[XeTeX] ~/Library/texmf/tex/...?

[Jonathan Kew]

On 19 Feb 2006, at 7:14 pm, Stephen Moye wrote:

> I'm not sure that I understand the change that seems to have  
> occurred with XeTeX 0.99, fontspec 1.9 and the most recent version  
> of xkeyval.
>
> At some point in the not too distant past I was putting all (xe) 
> latex items in ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex, and everything seemed to  
> work without a problem. Now, unless xkeyval is in ~/Library/texmf/ 
> tex/xelatex, fontspec seems not to work. Is there now a requirement  
> for this directory? What should be put in it?
>
> Thanks for any insights...

I'm not sure if there was a specific change in the software (don't  
think so); or if something changed in texmf.cnf rather than in the  
software itself (this is possible); or if there were changes in the  
other packages included with gwTeX and/or XeTeX (this is likely).

Anyhow, you can use the -kpathsea-debug option with xelatex to  
determine exactly what paths it searches for a given file. On my  
machine, the path for a .sty file is shown as:

path=.
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/xetex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/xetex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/xetex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/xetex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/xetex/xelatex//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/tex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/tex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/tex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/xelatex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/tex/xelatex//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/xetex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/xetex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/xetex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/xetex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/xetex/latex//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/tex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/tex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/tex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/latex//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/tex/latex//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/xetex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/xetex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/xetex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/xetex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/xetex/generic//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/tex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/tex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/tex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex/generic//
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/tex/generic//
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/xetex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/xetex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/xetex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/xetex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/xetex///
/Users/jonathan/Library/texmf/tex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/tex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/tex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/tex///
!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/tex///

(where !! indicates the use of an ls-R file maintained by texhash/ 
mktexlsr). These paths imply that files under ~/Library/texmf/tex/ 
latex will be searched, but only *after* locations under texmf/xetex/ 
xelatex or texmf/tex/xelatex etc. And if a file is found in the  
texmf.local tree at one of these locations, it will take precedence  
over Library/tex/latex in the home directory.

Now, given that the XeTeX installer puts fontspec.sty into  
texmf.local/tex/xelatex, this (older) version will take precedence  
over a new one you install in ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex. To ensure  
your personal copy is used, you need to move it to a "more preferred"  
path, as indicated in the list above.

HTH,

JK