[OS X TeX] beamer

[Alan Munn]

On Sep 17, 2010, at 2:40 PM, Tim Brophy wrote:

> On 17 Sep 2010, at 17:33, Alan Munn wrote:
>
>> On Sep 17, 2010, at 11:38 AM, M. Tamer Özsu wrote:
>>
>>> Is beamer installed automatically with MacTex 2010? I have beamer  
>>> version 3.07 in my own texmf directory, but I am getting a weird  
>>> error that my student is not getting in his installation. I can  
>>> track possible version difference issues, but I first wanted to  
>>> check if I even need to have beamer in my own texmf directory.
>>
>> Yes, Beamer is part of TL 2010, and contains v3.10, so your 3.07 is  
>> out of date.
>>
>> (You can easily check for the presence of a package or class in TL   
>> using the locate command in terminal).
>>
>> locate beamer.cls
>>
>> returns:
>>
>> /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamer.cls
>> /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer-FUBerlin/ 
>> FUbeamer.cls
>>
>> (the second line isn't particularly relevant, but the first tells  
>> you that beamer.cls is part of TL 2010.)
>
> Hi Alan,
>
> I am a complete novice with the terminal. I did as you suggested and  
> got the message
>
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamer.cls
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer-FUBerlin/ 
> FUbeamer.cls
> /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/xelatex/bidi/bidibeamer.cls
> /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamer.cls
> /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer-FUBerlin/ 
> FUbeamer.cls
>
> Should I get rid of the 2009 version? how do I know what version of  
> texlive TexShop is using?
>
> Sorry for the stupid questions.

Not stupid at all.  The output you get is correct, given that you have  
both a TL 2009 and TL 2010 distribution installed.  As the link that  
Dick pointed you to explains, it's fine to have more than one version  
around since the TeX Distribution control panel keeps everything  
around.  Since you have installed 2010, that will be what is being  
used unless you explicitly use the control panel to change it back to  
2009.

You can also verify which version is being used by looking at the  
console output when you compile a file in TeXShop.  For example, for a  
document that I had open the console output shows the following:

Document Class: memoir 2010/08/20 v3.6e configurable book, report,  
article docu
ment class
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifpdf.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifluatex.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/etex-pkg/etex.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/memoir/mem10.clo)
(/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/memoir/mempatch.sty))

Which shows that the class file and all of the packages are coming  
from TL 2010.

That being said, there's probably no real need to have the 2009  
version around any more, unless you have some super critical document  
with a very close deadline that you can't afford to have any problems  
with.  (Not that there are likely to be many problems with the switch  
from 2009 to 2010, but some issues might arise.)

If you see no need for the older distribution, you can delete using  
the Finder by going to the ~/Library/texlive folder and dragging the  
2009 folder to the trash (you will be asked for an administrator  
password).

If you try the locate command again after doing this, the output you  
saw will not change, since the locate database is only updated weekly  
by the system.  So don't get worried that you haven't deleted things.   
The locate database will update itself and soon only the TL 2010 files  
will show up in locate commands.

You can update the database manually using the command:

sudo periodic weekly

Alan

(P.S.  I'm not sure that all this works the same in Snow Leopard.  It  
seems that the locate database isn't automatically created, and the  
script that updates it is no longer run by the periodic weekly  
command.  But the man page for it on Snow Leopard seems to imply that  
it will still be updated weekly once created.  Since you managed to  
get locate to locate stuff for you, I assume you're not running Snow  
Leopard anyway.)


-- 
Alan Munn
amunn at gmx.com