[OS X TeX] Non-problem with libpng i-Package on Mac OS X 10.4

[Gerben Wierda]

On Apr 6, 2006, at 14:16, Gerben Wierda wrote:

> I have had one, but serious, report on a potential problem. There is a 
> possible problem with the libpng software if installed on Mac OS X 
> 10.4 systems. As a result, all kinds of Apple apps start crashing 
> because they try to load the dynamic library that is part of the 
> libpng i-Package. There is nothing worng with that library, but Apple 
> Frameworks seem to require extra stuff which is not available in the 
> standard libpng 1.2.8 out there on the net.
>
> I have blocked the libpng i-Package and I urge everybody to uninstalll 
> it. I will reissue it without the dynamic libraries. Something that 
> was the case before last month.
>
> I will update the autotrace, wvWare, netpbm and libwmf i-package such 
> that they do not require dynamic libpng but are linked statically.

Whereas I have updated libpng not to install the dynamic libraries and 
I have updated libwmf, wvWare and netpbm not to use the libpng dynamic 
libraries, it turned out top be false alarm. Given, however, the 
seriousness of the errors on a freshly installed system (or so it had 
been understood by me, but see below) I had to take swift and drastic 
action.

However, it turned out that said user did meddle with 
~/.MacOSX/environment.plist in such a way that it influenced (and 
crashed) Mail, Finder, Safari and whatnot. The trigger was indeed in 
this case libpng, but it could as easily have been some other piece of 
software.

G

PS. Did I tell you folks already that messing around with 
environment.plist is potential very bad news? Nah, I didn't, did I?

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