[OS X TeX] Installing unstable packages

[Ross Moore]

Sent from my iPad

On 18/02/2011, at 8:28 AM, Michael Sharpe <msharpe at ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Another possible option may be to leave your old pgfplots where it is and make use of ~/Library/texlive/texmf-var

Certainly working in  texmf-var  is best. 
I should have said this in my posting, where  .../texmf  was meant to indicate whichever directory tree is the place where the updated package is to be installed.


> (I assume you're using MacTeX 2010) to install the unstable version when you want to use that, then simple remove the folder when you want to revert to the stable version.

My philosophy is to never remove anything that you may conceivably wish to use again.
Better is to rename it, and disable access to the directory, so that no program can find the files accidentally. 

> As pgfplots is distributed as a TDS, it's very simple to reinstall it again.

so long as you have kept its archive around on your disk somewhere.
The latest version on the web may no longer be the one that you wish to reinstall.


> A couple of simple scripts could automate this.
> 
> Michael


Hope this helps.

      Ross