[OS X TeX] Where does TeX look for files?

[André Bellaïche]

Le 19 avr. 2010 à 00:50, Herbert Schulz a écrit :

> 
> On Apr 18, 2010, at 5:07 PM, André Bellaïche wrote:
> 
>> I have been told many times that tex looks for files in
>> 
>> - some special subdirectories in texlive/2008
>> - some special subdirectories in texlive/texmf-local
>> - your working directory, but NOT the subdirectories of the working directory
>> 
>> (suppose you are using TexLive 2008).
>> 
>> But I have also learn how to instruct TeX to look elsewhere in some cases:
>> 
>> - by using \graphicspath for graphic files
>> - by using \pdfmapfile for supplementary map files
>> 
>> Is there a similar way to instruct TeX to look for sty files, font files, etc. in a specified directory, not by changing the paths in some Unix way, but by means of a macro from inside the tex file you are typesetting?
>> 
>> André Bellaïche
>> Université Paris 7
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> Did you install TeX Live directly or via MacTeX? The TeX Live installed by MacTeX has one change from the default TeX Live installation: personal files are in a tree that starts at ~/Library/texmf/ rather than the default ~/texmf/ (I think). If the file isn't found there it looks in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/ and then in trees that start in /usr/local/texlive/2008/ (e.g., /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/). I know that /usr/local/texlive/... is the root for MacTeX installed TeX Live and I think it is the default for plain TeX Live.
> 
> Finally, in any of the trees, sty, tex, fd, cls, clo, and many other package associated files are placed in [...]/tex/latex/ (or sub-directories of that directory) where [...] is the path for one of the tree roots, e.g., ~/Library/texmf for your personal tree. Bibliography (bib) files go into [...]/bibtex/bib/ (or sub-directories...) and bibliography style files (bst) go into [...]/bibtex/bst/ (or...). Font related files go into the proper sub-directory (e.g., tfm, afm, type1, map, etc.) of [...]/fonts/.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
> 

Thanks. In fact, I was looking for a way of keeping all the files needed for the making of a book: sty files and all font files. A kind of archive which be independent of the computer, of the system, of the distribution, of the user, etc. 

I have tried this for a book where the Math Time Pro fonts were used. I have put all the sty, tfm, pfb, fd, vf, map files in the same directory as the files of the book and transferred the whole directory to a PC equipped with MikTex, not forgetting to include the command \pdfmapfile{+mtpro2.map} in the main tex file. It worked without problems.

The only drawback is that the directory of the book becomes a mess with hundred of files. And it is not possible to put everything in a subdirectory because TeX will not look into it. It wondered if it existed a command which would tell TeX to look into such and such subdirectory, similar to \graphicspath... 

André