[OS X TeX] Is this geometry behavior correct?

[Herbert Schulz]

On Apr 6, 2007, at 2:32 AM, Bruno Voisin wrote:

>
> So it seems the XeLaTeX-tailored geometry.cfg is read in all cases.
>

Howdy,

Yes, you are correct (as usual) since I see, in the log, that  
geometry.cfg in the xelatex branch is being read in even when  
processing a pdflatex document; that's why there is a test to see if  
it's xetex that is the engine. But the order of search is different  
so for xelatex the config in the xelatex branch would be found first  
while a pdflatex, etc., compile would find a config file in the latex  
branch first (and stop there).

> I'm not sure the following is correct invocation of kpsewhich, but  
> with "kpsewhich --engine=latex --show-path=tex" here's what I get  
> (slightly reformatted) with TeXLive-2007:
>
> .
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-config/tex/kpsewhich//
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-var/tex/kpsewhich//
> ~/Library/texmf/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-config/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-var/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/../texmf-local/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/kpsewhich//
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-config/tex/generic//
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-var/tex/generic//
> ~/Library/texmf/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-config/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-var/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/../texmf-local/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/generic//
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-config/tex///
> ~/.texlive2007/texmf-var/tex///
> ~/Library/texmf/tex///
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-config/tex///
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-var/tex///
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/tex///
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/../texmf-local/tex///
> !!/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex///
>
> and with gwTeX:
>
> .
> ~/Library/texmf/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.local/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.pkgs/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.gwtex/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.texlive/tex/kpsewhich//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf/tex/kpsewhich//
> ~/Library/texmf/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.local/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.pkgs/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.gwtex/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.texlive/tex/generic//
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf/tex/generic//
> ~/Library/texmf/tex///
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.local/tex///
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.pkgs/tex///
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.gwtex/tex///
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf.texlive/tex///
> !!/usr/local/gwTeX/texmf/tex///
>
> I don't really understand the logic behind the ordering with which  
> the various texmf trees are searched in the TeXLive case, but from  
> the above it seems that, among these trees:
>
> - tex/kpsewhich is searched first
>
> - tex/generic second
>
> - tex third
>
> and that the existence of latex and xelatex subdirectories within  
> the tex directory is of no importance whatsoever. I'm surprised, as  
> I thought this used to be different.
>

Hmmm... very different that I expected too.

What that also tells me is that having a geometry.cfg file with the  
contents

%% geometry.cfg for LaTeX
% make this the default---pdf or vtex override (xelatex picks up its  
version first)
\ExecuteOptions{dvips}
\endinput
%% End of file `geometry.cfg'.

(to initially set up dvips as the default engine --- automatically  
gets overwritten if pdftex or vtex are the engines) placed in the  
latex branch of one of the trees (~/Library/texmf/ or texmf-local  
[TeX Live] or texmf.pkgs [gwTeX]) will actually speed up the search,  
and therefore processing, for (pdf)latex.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest.com)



------------------------- Helpful Info -------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
List Reminders & Etiquette: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/list/