[OS X TeX] Installing RTF2LaTeX2e

[Justin C. Walker]

On Jul 15, 2006, at 17:13 , André Bellaïche wrote:

>
> Thanks for your help. I have made much progress. In fact, the  
> problem lies in Mac/Unix, not in any TeX distribution or tool.

It's probably fairer to say that the problem, dear Yorick, is not in  
Mac/Unix, but in your understanding of the lower (Unixy) layers of  
the system.

> Maybe I should post on another list, but I want first this  
> installation problem sorted out. I work on a Imac PPC, with MacOS X  
> 10.4.7
>
> What I have found is that :
>
> -- The file /usr/local/rtf2latex2e/rtf2latex2e.bin is not  
> considered as an application, although ls -l gives :
>                                                         - 
> rwxrwxrwx   1 andre  admin  410356 Jan 28  2004 rtf2latex2e.bin

This information does not really reflect what is going on.  Can you  
try, in a Terminal window,
    file /usr/local/rtf2latex2e/rtf2latex2e.bin

> If you go to /usr/local/rtf2latex2e and type rtf2latex2e or  
> rtf2latex2e.bin, you get :
>                                                         -bash:  
> rtf2latex2e: command not found
>                                                         -bash:  
> rtf2latex2e.bin: command not found

This may be, as already mentioned, due to how your "path" variable is  
configured.  Try this, again in a terminal window:
   /usr/local/rtf2latex2e/rtf2latex2e.bin

> -- No one of the files in /usr/local/bin is considered as an  
> application. Go to this directory and type the name of any file,  
> say ps2pdf, you get
>                                            -bash: ps2pdf: command  
> not found
> instead af a error message saying "filename missing".

This indicates, to me, that '/usr/local/bin' is not in your "path"  
variable.  A bit more info below.

> -- All the files in /usr/bin are executables : try 'zip' and you  
> get  full instructions for use of 'zip'.
>
> Question : how to make files with all the needed  x's in /usr/local  
> and subdirectories real executables, just as the files in /usr/bin ?

They already are; it's just that the shell uses your "path" variable  
to locate an executable: when you type, say, "ps2pdf", it looks  
through all the directories in $PATH until it finds an executable  
with this name.  It then tries to execute that file.  The error you  
get (as above) indicates that the shell did not find any file named  
"ps2pdf" in the list of directories it uses.

If the file were found, marked as executable, but was not really  
executable, you would get an error like "cannot execute binary file"  
or something to indicate that it tried, but failed for some reason.

> Another question : it seems that the password neded to log as root  
> is not the same as the one which allows you to sudo. True? Or is my  
> computer sick? (I had forgot the root password, so I had to change  
> it, using the installation disk. But the system would not accept  
> the new root password as a sudo password.)

The 'sudo' command requires you to verify that you are "you" by  
providing your password.  It keeps a list of authorized users ("admin  
users", in Mac OS X terms), and these users are permitted to act as  
root for the execution of certain commands.

'sudo' is provided so that you do not have to enable the "root"  
account, which is generally A Bad Thing, unless you are happy driving  
stick shift, and programming in octal :-}

If you haven't forgotten your password, you can "sudo bash" to get a  
root-enabled shell, and then use the "passwd" command to change  
root's password.

Cheers,

Justin

--
Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large
Institute for the Enhancement of the Director's Income
--------
Experience is what you get
   when you don't get what you want.
--------



------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/