[OS X TeX] Re: MacOSX-TeX Digest, Vol 52, Issue 14 (local texmf tree)

[Herbert Schulz]

On Feb 16, 2012, at 5:27 PM, Murray Eisenberg wrote:

> I'm the only user of this system (and I'm running on an account with administrator privileges).
> 
> Is it therefore OK if everything now in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local be put instead into ~/Library/texmf?
> 
> Or are there some things that TeXShop or TeXLive expect to be only in one of these?
> 
> What additional steps must I take if...
> 
>  (i) I move everything now in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local to ~/Library/texmf instead?
> 
> (ii) I move everything now in ~/Library/texmf to /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local?
> 


Howdy,

In either case you'll need to run

sudo mktexlsr

in Terminal. That's because the contents of .../texmf-local has been changed in either case so the contents need to be ``hashed'' so that files there can be located quickly.

In your case the advantage of using ~/Library/texmf is that you can freely change contents without having to run mktexlsr (or texhash, which is a synonym). The advantage of placing things in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local is that if you ever create a new user (e.g., for testing purposes) the items will be available to that user. It's your choice!

PS: I tend to put all font related things in the .../texmf-local so they are available to another user (which I have for testing as a non-admin user). Other items I usually place in ~/Library/texmf.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)