[OS X TeX] System wide versus local path settings

[Claus Gerhardt]

Today I created a .profile file in my home folder and added the lines

#  .profile for sh(1)

PATH="/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin"
export PATH

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/texprograms"
   export PATH

   PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/texprogramsc"
   export PATH


The last path only for checking which path I would inherit as root.  
In fact all paths were active when I was a normal user as well as  
when I played root (via sudo).

Strangely then, any changes in /private/etc/profile  had no effect on  
my path either as normal user or as root. Thus, when installing a new  
tex as a user with administrator privileges it would suffice to only  
change the path in ~/.profile and run texconfig-sys etc. as root.

Claus
------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/