[XeTeX] How to finish the installation of XeTeX 0.99993 (on MacOS)?

[Richard Koch]

Let me add some remarks to Herb's comments.

The error message you reported mentions /opt/local/bin, etc. MacTeX doesn't install TeX Live in /opt.  Thus you are running into trouble because your system is looking for TeX in the wrong place.

However, it is entirely possible that MacTeX did the correct thing. Please open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities and type

	cd /Library/TeX/texbin
	ls

Follow each line with RETURN. The second line contains el-ess.

You should see a big list of files, including xetex and xelatex. If you do, MacTeX is probably OK.

Next let's try to make TeXShop handle those files correctly. In TeXShop Preferences, under the Engine tab,
the first item should be

	/Library/TeX/texbin

Change it to this if necessary. The Distiller preference is probably correct and also irrelevant.

Now try xetex or xelatex. 

If they DO NOT work, go to the TeXShop menu and select the item "Open ~/Library/TeXShop." You'll find yourself inside a folder. Click on the "Engines" folder to open it. You'll see several files. These files can be opened and edited in TeXShop. Below are the correct contents. Edit if necessary so these files are as shown.

After this, xetex and xelatex should work in TeXShop. Write if this isn't true.

Dick Koch
koch at uoregon.edu



xetex.engine
——————————

#!/bin/tcsh

set path= ($path /Library/TeX/texbin /usr/texbin /usr/local/bin)
xetex -file-line-error -synctex=1 "$1"



xelatex.engine
——————————

#!/bin/tcsh

set path= ($path /Library/TeX/texbin /usr/texbin /usr/local/bin)
xelatex  -file-line-error -synctex=1 "$1"





> On Nov 13, 2016, at 2:31 PM, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Nov 13, 2016, at 4:16 PM, George N. White III <gnwiii at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Sun, Nov 13, 2016 at 2:33 PM, Christian Boitet <Christian.Boitet at imag.fr> wrote:
>> Dear TeX fans,					13/11/16
>> 
>> it is the first time I post anything on this list: I have used LaTeX for lectures, slides, conference papers, etc. for many years, I have a complete reference book, and always found answers in it or on the Web.
>> This time, I am quite stuck! One Japanese colleague has used XeTeX on her Mac and passed me her files to do some debugging concerning the bibliography.
>> 
>> I am using TeXShop (latest version), I reinstalled MacLive, and then MacTeX-2016, which are supposed to come with XeTeX. No way.
>> The message is always the same. Trying to complie from TeXShop:
>> 
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt xelatex.fmt
>> warning: Configuration file texmf.cnf not found! Searched these directories:
>> /opt/local/bin:/opt/local:/opt:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/texmf/web2c:/opt/texmf/web2c:/.:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c
>> Trying to proceed...
>> /opt/local/bin/mktexfmt: line 336: /texconfig/tcfmgr: No such file or directory
>> fmtutil: config file `fmtutil.cnf' not found.
>> I can't find the format file `xelatex.fmt'!
>> 
>> These messages are from macports' texlive.  Macports somewhat selfishly puts itself to the 
>> front of the PATH variable.  I routinely adjust this to put the MacTeX path in front of the 
>> macports' entry.  Macports texlive is required to support building docmentation of packages
>> installed from source, but when installing from source, the PATH variable is set to ignore
>> MacTeX, so this works well form most users.
>> 
>> Or, trying xelatex directly:
>> 
>> ...Mutsuko-Cogalex-20161112-rvCB: xelatex CogCog-Alex-20161112-rvCB.tex
>> warning: Configuration file texmf.cnf not found! Searched these directories:
>> /opt/local/bin:/opt/local:/opt:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/texmf/web2c:/opt/texmf/web2c:/.:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c
>> Trying to proceed...
>> This is XeTeX, Version 3.141592-2.2-0.996-patch1 (Web2C 7.5.6)
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt xelatex.fmt
>> warning: Configuration file texmf.cnf not found! Searched these directories:
>> /opt/local/bin:/opt/local:/opt:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/share/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/texmf-local/web2c:/opt/local/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/bin/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/texmf/web2c:/opt/texmf/web2c:/.:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c:/opt/local/share/texmf/web2c
>> Trying to proceed...
>> /opt/local/bin/mktexfmt: line 336: /texconfig/tcfmgr: No such file or directory
>> fmtutil: config file `fmtutil.cnf' not found.
>> I can't find the format file `xelatex.fmt'!
>> 
>> 
>> I then tried to reinstall separately XeTeX (version 0.9993). 
>> The build (using build.sh) was quite successful, and created after a quite long process a directory named "build-x86_64" and apparently correctly built.
>> But I DON'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO FINISH THE INSTALL, which should place the files where expected.
>> The INSTALL file (inside build-x86_64) says somewhat cryptically:
>> 
>> INSTALL for XeTeX Snapshots
>> 
>> This distribution is essentially a stripped-down version of 
>> the TeXlive distribution with some additional libraries.
>> 
>> All source code is in the directory source; the build.sh
>> scripts will generate and populate a directory build.
>> 
>> The actual code of XeTeX is in source/texk/web2c/xetexdir
>> and its subdirectories.
>> 
>> * build.sh         builds a native xetex on your system
>> * build.sh --ppc   crosscompiles for osx-ppx from osx-intel
>> * build.sh --mingw crosscompiles xetex for mingw32 on i686-linux
>> 
>> XeTeX does not need a run-time pool file, and it locates
>> texmf.cnf based on its relative position in the TeX tree.
>> 
>> Post-compilation installation should be a simple matter 
>> of copying the executable to a normal place for web2c 
>> binaries and generating the desired formats.
>> 
>> What is "the executable"? The complete directory (transformed in an .app file -- a "package")? Some of the executables in the texk>kpathsea directory?
>> And what is "a normal place for web2c" ???
>> 
>> I tried hard but did not find any tutorial or online discussion on that matter. Please help!
>> 
>> Thanks in advance, 
>> Xan
>> 
>> This all has to do with the bash shell configuration -- something many macOS users 
>> rarely encounter.  You need to look into the startup configuration for bash in a bash 
>> manual.   The macports changes are clearly marked, and the manual will explain
>> how to adjust them for your needs.
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> If all this is true place the line
> 
> export PATH=/Library/TeX/texbin:$PATH
> 
> as the very last line in your ~/.profile (and/or ~/.bash_profile).
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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