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

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jan 11, 2012, at 1:21 PM, Doug McKenna wrote:

> Berend Hasselman wrote -
> 
>> Why not use kpsewhich?
>> 
>> [.../~]: kpsewhich amssymb.sty
>> /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/amssymb.sty
> 
> Is there a way to determine all the places that TeX (or kpsewhich) looks 
> for a file match _before_ if finds the file it's been asked to find.
> 

Howdy,

If I interpret you correctly the answer is yes. Use the command

kpsewhich -show-path=tex

and it will list the complete path ti will search in the order of search. Note: a trailing // at the end of a search directory means it will search sub-directories of that directory and a leading !! at the start of a search directory means it will us the ls-R file (generated by `sudo texhash` or `sudo mktexlsr`) at the base of the tree to speed up the search.

> And does a file's suffix affect the seqeuence of directories/folders 
> TeX/kpsewhich examines?
> 
> 
> Doug McKenna

Absolutely! That is the purpose of the -show-path= option. In the command above the `tex' will show the search path for .tex, .sty, .cls, .fd, .aux, .bbl, .def, .clo and .ldf extensions. To get more information about kpsewhich run

kpsewhich --help

in Terminal. You can see a full man page by running

texdoc kpsewhich

in Terminal.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)