[OS X TeX] files in ~/Library/texmf

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

On Dec 18, 2007, at 1:39 PM, Matthew Leingang wrote:

>
> On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:26 PM, Alan Munn wrote:
>
>> (Although doesn't explain the TeXShop behaviour that was solve by  
>> restarting TeXShop).
>
>
> Right, this seems to be a TeXShop bug, because it's happened to me  
> and two other posters to this list.   The symptom is that suddenly  
> (for me it happens after a TeXShop crash) user files are not found.   
> It always clears up for me after a clean shutdown and relaunch of  
> TeXShop.
>
> I'll file a bug report, I guess.

Users often believe that TeXShop does a lot of preprocessing before  
submitting typesetting jobs to TeX. This is a misunderstanding. When  
the "Typeset" button is pushed, TeXShop calls an engine file or a  
builtin process, saying "here is a path to a source file; please  
process this with such and such an engine, or pdflatex, or whatever,  
and call me when you have a pdf file for me to display. In the  
meantime I'm going to take a little nap."

In particular, TeXShop knows nothing about the underlying TeX  
distribution except that its binaries can be found in the location  
indicated by the preference at the top left of the engine tab. The  
default value of this preference is /usr/texbin.

It is mysterious that for at least two users, the location ~/Library/ 
texmf cannot be found and then is found after a TeXShop restart. I'm  
extremely puzzled. I'd guess it impossible.

Dick
koch at math.uoregon.edu