[OS X TeX] newbie question on fonts motivated by LaTeXiT

[dan at geer.org]

> sh: line 1: xdv2pdf: command not found

For those reading along, it appears that MacTeX-2007.mpkg
modifies /etc/profile and /etc/csh.cshrc which, using the
latter as our example, means adding these lines to that file:

## TeX added /usr/texbin start at Wed Oct 24 16:28:39 EDT 2007
## Do not remove the previous line
if ("${uid}" != "0") then
  set path = ( ${path} "/usr/texbin" )
endif
## Do not remove the next line
## TeX added /usr/texbin end at Wed Oct 24 16:28:39 EDT 2007


For the usual user, which I am not, this would mean inheriting
the system $path as part of one's login.  I do not use the 
system $path and, frankly, consider it bad taste for an
application installer to make modifications to fundamental
files like this -- it might as well modify /sbin/init -- and,
in any case, the modifications it makes are not idempotent
insofar as my three-times installing said package has 
replicated the above lines three times in /etc/csh.cshrc
and likewise in /etc/profile and /etc/manpath.config.

So, when I start LaTeXiT.app, is my own $path then the
determinative factor?  Does it matter that back when 
Fink Commander was useful it installed /sw/bin/xdv2pdf
and /sw/bin most assuredly is in my $path?  If LaTeXiT
is using my $path, then it would be able to locate
/sw/bin/xdv2pdf whereas if it both requires a $path
and is not using mine, then whose is it using?

Confirming that I am indeed the owner of the app,

% ls -l /Applications/TeX/LaTeXiT.app/Contents/MacOS/LaTeXiT 
-rwxr-xr-x  1 geer  501  505920 24 Aug 07:26 /Applications/TeX/LaTeXiT.app/Contents/MacOS/LaTeXiT*

so presumably an app that assumes its UID and GID from
its own ownership would have the $path of that
owner unless this particular app runs as "nobody."

While running `strings /sw/bin/xdv2pdf` I find that that
binary is full of references to /usr/local/TeTeX.  As you
may recall, I once used Fink Commander to install TeTeX
but after all this bubbled up, I had asked Fink Commander
to uninstall TeTeX and, of course, Fink Commander had said
that it had uninstalled TeTeX.  FC lied, so perhaps the
/sw/bin/xdv2pdf that is in my $path is not an xdv2pdf
that LaTeXiT can use?

Which generates a question: Should I hunt down all executables
that could conceivably be TeX in some form or other and
kill them if they are not in /usr/texbin ?

--dan

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