[OS X TeX] OT: Autotrace

Wed Mar 14 03:55:51 EDT 2007

Well, I have installed MacPorts manually and the /opt path is after  
my standard paths (remember: we are talking only of the path for the  
binaries - not the libraries). Everything works fine for all the  
software that is meant to works also with the i-installer; obviously,  
if it works with the i-installer it will work also in MacPorts with  
the /opt after the standard paths. The day I'll need some different  
binary, I'll see what to do.
Why do I use MacPorts (I use it for ghostscript, imagemagick, fondu,  
aspell, ispell, etc)? Because I can manage versions, dependencies,  
and uninstalls in a sensible and safe way; this has been already  
discussed and I don't want to go back on this. The advantages are so  
*many more* than the only possible disadvantage of hijacking few  
binaries, if at all (like in my case).
cheers
--e.

On 14 Mar 2007, at 18:31, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> Le 14 mars 07 à 03:16, Enrico Franconi a écrit :
>
>> In don't know when what you claim was the case, but for sure this  
>> is definitely *not* the case now. Have a look at:
>> <http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/docs/ 
>> ch01s03.html#configure_dports>
>> where it is clearly stated that the macports path is placed  
>> *after* your standard path. If what you said were true, then I  
>> would agree with you (and this is the case for fink, for example,  
>> which, as you said, created several problems to me as well for  
>> this reason); but this is not the case of MacPorts. Sorry -  
>> MacPorts is not imperialistic, it lives smoothly with your mac  
>> without changing its standard habits.
>
> I've never seen the change (i.e. moving /opt/local/bin and /opt/ 
> local/sbin before the standard path) documented, even in the  
> DarwinPorts and MacPorts mailing list archives, but it's indeed there.
>
> The doc you're referring to is the former doc of DarwinPorts,  
> dating back to 2004. For MacPorts, the doc seems to be the Wiki  
> <http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/wiki> and at the  
> corresponding installation page you'll see:
>
>> The MacPorts binary installer places a .profile file in your home  
>> directory (view files preceded by a dot with 'ls -a'). The  
>> contents of this ~/.profile file adds the MacPorts paths in front  
>> of the standard Unix paths for the default BASH shell. This is  
>> done so that if you have utilities or libraries from both MacPorts  
>> and OS X's standard install, the MacPorts libraries will be run  
>> instead of the ones provided by Apple.
>>
>> export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
>
> There is also a discussion of this choice at the FAQ <http:// 
> trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/wiki/FAQ>:
>
>> Will MacPorts link to system libraries rather than its own?
>>
>> No, MacPorts maintains its own libraries.
>>
>> Why is MacPorts using its own libraries?
>>
>> There are several reasons to do so. First, it makes ports more  
>> compatible across different versions of Darwin/OS X. If we can  
>> rely on e. g. openssl 0.9.8 from MacPorts, we don't have to test  
>> every port that needs ssl for every available openssl  
>> installation. Apple's software tends to break from time to time  
>> (e. g. openssl refuses to build with an old zlib, but Apple  
>> shipped the old headers of the vulnerable zlib version). Third  
>> reason is up-to-dateness: Apple only features e. g. Python 2.3,  
>> not 2.4, with which some software does not work. The drawbacks on  
>> this behaviour also are minimal: Wasting 10MB for a Python  
>> installation is next to nothing if you have a GB-harddisk and gain  
>> consistency all the way in return.
>
> Needless to say, I don't agree with it. It's probably a fine choice  
> if you want MacPorts to take over your system, but not if you want  
> it to co-exist peacefully with OS X.
>
> You can verify that the binary installer, available at either of:
>
> <http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/downloads/ 
> DarwinPorts-1.3.1-10.4.dmg>
> <http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/downloads/ 
> DarwinPorts-1.3.1/DarwinPorts-1.3.1-10.4.dmg>
>
> does precisely that: if you look inside the postflight script of  
> the .pkg package on the disk image, you'll find:
>
>> echo ""
>> echo "Checking the PATH variable for $USER..."
>> echo ""
>>
>> BINPATH=/opt/local/bin
>> SBINPATH=/opt/local/sbin
>> TMP=`/usr/bin/mktemp /tmp/dp.$$`
>> $SHELL -l <<EOF > $TMP
>>     /usr/bin/printenv PATH
>>     exit
>> EOF
>>
>> if grep $BINPATH $TMP >/dev/null 2>&1; then
>> 	echo "You already have the right PATH - l337!"
>> else
>>     USHELL=`basename $SHELL`
>>    echo "Setting the PATH of $USHELL for $USER in ${HOME:=/Users/ 
>> $USER}..."
>>     case $USHELL in
>>       *csh)
>>         /bin/cp -fp $HOME/.cshrc $HOME/.cshrc.dpsaved	# we backup  
>> the original
>>         echo "#" >> $HOME/.cshrc
>>         echo "# Your previous .cshrc (if any) is saved  
>> as .cshrc.dpsaved" >> $HOME/.cshrc
>>         echo "# Setting the path for DarwinPorts." >> $HOME/.cshrc
>>         echo "set path=($BINPATH $SBINPATH" '$path'")" >>  
>> $HOME/.cshrc
>>         chown $USER $HOME/.cshrc
>>         echo "Finished modifying $HOME/.cshrc"
>>        ;;
>>       *sh)
>>         /bin/cp -fp $HOME/.profile $HOME/.profile.dpsaved # we  
>> backup the original
>>         echo "#" >> $HOME/.profile
>>         echo "# Your previous .profile  (if any) is saved  
>> as .profile.dpsaved" >> $HOME/.profile
>>         echo "# Setting the path for DarwinPorts." >> $HOME/.profile
>>         echo "export PATH=$BINPATH:$SBINPATH:\$PATH" >>  
>> $HOME/.profile
>>         chown $USER $HOME/.profile
>>         echo "Finished modifying $HOME/.profile"
>>         ;;
>>       *)
>>         echo "Unknown shell! Please set your own PATH manually."
>>         ;;
>>     esac
>> fi
>>
>> export PATH=$BINPATH:$PATH
>
> Bruno Voisin
> ------------------------- 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/
>
>

Enrico Franconi                  - franconi at inf.unibz.it
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano - http://www.inf.unibz.it/~franconi/
Faculty of Computer Science      - Phone: (+39) 0471-016-120
I-39100 Bozen-Bolzano BZ, Italy  - Fax:   (+39) 0461-173-9006


------------------------- 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/