[XeTeX] XeLeTeX doesn't find texmf

[Jonathan Kew]

On 19 Jun 2005, at 2:18 pm, Simon Spiegel wrote:

> Hi,
>
> my installation of XeTeX doesn't find ~\Library\texmf anymore. I  
> have everything installed with the i-installer and I'm running  
> TeXShop 2.03. I have no problems normal LaTeX, everything inside ~ 
> \Library\texmf works then.
>
> I haven't used XeTeX for a while, so this may be related to my  
> upgrade to TeXShop 2.

Haven't noticed any replies to this, so let me have a try....

Running xelatex from the Terminal command line, instead of via  
TeXShop, would be a way to test whether the TeXShop version is in  
fact causing some kind of problem. But I don't see why the TeXShop  
upgrade should affect it; seems more likely that you've also upgraded  
the TeX and/or XeTeX packages, and something in the path  
configuration has changed and is no longer working.

What I'd do to try and figure it out would be to run xelatex in  
Terminal, using the -kpathsea-debug option to enable path debugging.  
For example, try:

     xelatex -kpathsea-debug=1 x

and you'll get an idea of where it is searching for x.tex (after  
watching it search for texmf.cnf and xelatex.fmt). Then if the  
expected directories aren't being searched, check the path settings  
in texmf.cnf and compare to the settings for regular latex, and to  
the file structure you're using in ~/Library/texmf.

Another helpful tool is kpsewhich; to see all the places xelatex  
would search for x.tex, for example:

     kpsewhich -progname=xelatex -show-path x.tex | perl -pe 's/:/\n/ 
g;s/!!//g'

Checking the output of this, and comparing to the settings in  
texmf.cnf, may give some clues as to what is wrong.

JK