[tex-live] mactex status in the catalogue

[George N. White III]

On 5/18/07, Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> when i first catalogued mactex there was a single compressed file in the
> directory we mirror to ctan.  subsequently, a file mactex.dmg appeared,
> and later still mactextras.dmg (or thereabouts).
>
> as a result (and in the context of my ignorance of macs), we have two
> catalogue entries: mactex and mactex-dmg.  this is not satisfactory --
> there is nothing but dmg files in the directories.
>
> am i right in assuming that i should dump the mactex-dmg entry, and
> regenerate the mactex entry from the mactex description on tug.org?

Yes.

> [what _are_ dmg files, anyway?  i've dropped heavy hints around here
> that a mac would go well with the present collection of machines in my
> office, but the hints fall on deaf ears ;-) ]

A .dmg file is an image of an HFS+ format disk.  These are commonly
used under OS X for installing apps, similar to mounting a .iso file with the
loop device on linux.  The default allows users to run programs --
See: <http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/mac042705.html>

<http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html> is a java app
to read files from HFS+ on Win32.  In principle, linux can do:

# modprobe hfsplus
# mount -t hfsplus file.dmg /mnt/disk -o loop,ro

(but it didn't work for me on debian testing -- dmesg says:
hfs: unable to find HFS+ superblock
).

These days it is helpful to mention whether the .dmg files include support
for Intel machines.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia