[OS X TeX] Uninstall BasicTex

[Herbert Schulz]

On May 8, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Curiouslearn wrote:

> The System Preferences->TeX Distribution says TexLive-2008-Basic.
>

Howdy,

So that setting is correct.

> A few months back I installed the Context package for Mac. I wonder  
> whether
> that changed some of my settings.
>

I have no idea about that. How did you install it?

You won't have to do that with MacTeX since Context is part of that  
package.

> I do have space on my harddisk. If I install MacTex along with  
> Basictex, how
> do I ensure that the editor will use the new installation, or is  
> that done
> automatically? I suppose I can change the setting from System  
> Preferences.
>

Most editors now use the path /usr/texbin which is set by the TeX  
Distribution preference pane to point to the distribution that you set  
as active. So you needn't do anything. :-) (How I love Macs and the  
nice consideration made to make MacTeX easy to install and have an  
easy way to use multiple distributions.)

> You pointed out that later I can just go and delete the BasicTex  
> folder
> from  /usr/local/texlive if I wish. I followed your instructions  
> just to see
> that I know where to find this folder and your instructions work  
> very well.
> However, where is this folder located. Is this usr/locals hidden.  
> That is, I
> can go there by entering the path as you have suggested. But can I  
> click my
> way to it using the Finder.
>

The /usr directory is invisible through the Finder. You can use  
Terminal to ``see'' it or Go to it via the Finder's Go->Go to Folder  
command.

> Thanks again for your help. My main question is, how can I ensure  
> that the
> default installation used is the new MacTex installation, when both  
> MacTex
> and BasicTeX are installed.
>
> Thanks.


See the information above. You shouldn't have any problem. Once you  
are happy with the way MacTeX(TeX Live) 2008 is working you can delete  
BasicTeX. Once MacTeX(TeX Live) 2009 comes out you will even be able  
to have both 2008 and 2009 and will be able to switch back and forth  
until you're satisfies that 2009 is stable; then you can remove 2008.

One more thing. You may have added a bunch of things to your personal  
tree (~/Library/texmf/...) that are already part of MacTeX; things  
that BasicTeX didn't include. Make sure you remove those things so  
that you are using the MacTeX version. If you are using OS X 10.5.x  
you should end up with the TeX Live Utility when you install MacTeX.  
You can use that to update MacTeX although there may not be many more  
updates since getting TeX Live 2009 (the TeX distribution that will be  
part of MacTeX-2009) will take priority soon.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)