[OS X TeX] TeX on Snow Leopard

[Luci Ellis]

On 28/08/2009, at 2:40 PM, Richard Koch wrote:

> 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.

Thanks for this information. Unfortunately, while TeXShop is still  
finding the TeX binaries on my system since I installed Snow Leopard,  
the terminal is not finding commands such as texhash, updmap etc, even  
after completing all the steps below. It keeps saying "Command Not  
Found".

I'm therefore going to have to stay on TeX-Live 2007 for the time  
being. (I have a large collection of non-standard fonts so I need  
updmap etc to work. So much for my attempt at a big-bang upgrade.)  
I've tried some complex test files and they all seem to work with  
TeXShop 2.26, TeX-Live 2007 and Snow Leopard.

Kind regards,
Luci

>
> --------
>
> 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.
>