[OS X TeX] Open Testing of MacTeX Distribution

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

This note is about a bug report that the new MacTeX installer  
package, now
undergoing testing, does not adjust the PATH variable, and thus
programs like ghostscript in /usr/local/bin are not available from  
the command line.
See, for instance, Joachim Kock's complaint below.

I don't think there is a problem. The MacTeX package contains Gerben  
Wierda's
script to reset the PATH variable;  this script is called during the
post install phase. Gerben modifies /etc/profile and /etc/csh.login,  
carefully
surrounding his additions with comments.

To test on 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4, I removed Gerben's additions from  
these two
files. Next I started Terminal and confirmed that PATH did not  
contain  /usr/local/bin
or /usr/local/tetex/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current. Then I  
installed TeX with the
package. Finally  I restarted Terminal and examined PATH. On each  
system, the missing PATH
directories had been added and gs was accessible.

In one case the test initially failed. The failure was on 10.2, where  
I had a .tchrc file
in my home directory. It had been placed there by Metroworks, and it  
included
extra lines to make fink accessible. I suspect that similar stray
hidden setup files lead to the initial bug reports.

Dick
koch at math.uoregon.edu

On Oct 11, 2005, at 12:24 AM, Joachim Kock wrote:

>> -- Minor issues:
>> -- -- ghostscript and everything else in /usr/local/bin is not  
>> available from the command line.
>>
>
> Sounds like a major issue to me, especially since the distribution  
> does not
> come with many frontends.  (This does not mean it wouldn't be easy  
> to fix.)
>
> Cheers
> Joachim.

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