additional texmf tree for all users (was Re: [OS X TeX] Beginner help with TeXshop/MacTex needed)
William Adams
will.adams at frycomm.com
Tue Aug 29 15:03:37 CEST 2006
On Aug 29, 2006, at 8:29 AM, Rowland McDonnell wrote:
> How
> would a maintainer of a TeX installation on a Mac discover what is
> going
> to happen on running an update?
Start i-Installer
open up your preferred i-packages directory
open the package you're curious about
read the release notes
If you want more information than that, as Gerben noted, the source
is available, download the i-package and check out the files and
other information.
> What i-installer did was downloaded a large amount of data in multiple
> packages. I did not install it - I just grabbed the packages. I then
> tried to grab another one, and whoosh! All the previously downloaded
> data had been deleted.
>
> There was *NO WARNING AT ALL*. There was no installation. Just
> downloads, and data loss.
I don't regard a program deleting something which it had downloaded
and which remains available for download as data loss --- a nuisance
and waste of time and bandwidth, perhaps, but it's not that big a
deal in the grand scheme of things --- and how can something be
``lost'' when you know where to get a new copy?
It's important to note here that Gerben has tried _very_ hard to make
i-Installer _very_ safe, and unlike Apple's own Installer the source
is available and verifiable --- by contrast, Apple's own installation
programs have in the past actually caused data loss for significant
numbers of users, but i-Installer can't do anything other than delete
things which it had placed on a user's hard drive (typically packages
compiled by Gerben himself), or things placed by the user in such
locations, and has never been responsible for things like deleting a
user's entire iTunes music library.
Can you re-create the exact circumstances which caused your
downloaded packages to be deleted? If you can post a specific
configuration and list of steps which result in this, I think
everyone would be grateful.
William
--
William Adams
senior graphic designer
Fry Communications
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