[OS X TeX] Placing macro files

[Herbert Schulz]

> On Jun 7, 2018, at 10:38 AM, Ettore Aldrovandi <ealdrov at math.fsu.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Jun 7, 2018, at 10:50, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jun 7, 2018, at 8:00 AM, M. Tamer Özsu <ozsut at mac.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Following Herb’s suggestion, here is my setup for those types of files that enables me to use them across machines.
>>> 
>>> - I have a master references file (references.bib) that I keep in ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib
>>> - I have a bunch of personal style files that I keep in ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex
>>> - I have a symbolic link to ~/Library/texmf that I keep in Dropbox folder
>>> 
>>> Everything syncs properly and latex finds them in place. The trick is to keep these files in ~/Library/texmf and put a symbolic link in Dropbox. Note that you have to do the symbolic link on every machine.
>>> 
>>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> I'm a bit surprised that you link ~/Library/texmf into your Dropbox. I would have thought it should be the other way around. I don't understand how that works on multiple systems.
>> 
>> I have folder of source files (not in ~/Library/texmf) I copied to my Dropbox folder which I update when any of those files change. On other systems I have a symblic link of the Dropbox folder to my documents folder. So when I update the folder on Dropbox on that source system the other systems automatically update.
> 
> Isn’t it the case that one should have a folder texmf in Dropbox and link _to_ it from each machine? That is, on each machine ~/Library/texmf is a symlink to ~/Dropbox/texmf as in 
> ls -l Library/texmf
> lrwxr-xr-x  […] Library/texmf@ -> /Users/<username>/Dropbox/texmf
> ?
> 
> —Ettore

Howdy,

Yes, that is the way I would do it. I have one system that keep them separate where I make changes and tests and finally copy to the version I have in Dropbox. There have been way too many folks that have reported problems when making multiple, reasonably quick changes to files.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)