whether the shell 
returns a message like "ls: /usr/local: No such file or directory" -- 
if this happens then you don't have that directory and need to create 
it as 'sudo mkdir /usr/local ; sudo chmod 755 /usr/local <Return>' and 
you will get asked for your password. Now you can 'cd /usr/local 
<Return>' and then start typing 'sudo ln -s ' and now you drag the 
newly created teTeX directory (folder) on Terminal. Press Return! It 
won't work to create a Mac alias with Cmd-L, it has to be a normal 
file, i.e. a "sym-link." Again I hope that installer will follow the 
sym-link named /usr/local/teTeX to the place on the other volume and 
install all software there.

BTW, you haven't saved much network traffic by fetching the i-Packages! 
You probably only have the "thin" versions (a bundle of various scripts 
and configuration files). During i-Installation the real data transfer 
starts and 100+ MB will be fetched, depending on what you actually like 
to install. Now, to save all you've downloaded, you need to change 
i-Installer's Preferences to *not* make the package thin after 
installation. This measure too will help you in a case when you want to 
reconfigure your installation and install an addition, for example add 
a new format or delete a language from Babel or make the fonts in the 
PDF output files to "download" to the printer, i.e. the usual set of 
PostScript fonts that comes with the PostScript printer is downloaded 
although not needed for printing -- but needed to make the microstyle 
package work, which is that the characters of your text are compressed 
or expanded in small discrete steps to make them fit better, as if 
optimized by hand.


AND: you should keep the other volume inside your Mac! If it's an 
external disk chances are that it might be unavailable at some moment. 
Then it's hard to estimate what might happen during installation ... A 
TeX run from an inexistent volume can't do much.

--
Greetings

   Pete

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
      -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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