[OS X TeX] Failing to locate style files

[Richard Koch]

Christopher,

It is possible to make the "TeX Distribution" panel work with the  
MacPorts teTeX distribution.
If you installed MacTeX fairly recently, then it contains the  
necessary data structure for MacPorts.
Your front end should already respect the choice of distribution made  
with the Preference Pane.

However, there is a problem with commands issued from the Terminal.  
These commands depend
on your PATH. The TeX Distribution structure adds /usr/texbin to this  
PATH; this /usr/texbin is a
symbolic link which changes when you switch distributions with the  
Pane, and
points to the binaries of the active TeX distribution. However,
MacPorts adds /opt/local/bin to the START of PATH, so it overrides  
the /usr/texbin
which comes later. The solution is to modify your startup script,  
which might be .profile, to add
/usr/texbin before /opt/local/bin.

This explains why your kpsewhich couldn't find the style files, since  
kpsewhich is run from Terminal.
But again, most front ends won't care how PATH is set.

Dick
koch at math.uoregon.edu


On Feb 2, 2008, at 1:35 PM, Christopher Brewster wrote:
> I discovered I have two tex installations (texlive and tetex) and  
> this was causing the problem.
> Texlive has the relevant style files while tetex does not (at any as  
> it was installed).
> It appears that without realising I had installed a tex installation  
> (tetex) when I installed latex2rtf using macports.
> This added a line to my path as follows:
> export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
> at the beginning of my PATH
>
> Removing this, solved the problem.
> Why?
> There is nothing in my path that points to the location of texlive.
> I thought I could re-order the sequence in the path to solve it.
> Also I do not remember what else on my system depends on /opt/local/ 
> bin etc.
> ps. Changing the settings for 'Tex distribution' on the system  
> preferences has no effect.