[OS X TeX] Where Should 'Package' Files be Stored?

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jan 11, 2012, at 8:00 AM, Berend Hasselman wrote:

> 
> On 11-01-2012, at 14:22, Herbert Schulz wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Jan 11, 2012, at 5:09 AM, LuKreme wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> On 10 Jan 2012, at 18:09 , Herbert Schulz wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 10, 2012, at 5:01 PM, LuKreme wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> On 10 Jan 2012, at 15:15 , Herbert Schulz wrote:
>>>>>> The regular find will not look inside /usr
>>>>> 
>>>>> Of course it will, you simply have to tell it to.
>>>>> 
>>>>> <http://www.macworld.com/article/60711/2007/10/spotsyssearch.html>
>>>>> 1. Produce a Searching window by typing Command-F while in the Finder.
>>>>> 2. Choose Other from the Kind pop-up menu.
>>>>> 3. In the sheet that appears, type System in the Search field.
>>>>> 4. Select the single System Files entry that appears.
>>>>> 5. Should you wish to conduct these deep searches in the future and want to make it easier to do (meaning you won’t have to choose Other and look for the System Files entry), enable the In Menu option. System Files will now appear in the pop-up.
>>>>> 6. Click OK.
>>>>> 7. When you next wish to search every part of your Mac, select System Files from the Kind pop-up menu and in the pop-up menu next to it, choose Include. Your results will include not just the kind of Spotlight results you saw with Tiger but now also the files the Mac OS tries to keep from prying eyes.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Howdy,
>>>> 
>>>> And then choose System every time you want to use it. Yes, it becomes one more step rather than multiple steps but it's still unacceptable; it should just do it.
>>> 
>>> No, it most certainly should NOT just do it. Can you imagine just how badly people would screw up their systems this way?
>> 
>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> If you are knowledgeable enough to know and want to use the System file option to do your search I presume you won't screw up your system by doing something stupid.
>> 
>> If you don't put the System option on the default list then finding something in one of the hidden directories (e.g., /usr) is a much more painful process that simply using `Find Any File' and letting it go. More often than not those are the directories I'm trying to search. I have `Find Any File' set up so it is opened when I do a Cmd-F in Finder; very convenient.
>> 
>> By the way, Find Any File does NOT search the /System directory unless you forcefully tell it to but it does search /usr and other hidden directories.
> 
> Why not use kpsewhich?
> 
> [.../~]: kpsewhich amssymb.sty
> /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/amssymb.sty
> 
> [.../~]: kpsewhich graphicx.sty
> /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphicx.sty
> 
> [.../~]: kpsewhich cancel.sty
> /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cancel/cancel.sty
> 
> [.../~]: kpsewhich latexsym.sty
> /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/latexsym.sty
> 
> 
> Berend

Howdy,

I mentioned using that before. That's great if you are looking for something that has to do with the TeX distribution but not much help if you are doing other work in places like /usr outside of the TeX distribution. It's also nice to have GUI interface to do searching. If you have used `Find Any File' you can see that you can set it up to display a nice directory tree for its finds.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)