[OS X TeX] Error: I can't write on file '(name)'

[Alain Schremmer]

Roussanka Loukanova wrote:

> Why don't you try emacs as the editor? Just consider the fact that
> emacs is *the most advanced on Earth*.
>
> You already have a default emacs with your OSX:
>
> sudo emacs /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf Ret
>
> And if you want easy, really easy Emacs with GUI, there is an 
> one-click instillation of a very good Emacs editor:
> <http://homepage.mac.com/zenitani/emacs-e.html>
>
> Then, after you have downloaded Carbon Emacs, you can start it just by 
> clicking on its icon. But, as Peter Dyballa's noted, you can start it 
> from a Terminal window, for accessing and editing root files:
>
> sudo /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs
>
> Then you can use Emacs' pull-down menu to open the above file, modify 
> it, save it, etc.
>
> (I haven't really modified any files in the root directories in this 
> way because I do not have what to modify right now, but it seems 
> working: I opened the above file, and emacs doesn't issue warnings for 
> write protection.)

(1) This is all very interesting but, right now, I am not into editors 
but having trouble dealing with Error: I can't write on file '(name)'

(2) As it happens, a friend came for dinner whose second language is 
Unix. Before I could blink, he had carried out Voisin' suggestion, i.e. 
added openout_any = r at the end of the file and it works.

(3) But I am a bit puzzled by the fact that the TeXShop I just installed 
still has teTeX in the Path settings. So it may be that the fact that I 
had not uninstalled the old installation worked in my favor.

(4) Indeed, when I tried to do the same minimal installation, TeXShop & 
gwTeX on my wife's mac (also with 10.3.9), it immediately complained 
that it couldn't find pdflatex and then something about teTeX missing. 
Changing teTeX to gwTeX in TeXShop's Path settings, though, didn't work.

Well, that is one problem solved and I am extremely grateful to all the 
help I was given. As Dyballa suggested,  I will include in my memoirs 
the story of how Unix tortured me.

Most grateful regards to all
--schremmer

------------------------- Helpful Info -------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
List Reminders & Etiquette: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/list/