[OS X TeX] finding config files

[Bartholomew Parkis]

When I first installed TUG MacTeX on my macbook (OS 10.4.8) and tried  
to use pdflatex, it couldn't find pdflatex.fmt.  So I moved  
pdflatex.fmt from /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf
-var/web2c/pdftex/pdflatex.fmt to /usr/local/texlive2007/texmf/web2c/ 
pdflatex.fmt, and then it could find pdflatex.fmt.

Then when I tried to use pdflatex, it couldn't find a bunch of  
files.  I worked around this by linking them to my working directory  
(the one I was running pdflatex from).  These are the files it  
couldn't find, followed by where the file was located on my system:

report.cls      /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ 
report.cls
size10.clo      /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ 
size10.clo
color.sty       /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ 
graphics/color.sty
pdftex.def      /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pdftex- 
def/pdftex.def
geometry.sty    /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ 
geometry/geometry.sty
keyval.sty      /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ 
graphics/keyval.sty
cmex10.pfb      /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmex10.pfb
cmmi5.pfb       /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmmi5.pfb
cmmi7.pfb       /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmmi7.pfb
cmr10.pfb       /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmr10.pfb
cmr5.pfb        /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmr5.pfb
cmr7.pfb        /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmr7.pfb
cmsy5.pfb       /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmsy5.pfb
cmsy7.pfb        /usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/ 
bluesky/cm/cmsy7.pfb

It's working now and I expect my solution will continue to work if it  
can't find more files, but obviously it's not supposed to go like that.


Things that haven't worked:
fmtutil --byfmt pdflatex
sudo mktexfmt --cnffile /usr/local/texlive2007/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf  
--all

Also:
$ which pdflatex
/usr/local/texlive/2007/bin/i386-darwin/pdflatex
$ kpsewhich -show-path tex -progname pdflatex
.:/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/tex/latex//:/usr/local/texlive/2007/ 
texmf/tex/generic//:/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/tex///

I have been advised that either texmf.cnf or my PATH may have some  
problem.

Any ideas?  What is most puzzling about this is that my computer had  
a hard disk crash a month ago so I'm using a new hard drive, so I  
have installed little that might interfere with MacTeX.

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