[OS X TeX] MacTeX/TeXLive 2012 near-"sightings"

[Richard Koch]

Murray,

Good sleuthing. See Herb's answer.

On Jun 20, 2012, at 7:12 AM, Murray Eisenberg wrote:
> 
> (2) "The MacTeX-2012 Distribution" page...
> 
>     http://www.tug.org/mactex/2012/
> 
> ... which says "The current distribution is MacTeX-2012." However, the link to MacTeX.pkg there indicates date 30 July 2011, so this is, I presume, just a temporary placeholder awaiting change to the actual release's link.

For your amusement, I'll explain the links on the web page.
None of this information is important to know, but we are just
twiddling our thumbs waiting for the release.

On the 2011 MacTeX page, all links to MacTeX point to 

	http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX.mpkg.zip

On CTAN, 

	MacTeX.mpkg.zip -->  mactex20110730.mpkg.zip

When MacTeX is released, we will change the actual file on CTAN and rewrite
the symbolic link.  Modulo the (unknown) release date, for example,

	 MacTeX.mpkg.zip --> mactex20120615.mpkg.zip

GOOD CONSEQUENCE: The web page links don't have to be changed.

BAD CONSEQUENCE: If you find the 2012 page and download before 
the announced release, the long download will just lead to a copy of
MacTeX-2011.



However, this year a special thing happened, and the 2012
links don't work at all for the moment. That is because these links
point to 
	
	http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX.pkg

Notice that MacTeX is no longer a zipped mpkg file, but instead a flat
pkg file that doesn't have to be zipped or unzipped. This change was
required because only flat install packages can be signed, and signed
install packages will be required in Mountain Lion.

After the release, CTAN will contain something like

	MacTeX.pkg --> mactex20120615.pkg

Any third party web page which currently
points to MacTeX.mpkg.zip will need to be changed to point to
MacTeX.pkg. We don't know of such third party pages, but they may
exist.

Dick Koch