[Tex/LaTex] Accessing Mac (mactex) install folder

macmactextexmaker

I am forced to use a Mac for a while. My log-file says my class file is in:

/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/report.cls

Does this mean my packages are in this folder?

/usr/local/texlive/2010/

Also, the latex/base folder how do I access it? I can't find it in my finder.

Sorry for this stupid questions but I'm not used to working on a Mac.

Second question: what I have to do to get my class working? I am used to click the Refresh DNB button on Miktex but that won't work on OS X.

Best Answer

Most of the core packages are probably in a subfolder of /usr/local/texlive/2010/.

I'm not that familiar with mactex, but it's based on TeXlive, so you can use TeXlive utilities to find stuff.

To find where a given package is installed, you can open a terminal and type:

kpsewhich <packagename>.sty

And it should show you the full path to the file.

If you want to install custom classes and style files, I'd recommend using the TEXMFHOME tree. You can find out what this is by typing:

kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME

I believe on a mac this defaults to ~/Library/texmf/. You could for example put a custom class file in ~/Library/texmf/tex/latex/myclass/ . At some point you may need to run:

mktexlsr ~/Library/texmf

to get this folder recognized by the system, but it may already be. (mktexlsr and sudo mktexlsr for system files are the equivalent of refreshing the file name database in MiKTeX.)

The command:

kpsepath tex

would show you all the folders searched for tex (.sty and .cls) files at compilation time. (If it ends in /// it'll search subfolders.)

I'm afraid I have no clue why these wouldn't show up in Mac's finder. I don't use a mac.

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You shouldn't invoke latex (or pdflatex) from the folder that contains the executables, because that folder is (or at least should be...) writeable only by root. Thus, latex has to crash because it can't create the .log, .aux, and .pdf (or .dvi) files to the executables folder. You may verify this by typing

sudo ./latex /Users/fluid/Desktop/sample.tex

from within the executables folder, viz., /usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/x86_64-darwin: you'll be prompted for the superuser password, and thereafter latex should run without further complaints of the type you report in your posting. BTW, I really don't recommend doing this (i.e., running latex with superuser privileges) on a regular basis.

Assuming MacTeX was installed correctly, the TeX executables should be in the search path, and you should simply be running latex from the folder that contains the .tex file -- in the case you report, the Desktop folder.

By the way, you may want to think about updating your TeX distribution to MacTeX 2012.

[Tex/LaTex] What are the latex and dvips path in jaxodraw preferences

The error message indicates that your TeXLive installation is corrupted or incomplete. It shows that the programs latex and dvips were indeed run, but that the files texmf.cnf and tex.pro are missing, even though they are essential to the functioning of these programs. They should have been created by a standard install of TeXLive 2015 in the following locations:

/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf.cnf
/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf/dvips/base/tex.pro

I would recommend reinstalling TeXLive (of which the current version when I wrote this answer is TeXLive 2016). I'd recommend you to make this a full installation, and take the default options.

After that latex and dvips should work.

Once you have a correctly functioning TeXLive installation, jaxodraw's export to eps should work with jaxodraw's default settings for the paths to latex and dvips, which are just the strings 'latex' and 'dvips'.

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