[OS X TeX] /usr/local/texprograms -> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms

[Jérome Laurens]

Le 30 nov. 06 à 07:38, Gerben Wierda a écrit :

> On Nov 30, 2006, at 01:20 , Jérome Laurens wrote:
>
>>
>> Le 29 nov. 06 à 23:59, Gerben Wierda a écrit :
>>
>>> I have been working on an assisted migration of my TeX Live  
>>> subset i-package from the current default location /usr/local/ 
>>> TeXLive to /usr/local/gwTeX, to make room for the default  
>>> official TL location /usr/local/texlive which clashes with /usr/ 
>>> local/TeXLive on non-case snsitive file systems.
>>>
>>> This works. It will migrate /usr/local/TeXLive to /usr/local/ 
>>> gwTeX, but it will leave /usr/local/texlive alone (given that  
>>> that is the TL location).
>>>
>>> What is now left is the issue with /usr/local/texprograms.
>>>
>>> I think the idea of using a symlink for the location is nice, but  
>>> the location /usr/local might not be the best. The point is that  
>>> some users may share or sync /usr/local between machines. These  
>>> machines may have a different hardware architecture and setting / 
>>> usr/local/texprograms to point to /usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386-apple- 
>>> darwin-current will not work when the /usr/local tree is shared.  
>>> I know for a fact that there are users who share or sync a  
>>> common /usr/local.
>>>
>>> Given that, i though it would be better to have this link in / 
>>> Library, which is not shared (or at least I think it is very  
>>> unlikely) or in /etc which is definitely not shared. The  
>>> advantage of /Library is that this can easily be selected by a  
>>> standard GUI open panel.
>>>
>>> So, I am planning to do this in terms of links:
>>>
>>> /Library/gwTeX -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX
>>> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386- 
>>> apple-darwin-current (on intel)
>>> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/powerpc- 
>>> apple-darwin-current (on ppc)
>>>
>>> The ../.. part of the link is to make sure they still work if the  
>>> volume is not the startup volume. The capitalisation makes it  
>>> easier to read.
>>>
>>> Any comments?
>>
>> According to my mail 	[OS X TeX] /Library/TeX (was local vs.  
>> global symlink) I would prefer
>>
>> /Library/TeX/distribution/gwTeX
>
> This is very deep down and that maks it more hidden for the user.

Yes... and No.
Yes because you have to click once more.
But, if gwTeX lies in /Library/TeX/Distributions, one can guess  
without too much effort that gwTeX is a TeX distribution.
Moreover, if one happens to have different distributions on his  
system, there is a chance to gather them.
Gathering all distributions would make a tex switcher like utility  
easier to manage.
Also, recovering broken soft links would be easier too.

Let us assume that the /Library/TeX will contain more that just one  
distribution, for example shell  tools, applescript tools, help  
books, documentation... Well organized stuff would help a lot.

BTW, some symlinks at the top of the gwTeX tree would help.
Something like the symlinks at the root of ftp servers.

>
>> /Library/TeX/active-programs or maybe just /Library/TeX/programs
>
> I like the Active in the name as it says what the link means.
>
>> Can you explain the reason why the install cannot occur in the  
>> user domain?
>
> Because that way a sysadmin user cannot install for all the users  
> on a machine.

You don't say that!
I always believed that tetex could not be installed in the user  
domain because some paths where hard coded and things would not work  
at all when installed somewhere else!

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