[Tex/LaTex] METAPOST (mptopdf) complains: can’t open file `mp-tool’

metapost

I just did a clean install of Mountain Lion and MacTeX 2012. Now I can't compile my .mp files anymore using the "mptopdf" Terminal command. This is the output I get:

MPtoPDF 1.4.1 : running 'mpost --mem=mpost   --tex=latex  test.mp'
This is MetaPost, version 1.504 (kpathsea version 6.1.0)
(mpost.mp (/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/metapost/base/plain.mp
Preloading the plain mem file, version 1.004)) (./test.mp
! I can't open file `mp-tool'.
l.6 input mp-tool
                 ;
Please type another input file name:

Any ideas on what I can do to make my files compile again?

Everything was working fine two days ago on my Lion.

By the way, here is my test.mp file (which I (try to) compile with mptopdf test.mp):

verbatimtex
%%&latex
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
etex
input mp-tool;
beginfig(0);
draw (0,0)--(10,10);
endfig;
verbatimtex
\end{document}
etex
end

UPDATE: Interestingly, after installing the older MacTeX 2010 the problem is no longer present. So I'll just use this older version for now. Feel free to post any thoughts, in case you know what went wrong with the latest version.

Best Answer

Okay, changing

input mp-tool;

input mp-tool.mpii;

did the trick.

...but lualatex is really slow!

Actually it really isn't any more. Even on my old 2011 Mac Mini, it only takes a few seconds to compile my benchmark document with 120 pages of complex graphics in-line. See pww-2.tex in this project.

... but my document is huge!

OK, my Drawing-with-Metapost document referenced above is also huge, and in that case I have a sort-of hybrid workflow.

I use lualatex to compile the main document -- and it happily includes all of my old .mps graphics with no changes.
And now I am gradually migrating my old .mp source to standalone luamplib graphics.

This is the template I use:

 \documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
 \usepackage{luamplib}
 \begin{document}
 \mplibtextextlabel{enable}
 \begin{mplibcode}
 beginfig(1);

 endfig;
 \end{mplibcode}
 \end{document}

Except that for DwM I vary that a bit, and I have the common code for the main document in a separate local style file called dwmcommon.sty. Just before \begin{document} in the main document and in these standalone graphics I have \usepackage{dwmcommon} to load all the common definitions, so that I only have to maintain them in one place.
And of course I have to compile these updated MP files with lualatex instead of mpost. This produces .pdf output files directly instead of .mps or .eps, which saves one more process in the step.

The advantages of this hybrid approach are that:

it is a little bit quicker (but only a little)
it is a little easier to manage the syntax highlighting in the editor if you keep MP and TeX separate.

I did see a Vi syntax file for Context that attempted to define MP ranges and TeX ranges, but it was not a great success. So what I do (in Vim) is just switch between them manually, using set ft=mp or set ft=tex as needed.

Best Answer

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PDFTeX MetaPost – Text Processing in MetaPost During LaTeX Compilation

...but lualatex is really slow!

... but my document is huge!

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