[OS X TeX] adding new style files

[Herbert Schulz]

On Dec 27, 2009, at 7:31 PM, Per Ting wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have recently switched from PC (winedt+Miktex) to Mac (Mactex 09). I have some style files that are not part of TL09 and I need to install them on my Mac. Some of these styles are on CTAN (but not part of TL09) and some I have written myself.
> 
> 1-Where and how they should be installed? Do I need to run TL utility after copying them to the recommended directory? How? I feel more at home with TL utility than with tlmgr.
> 
> 2-For those style files that are part of CTAN, is there a way to add them to TL so that they can be updated by TL utility?
> 
> Thanks

Howdy,

The easiest place to put packages (sty, fd, cls, and similar files) is in your personal texmf tree; they'd go into ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex/ (~ is you HOME directory) or sub-directories of that directory. You will have to create many of these nested folders. You will not have to do anything else to let TeX ``know'' of their existence. 

If there are multiple users of your system that need access to the packages they should be placed in the texmf-local tree with root in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/ (i.e., in the tex/latex/ sub-directoryof that tree similar to your personal tree). If you put the files there you must run

sudo mktexlsr

(and give your admin password) in the Terminal application.

As far as I know tlmgr (and therefore TeX Live Utility) cannot be set to deal with updates to files that are not part of TeX Live itself.

What I've discovered over time is that the only packages that I've needed to add to my system are for older ones used by older documents and they will never be updated since they've been superceded by other packages.
Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)