[tex-live] How to overwrite mactex 2008 with mactex 2009?

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 14 July 2009 Herbert Schulz wrote:

 > On Jul 14, 2009, at 5:24 AM, YANG weiwei wrote:
 > 
 >> Dear all,
 >>
 >> I have downloaded mactex-2009 and installed it, but I also have  
 >> mactex 2008 installed before, then, could anyone tell me how to  
 >> erase mactex 2008? or How to delete all the files associated with  
 >> mactex 2008?Did mactex 2009 overwrite the same-name files that both  
 >> contained, like Ghost script?
 >>
 >> YANG Weiwei
  
 > Howdy,
 > 
 > First, I'd recommend that you DON'T uninstall your MacTeX-2008  
 > distribution quite yet since MacTeX-2009 is really in a pre-release/ 
 > testing stage and there are multiple changes to come.
 > 
 > Second, to uninstall the 2008 distribution you need only go to /usr/ 
 > local/texlive folder (you can use the Finder's Go->Go to Folder...  
 > command (Shift-Command-G) and enter the path above since the Finder  
 > considers /usr/ to be invisible) and then simply throw the 2008 folder  
 > in the trash. This may leave a few very small files around but the  
 > huge part of that distribution will be removed. You'll need to enter  
 > and administrator password to remove that folder.

Does MacTeX has the same directory structure as TeX Live?  From what
you say I deduce that this is true.  Then there is no need to remove
anything unless disk space is lean.  Nothing will be overwritten and
you can switch back to an older version at any time.

The TeX Live directory structure looks like this:

    .../texlive/2007
    .../texlive/2008
    .../texlive/2009
    .../texlive/texmf-local

If several versions are installed, only the one you installed last is
used, the others are invisible.  BTW, texmf-local, the directory where
you can install your own packages, will never be touched by the
installer.  You can switch back to TL-2008 at any time by adapting the
environment variable "PATH".  As Herbert already pointed out, it's not
a good idea to remove TL-2008 before an official version of TL-2009 is
released.  But it's advisable to wipe out the 2009 directory before
installing the official TL-2009 release.

Well, everything I said depends on the assumption that MacTeX behaves
like TeX Live.

Herbert, you said:

 > [...] simply throw the 2008 folder in the trash. This may leave a
 > few very small files around [...]

Any idea why this happens?  File permissions?

Regards,
  Reinhard

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