[OS X TeX] II and user profile

[Gerben Wierda]

> A question that has crossed my mind several times before even though
> the answer might be pretty obvious:
> Does it have any importance at all for the integration of the
> packages and the functionality of I-installer and tex wether in order
> to update packages I use my normal user account or my admin account?

The short answer is: not really.

The long answer is:
- As different users have different locations for their i-Packages, using
one or the other may mean different amounts of downloads to get them
up-to-date and usable for your intended goal (goal = e.g. installing or
configuring).
- i-Installer runs as much as possible without the system administrator
privileges. E.g., an i-Package that installs in a system-wide location
will run the unarchiving and configuring as system administrator, but not
the downloading, checking or checksums, listings and all other stuff.
i-Installer will only go to system administrator mode if it has to. In all
cases you will need to authenticate.
- There are three types os users on your Mac OS X system:
   - A non-admin user
   - An admin user
   - The system administrator ("root", an account normally not possible to
login as)
    *Never* run any application as root and do not enable the root
account, because it will not need to authenticate (as it already is
superuser on your system) so you will not even notice when *potential*
dangerous things happen.
    When you run as an admin user, you can become system administrator for
a subprocess via your own password and you can write in certain
locations without authentication.
    When you run as non-admin user, you can become system administrator
via a admin username and password.
    i-Installer i-Packages that require authentication go through Apple's
Security Framework to get the privileges required.

So, there are some fundamental differences which normally do not result in
any changes to the installed software. Hence "not really".

G

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