additional texmf tree for all users (was Re: [OS X TeX] Beginner help with TeXshop/MacTex needed)

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 26 août 06 à 12:56, Rowland McDonnell a écrit :

> (I am very worried about i-installer overwriting my data - in my
> previous attempt to install and use a modern Mac TeX (before MacTeX  
> was
> put together; I tried using i-installer, and abandoned the attempt  
> after
> some weeks of trying to crack it), I did find that i-installer threw
> away several hundred megabytes of data I'd downloaded (mostly via my
> dialup line), which did make me pretty unhappy.  It's not safe  
> software
> to use if you ask me - I intend to do a full backup before I run
> i-installer, *every* time I run it.  I have the disc space to do so
> now.)
>
> [snip]
>
> It's not paranoid to say `Well, i-installer has already deleted  
> hundreds
> of megabytes of data I wanted to keep, so I suspect that it might
> destroy data in the future if I use it again'.
>
> Since i-installer does blindly over-write things without warning -  
> well,
> of *course* it'll delete data you want to keep.

i-Installer has never erased any data for me, and I have never heard  
of anybody for whom it has but you. It must be some error you have  
made which produced this result. I cannot think of why you would have  
to "crack" i-Installer in order to use it. Just use the thing as  
instructed in its doc, it's already pretty flexible and should meet  
most users' needs.

As regards creating an alternative texmf.rjmm tree, I suspect you  
would need to edit /usr/local/teTeX/texmf.cnf by adding/modifying:

TEXMFRJMM = $SELFAUTOPARENT/share/texmf.rjmm
TEXMF={$HOMETEXMF,!!$TEXMFRJMM,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFGW,!!$TEXMFTE,!! 
$TEXMFMAIN}

and probably other assorted additions/modifications further along  
this file. But again, I strongly advise against this, unless you  
*really* *absolutely* know what you're doing; and are ready to face  
the consequences in case something goes wrong -- knowing you'll be  
mostly on your own if something does.

As regards the order in which the texmf trees are searched, you can  
use kpsewhich. For example, in order to know where LaTeX looks for  
standard input files (of extensions .tex, .cls, .sty, .fd, and so  
forth), you may try in Terminal:

	kpsewhich -progname=latex -show-path=.tex

as instructed in /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/ 
README.howtexfindsfiles. The detailed manual of kpsewhich is section  
3.5 of /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/doc/programs/kpathsea.pdf.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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