[OS X TeX] BasicTex 2024: incorrect value for TEXMFLOCAL?

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

Let me explain the issue described below in everyday words.

If you install the full MacTeX, you can put additional style files, fonts, etc. in one of two locations:
~/Library/texmf and /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local. The Mac is designed so several different people can have accounts on the machine. Each will have a separate ~/Library/texmf, but they all will use the same
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local. So extra files just for yourself go in ~/Library/texmf, but extra files for everybody go in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local. This distinction is academic if you are the only person using your machine.

An interesting feature of the two locations is that they continue to work when new versions of TL or MacTeX appear. So anything in ~/Library/texmf used by MacTeX-2023 will still be used by MacTeX-2024, and ditto for /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local.

John Purnell is pointing out that the situation for BasicTeX is slightly different. Now the two locations are
~/Library/texmf and /usr/local/texlive/2024basic/texmf-local. The first is unchanged, so files seen by BasicTeX-2023 will still be seen by BasicTeX-2024. But the second location was inside the 2023basic directory last year, and is inside the 2024basic directory this year, and so files seen last year will not be seen this year.

This design has always been used by BasicTeX, because the TeX Live Unix install script suggests it. I make
MacTeX and BasicTeX by installing using that script, and then copying the result to an install package. The TL
install script asks several questions and provides default answers. This year the script asked where to install TeX and suggested the default /usr/local/texlive/2024. It then suggested that extra files should be placed in
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local. When I create BasicTeX, I change the first item to /usr/local/texlive/2024basic.
The install script then changes several other defaults and in particular now suggests that local additions be put in
/usr/local/texlive/2024basic/texmf-local. I just accepted this suggestion.

Several other designs are possible, but all are more complicated and would be non-standard. Nobody has complained over the years, and this design has been used since the invention of BasicTeX.

Richard Koch


> On Mar 15, 2024, at 1:05 PM, John Purnell <johno108108 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> In BasicTex 2024 the file `/usr/local/texlive/2024basic/texmf.cnf` includes the setting:
> 
> `TEXMFLOCAL = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-local`
> 
> which as can be seen using the command `tlmgr conf` results in a path of:
> 
> `TEXMFLOCAL=/usr/local/texlive/2024basic/texmf-local`
> 
> which means it is not independant of the TeX Live version, and clobbers the default setting in `/usr/local/texlive/2024basic/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf` of:
> 
> `TEXMFLOCAL = $SELFAUTOGRANDPARENT/texmf-local`
> 
> which results in the path of:
> 
> `TEXMFLOCAL=/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local`
> 
> which is the version independent path referred to in the documentation e.g. https://tug.org/mactex/MacSpecificComplications.html
> ----------- Please Consult the Following Before Posting -----------
> TeX FAQ: https://www.tug.org/mactex/faq/index.html
> List Reminders and Etiquette: https://sites.esm.psu.edu/~gray/TeX/
> List Archives: http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.macosx
>                https://email.esm.psu.edu/pipermail/macosx-tex/
> TeX on Mac OS X Website: https://www.tug.org/mactex/index.html
> List Info: https://email.esm.psu.edu/mailman/listinfo/macosx-tex