[OS X TeX] /usr and El Capitan

[Alan Munn]

As Dick explained earlier in the original thread on this there was a last minute decision that had to be made when MacTeX 2015 was being released. The choice was between /Library/TeX/ and /usr/local/  Other people he consulted had split opinions on the matter, and since /Library/TeX is accessible to the finder directly he opted for that. MacTeX has always had its own way of doing things, I don’t really see much of an issue either way.

Here’s the original quote from Dick

> The TeX Live 2015 DVD was scheduled to go to manufacturing
> on June 9.
> 
> I wrote to several developers, suggesting /usr/local/texbin, /Library/TeX/texbin,
> and some other possibilities. I also wrote Manfred Lotz, who handles the
> DVD, warning of this problem but adding “I know there is nothing we can do
> about it.” Then I went to bed.
> 
> At 3:00 in the morning, I woke up with the thought:  “All hope is lost unless
> you make a choice NOW and fix the installers.” A few developers had
> replied by then. One picked /usr/local/texbin and one picked /Library/TeX/texbin.
> From my point of view, /Library/TeX/texbin was a little safer and had the
> advantage that it is visible to the user in the Finder. So I picked it.
> 
> By noon on June 10, the new installers were in the DVD and on the web
> and after a lot of testing, Manfred agreed to use them.

Since it’s mainly a matter for GUI programs, (the path for command line use is set by MacTeX on installation) I think the /Library/TeX/texbin choice is fine.

Alan

On Jul 15, 2015, at 8:35 PM, Art Werschulz <agw at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> The default behavior for the Linux TeX distribution (as provided by TUG) puts everything in /usr/local.  Would it have been a good idea for MacTeX to do likewise?  Since El Capitan doesn’t mind stuff going into /usr/local, wouldn’t this save some trouble?
> 
> Art Werschulz
> agw at comcast.net
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Alan Munn
amunn at gmx.com