[OS X TeX] OS X TeX newbie needs help installing TeX on non-boot volume

Rowland McDonnell rjmm-lists1 at fireflyuk.net
Sat Sep 10 18:01:40 CEST 2005 

> 
> Am 10.09.2005 um 14:41 schrieb Rowland McDonnell:
> 
> > What I'd like to do is install everything I need on a volume other
> > than the boot volume (I keep all added software and user data off
> > my boot volume for safety's sake - at least, in those cases where I
> > can work out how to do this safely).  I've read the documentation I
> > can find and can't work out how to do this.
> >
> 
> I think there is nowhere a place to change the location where 
> i-Installer installs teTeX ...

I can see a button in the i-installer UI which says, quite plainly,
`Change install location'.  The author has informed me that the job is
do-able, and that this mailing list is the place to ask for help on how
to do it.

(he also tells me that one shouldn't want to install teTeX anywhere but
the standard place - but I do, and I have good reasons for doing so)

> I can think of two things that might do the job -- and they might be 
> combined.
> 
> 1. Set an environment variable TEXMF in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist 
> that points to a teTeX 'root' directory on the other volume.

I don't have such a directory (or file for that matter).  Could you tell
me what uses it and why I might want it?  Of course I can create the
directory/file pair easily, but I like to understand what I'm doing
first and I'd rather put things like that in tidy places like ~/Library
if at all possible.

> Log off 
> and log in again, maybe as the owner of the TeX software,

I don't understand what this means.  How can there be an owner of
software that's not installed?

(I take it you mean the user who is the owner of all the files that make
up the teTeX installation.  But what if they're not all owned by the
same user?  Hmmm...)

> so that the 
> setting becomes valid. If i-Installer follows the usual guide lines it 
> will read $TEXMF's value and install TeX there. If not: next try.
> 
> 2. Create on the command line a sym-link! First you should have
created 
> a new and empty directory (folder),

What is the folder you refer to for?

> let's re-use the name teTeX for 
> this exactly mixed-case as written here, on the other volume. In 
> Terminal you enter 'ls -l /usr/local' and check whether the shell 
> returns a message like "ls: /usr/local: No such file or directory" -- 
> if this happens then you don't have that directory and need to create 
> it as 'sudo mkdir /usr/local ; sudo chmod 755 /usr/local <Return>' and 
> you will get asked for your password. Now you can 'cd /usr/local 
> <Return>' and then start typing 'sudo ln -s ' and now you drag the 
> newly created teTeX directory (folder) on Terminal. Press Return! It 
> won't work to create a Mac alias with Cmd-L, it has to be a normal 
> file, i.e. a "sym-link."

I'm afraid I don't follow you at all here.  I know how to create folders
and I can see how to create Unix symbolic links from what you write.  I
don't see what you're trying to get me to achieve by following these
instructions.

> Again I hope that installer will follow the 
> sym-link named /usr/local/teTeX to the place on the other volume and 
> install all software there.
> 
> BTW, you haven't saved much network traffic by fetching the
i-Packages! 

It's not network traffic I intend to save, but human time; and I
intended to save human time by wasting network traffic.  Thrash the
computer to spare the user.

> You probably only have the "thin" versions (a bundle of various
scripts 
> and configuration files).

What makes you think that?

> During i-Installation the real data transfer 
> starts and 100+ MB will be fetched, depending on what you actually
like 
> to install. 

Yes, but you see, I'm an intelligent computer user and spotted this
problem.  I then found out what to do about it in order to actually
download the data I want.  I do not have `thin' versions of much - I
have fat versions.

Admittedly, I haven't actually grabbed the teTeX installer itself yet
but I've got pretty much everything else as a `fat' installer thingy.  

teTeX itself is a bit big to grab using a modem (okay, I'm on ISDN but
it's not a lot faster), and I'm not sure yet how to download it onto a
Windoze box for use on my Mac at home (I have access to a Win XP box
with a SuperJANET connection).

All very awkward...

>Now, to save all you've downloaded, you need to change 
> i-Installer's Preferences to *not* make the package thin after 
> installation.

Well, no, because I did that ages ago.

> This measure too will help you in a case when you want to 
> reconfigure your installation and install an addition, for example add 
> a new format or delete a language from Babel or make the fonts in the 
> PDF output files to "download" to the printer,

Could you explain what i-installer has to do with this?  I thought all
that sort of stuff was done by configuring the packages directly.  I
certainly don't want to get i-installer involved when I am creating new
new formats!

(and I don't use Babel - I've rolled my own on the hyphenation side
because I only want UK English and US English hyphenation patterns
available - I have a hyphen.cfg file looking like this:

\language=0% Make bloody sure that the language is set right.
%
\InputIfFileExists{hyphen.tex}%
   {\message{Loading hyphenation patterns for US english.}%
    \language=0
    \lefthyphenmin=2 \righthyphenmin=3 }%
   {\errhelp{The configuration for hyphenation is incorrectly
             installed.^^J%
             If you don't understand this error message you need
             to seek^^Jexpert advice.}%
    \errmessage{OOPS! I can't find any hyphenation patterns for
                US english.^^J \space Think of getting some or the
                latex2e setup will never succeed}\@@end}
%
%
%
\language=1% Make bloody sure that the language is right.
\InputIfFileExists{ukhyphen.tex}%
   {\message{Loading hyphenation patterns for UK English.}%
    \language=1
    \lefthyphenmin=2 \righthyphenmin=3 }%
   {\errhelp{The configuration for hyphenation is incorrectly
             installed.^^J%
             If you don't understand this error message you need
             to seek^^Jexpert advice.}%
    \errmessage{OOPS! I can't find any hyphenation patterns for
                UK english.^^J \space Something is wrong.}\@@end}
%
%
%
\language=1
\message{UK hyphenation patterns installed as language 1; US hyphenation 
as language 0.  Default language set to 1.}
\endinput
%% 
%% End of file `hyphen.ltx'.)

> i.e. the usual set of 
> PostScript fonts that comes with the PostScript printer is downloaded 

Erm?  Why assume that I have a PostScript printer?  I was using HP
inkjets exclusively up until not long ago when I did, finally, buy a PS
printer.  But I've been using home computers for 25 years now and only
got round to acquiring a PS printer in the last handful of months.

> although not needed for printing -- but needed to make the microstyle 
> package work, which is that the characters of your text are compressed 
> or expanded in small discrete steps to make them fit better, as if 
> optimized by hand.

Okay - thanks.

> 
> AND: you should keep the other volume inside your Mac! If it's an 
> external disk chances are that it might be unavailable at some moment. 
> Then it's hard to estimate what might happen during installation ... A 
> TeX run from an inexistent volume can't do much.

I know!  I have three internal HDDs.  Two are single partitions, one is
partitioned into two.

Can anyone help me?

Rowland.
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