[OS X TeX] MacTeX 2007 setup query

Rowland McDonnell rjmmnet-lists at yahoo.co.uk
Sat Feb 9 04:44:12 CET 2008


Hello,

I'm in the throes of installing MacTeX 2007.

I've got a working MacTeX installation (from 2006, no version number),
which uses a system-wide local texmf tree for local additions - this is
on a different machine to the one I'm installing MacTeX 2007 on.

The modification was implemented by modifying part of the file:

/usr/local/teTeX/texmf.cnf

from:

========================== [snip start] ======================
% User texmf trees can be catered for like this...
HOMETEXMF = $HOME/Library/texmf

% Our complete search path, the last three are searched through
% ls-R exclusively, which means that you have to run texhash
% after you have added, moved or deleted files in the tree
TEXMF={$HOMETEXMF,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFGW,!!$TEXMFTE,!!$TEXMFMAIN}

% If you want to disable the HOME trees, use this:
% TEXMF=!!{$TEXMFLOCAL,$TEXMFGW,$TEXMFTE,$TEXMFMAIN}

% The system trees.  These are the trees that are shared by all the
users.
SYSTEXMF = $TEXMFLOCAL;$TEXMFGW;$TEXMFTE;$TEXMFMAIN
========================== [snip end] =====================

to:

========================== [snip start] ======================
% User texmf trees can be catered for like this...
HOMETEXMF = $HOME/Library/texmf

% Rowland's system-wide tree (precedes everything except personal trees)
TEXMFRM = /Users/Shared/texmf.rjmm

% Our complete search path, the last four are searched through
% ls-R exclusively, which means that you have to run texhash
% after you have added, moved or deleted files in the tree
TEXMF={$HOMETEXMF,$TEXMFRM,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFGW,!!$TEXMFTE,!!$TEXMFM
AIN}

% If you want to disable the HOME trees, use this:
% TEXMF=!!{$TEXMFLOCAL,$TEXMFGW,$TEXMFTE,$TEXMFMAIN}

% The system trees.  These are the trees that are shared by all the
users.
SYSTEXMF = $TEXMFLOCAL;$TEXMFRM;$TEXMFGW;$TEXMFTE;$TEXMFMAIN
========================== [snip end] =====================

Which works as you'd expect with MacTeX 2006. 

What I can't work out is `how to do that with MacTeX 2007'.

I'm aware that both MacTeX 2007 and the previous version permit
user-specific local texmf trees, but I need a single system-wide
additional texmf tree for all users to access - to give the directory
I've chosen a specific name:

/Users/Shared/texmf.rjmm

I can see that the new arrangements for directory trees are very
different to the old ones, but I've not been able to understand the new
arrangements - the documentation refers to a new data structure, but I
can't work out what's going on, quite.

But: by analogy from the Gerben's original suggestion, and given that I
can find only one file texmf.cnf:

rowland$ find  /Volumes/Angus/usr/local/ -name "texmf.cnf"
/Volumes/Angus/usr/local//texlive/2007/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf

I suspect that the modifications I need to make should me made to file: 

/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf

and should look something like this (note that line wrapping means the
text is not identically laid out here when compared to the original
file).  The text below is `original file contents interspersed with my
modifications, the modifications marked as such'.

=======================================================================

% User texmf trees are allowed as follows.
% This used to be HOMETEXMF.
TEXMFHOME=$HOME/Library/texmf

% Rowland's system-wide tree (precedes everything except personal trees)
TEXMFRM = /Users/Shared/texmf.rjmm

% For texconfig to work properly, TEXMFCONFIG and TEXMFVAR should be
% named explicitly and before all other trees.
% original:
%TEXMF =
{$TEXMFCONFIG,$TEXMFVAR,$TEXMFHOME,!!$TEXMFSYSCONFIG,!!$TEXMFSYSVAR,!!$
TEXMFMAIN,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFDIST}
% mod to:
TEXMF =
{$TEXMFCONFIG,$TEXMFVAR,$TEXMFHOME,$TEXMFRM!!$TEXMFSYSCONFIG,!!$
TEXMFSYSVAR,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFDIST}

% The system trees.  These are the trees that are shared by all the
% users.
% If a tree appears in this list, the mktex* scripts will use
% VARTEXFONTS for generated files, if the original tree isn't writable;
% otherwise the current working directory is used.
% Original:
% SYSTEXMF = $TEXMFLOCAL;$TEXMFMAIN;$TEXMFDIST
% mod to:
SYSTEXMF = $TEXMFLOCAL;$TEXMFRM;$TEXMFMAIN;$TEXMFDIST

=======================================================================

Is that right?

If I'm wrong, can anyone suggest where I need to look for the relevant
documentation so that I can work out what I need to work out, or (if I'm
very lucky) suggest what modifications I need to make to which file(s?)
to achieve what I want?

Cheers,
Rowland.


[1]  TeXDist-description.rtf is all I've come across, and it begins with
this:

"Warning: this document is for Unix-savvy people only and has as its
main goal the documentation of a technical solution, not the use of this
solution (which is quite simple). As an ordinary end user, you will
hardly have to know or understand any of this, except maybe for the part
about the texdist program below, which you may want to use as an end
user if you have multiple TeX distributions on your system. This will
however better be explained elsewhere without the confusing technical
stuff here."

It turns out I'm not sufficiently clued-up to be able to make much sense
out of it, but I'm damned if I can find the required clues anywhere.



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