[OS X TeX] TL-2007 missing .sty files

[Gary L. Gray]

On Jan 24, 2007, at 6:46 PM, Maarten Sneep wrote:

>
> On Jan 25, 2007, at 00:17, Josep M. Font wrote:
>
>> El 24/01/2007, a las 1:36, Gary L. Gray escribió:
>>
>>>> That explains it. I'm far from been able to create a format file  
>>>> myself.
>>>
>>> I bet you can do it. :-)
>>>
>>> Just create a .tex file that you want to contain much of your  
>>> preamble. For example:
>>>
>>> \documentclass[11pt]{article}
>>> \usepackage{...}
>>> \input{...}
>>> \dump
>>>
>>> would create a format using article with as many packages and  
>>> inputted files as you can list. The \dump command "dumps" the  
>>> format to the current directory when the .tex file is typeset. If  
>>> the .tex file was named books.tex, then the format file will be  
>>> books.fmt.
>>
>> This doesn't work for me. How should one typeset the file ? If I  
>> typeset it in TeXShop, with LaTeX, I get a warning in the .log  
>> window saying that \dump is only usable by INITEX. And no .fmt  
>> file is produced. Both with pdflatex and with dvips...
>
> Yes, and the rub is that pdflatex -ini on the above (i.e. calling  
> initex), doesn't load the latex format: \documentclass is  
> undefined. This means you have to load all the latex stuff  
> yourself. And you can't use latex.ltx, since that performs a \dump  
> already. Given the (short) compile times, I wouldn't bother.
>
> So Gary, if you have more complete instructions, I'm all ears ;-)

Oops. I am really sorry. I should be more careful and not post in  
such a hurry. Here are instructions that actually work (and this is  
what I actually do):

(1) Create a file (I will call it FormatName.tex) that has your  
desired preamble along with \dump at the end. For example:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{many_packages}
\input{many_inputs}
\dump

Put this .tex in a directory somewhere. Say it is at:

/Users/gray/Documents/formats

(2) Open the Terminal and cd to that directory. Once there, type:

pdflatex -ini

When you get the ** prompt, type the following

&pdflatex FormatName

and press return. The format file called FormatName.fmt will be  
created. Then you should move that format to:

/Users/gray/Library/texmf/web2c

I actually automate the process a bit by creating a Terminal .command  
file that contains (you could also create an AppleScript or shell  
script):

#!/bin/sh
cd /Users/gray/Documents/formats
pdflatex -ini '&pdflatex' FormatName

I can then simply double-click it and it will run the Terminal and  
build the format for me. I then put a symbolic link in:

/Users/gray/Library/texmf/web2c

That points to that built format so that I don't have to move it  
every time I build it.

I hope this helps more than the last drivel I posted. :-)

All the best,
   Gary


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