[OS X TeX] /usr/local/texprograms -> /Library/ActiveTeXPrograms

Gerben Wierda Gerben.Wierda at rna.nl
Wed Nov 29 23:59:00 CET 2006


I have been working on an assisted migration of my TeX Live subset i- 
package from the current default location /usr/local/TeXLive to /usr/ 
local/gwTeX, to make room for the default official TL location /usr/ 
local/texlive which clashes with /usr/local/TeXLive on non-case  
snsitive file systems.

This works. It will migrate /usr/local/TeXLive to /usr/local/gwTeX,  
but it will leave /usr/local/texlive alone (given that that is the TL  
location).

What is now left is the issue with /usr/local/texprograms.

I think the idea of using a symlink for the location is nice, but the  
location /usr/local might not be the best. The point is that some  
users may share or sync /usr/local between machines. These machines  
may have a different hardware architecture and setting /usr/local/ 
texprograms to point to /usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386-apple-darwin- 
current will not work when the /usr/local tree is shared. I know for  
a fact that there are users who share or sync a common /usr/local.

Given that, i though it would be better to have this link in / 
Library, which is not shared (or at least I think it is very  
unlikely) or in /etc which is definitely not shared. The advantage  
of /Library is that this can easily be selected by a standard GUI  
open panel.

So, I am planning to do this in terms of links:

/Library/gwTeX -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX
/Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/i386-apple- 
darwin-current (on intel)
/Library/ActiveTeXPrograms -> ../../usr/local/gwTeX/bin/powerpc-apple- 
darwin-current (on ppc)

The ../.. part of the link is to make sure they still work if the  
volume is not the startup volume. The capitalisation makes it easier  
to read.

Any comments?

G
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