[OS X TeX] Installing unstable packages

[Michael Sharpe]

On Feb 17, 2011, at 8:38 AM, Theo Moore wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to install the pgfplots unstable package
> (http://pgfplots.sourceforge.net/). I already have the latest stable
> version of pgfplots installed, but I need a feature from the unstable
> version. I have a couple of questions:
> 
> [1] Is there a (painless) way to install both and use one or the other
> when the situation demands? I have lots of documents that use
> pgfplots, so it wouldn't be nice if installing the newer, unstable
> version somehow begins producing errors in the older documents.
> 
> [2] Where should the package be installed? There were a couple paths
> suggested in (http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@lists.lyx.org/msg67001.html),
> and it seems most of them will work equally. However, I know I have
> the older pgfplots package: what should I be doing to avoid conflicts?
> 
> 


Another possible option may be to leave your old pgfplots where it is and make use of ~/Library/texlive/texmf-var (I assume you're using MacTeX 2010) to install the unstable version when you want to use that, then simple remove the folder when you want to revert to the stable version. As pgfplots is distributed as a TDS, it's very simple to reinstall it again. A couple of simple scripts could automate this.

Michael