[OS X TeX] TeX on Snow Leopard

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

This is an expanded version of a message I sent earlier. Installing  
Snow Leopard may remove TeX from your PATH, as Adam Maxwell pointed  
out, and the message now explains how to get it back.

--------

Since we are close to the release date of Snow Leopard, let me list a  
small number of very minor TeX issues you might run into when  
upgrading, and describe fixes. Aside from these issues, TeX and TeX  
programs and utilities run fine. (These minor issues are fixed in  
MacTeX-2009, now undergoing testing.)

In Snow Leopard, Apple's own applications run in 64 bits on machines  
with 64 bit processors. So System Preferences runs in 64 bits and thus  
requires 64 bit plugins. The TeX Distribution Preference Pane in  
MacTeX-2008 has only 32 bit binaries (the version in MacTeX-2009 has  
both 32 and 64 bit binaries).
However, System Preferences in Snow Leopard understands this problem,  
and when it finds a 32 bit pane it puts up a dialog saying "to run  
this Pane, System Preferences must restart". When you click OK, it  
restarts in 32 bit mode and runs the Pane. So the problem is "cosmetic  
only."

Apple changed the configuration of "man" slightly, so TeX man pages  
may not be found from a shell. But this is also easily fixed. Go to  
the TeX binary directory and create a symbolic link named "man" to the  
man pages. Thus the following commands will fix the problem:

	cd /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/universal-darwin
	sudo ln -s ../../texmf/doc/man  man

When you upgrade to Snow Leopard in the standard way, TeX Live 2008  
and Ghostscript should be preserved, but it is possible that the  
symbolic link /usr/texbin will be destroyed. If your front end cannot  
find TeX, recreate this link as follows:

	cd /usr
	sudo ln -s ../Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/ 
i386  texbin

Upgrading to Snow Leopard may also remove /usr/texbin from your  
default PATH. To fix that, create a text file named TeX with contents

	/usr/texbin

and then move this file to /etc/paths.d

One way to create the file is to change directory to your Desktop in  
Terminal and then use "cat" as follows:

	cd
	cd Desktop
	cat > TeX
	/usr/texbin

and then type control-D to complete the command. Now give this file  
read-write permission for everyone and move it to /etc/paths.d as  
follows

	chmod 666 TeX
	sudo mv TeX /etc/paths.d

If you run into some other difficulty I have forgotten, please write  
this group. After we collect such "Friday, Aug 28 Experiences", we'll  
write an addendum to the MacTeX web page if necessary.

Dick Koch
koch at math.uoregon.edu
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