[OS X TeX] Wrong latex getting used.

[Rolf Turner]

I sent the following message to the texhax mailing list earlier
today, and it was suggested to me that I try *this* list.  So
here goes:

This is really more a problem with Mac OS X than with latex, ...
But I don't know where else to turn and this list is usually very
helpful.  Said he hopefully.

Recently I unwisely did a re-install of LaTex on my Imac --- using,
I *think* ``sudo fink install latex''.  Can't even remember why I
did this. :-(

Ever since, things that used to work now don't.

This morning I tried to process a powerdot presentation to which
I had made some slight adjustments, and got errors in respect of
xkeyval --- it complained that I had requested a newer version
of xkeyval than was available, and then threw an error about
an undefined control sequence.  I can give further details if
these are relevant, but I don't think so.

Upon investigation I found that the xkeyval package in

	/sw/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex

was indeed out of date, and the latex that gets used is in
/sw/bin.  But there is a perfectly up-to-date xkeyval in

	/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex

which seems to be what is pointed to by the symbolic links inside

	/Library/TeX/Distributions

I would have thought that this last would be what would get used
by latex by default under Mac OSX (I must confess that I really
don't understand the convolutions that Mac OSX superimposes upon
Unix) but it seems not.  As I said above, /sw/bin/latex seems to
get used and this seems to draw upon the out-of-date stuff in
/sw/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex.

There is a /usr/texbin that appears automagically in my path,
and this seems to point at the right thing.  I tried setting
my path explicitly in my .cshrc file, putting /usr/texbin ahead
of /sw/bin.  But blow me down, when I echo my path afterwards,
/sw/bin and /sw/sbin are always the first two entries in the
path, no matter what I tell it.  (I *hate* it when computers refuse
to do what you tell them!)  And the wrong latex still gets
used.

How can I get the /sw/bin/latex out of the way?  Does anyone out there
understand Mac OSX enough to help me?

Thanks.

	cheers,

		Rolf Turner

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