Personal TeX tree on MacOS in TeXlive (MacTeX)

[Pieter van Oostrum]

On my MacOS system (Catalina) the directory ~/Library/texmf used to be
my personal TeX tree. I could put personal files there and they would be
found by TeX, and of course also by kpsewhich.
However I noticed that recently it stopped to do that. Debugging with
kpsewhich it seems that it is now ~/texmf. Is that a conscious change in
TeXlive or could it be some configuration parameter that has changed in
my own setup?
Of course I can move the directory or use a symlink, but I would like to
know why this has changed.
--
Pieter van Oostrum <pie...@vanoostrum.org>
www: http://pieter.vanoostrum.org/
PGP key: [8DAE142BE17999C4]

[Peter Flynn]

On 10/11/2022 15:11, Pieter van Oostrum wrote:
> On my MacOS system (Catalina) the directory ~/Library/texmf used to be
> my personal TeX tree. I could put personal files there and they would be
> found by TeX, and of course also by kpsewhich.
> However I noticed that recently it stopped to do that. Debugging with
> kpsewhich it seems that it is now ~/texmf. Is that a conscious change in
> TeXlive or could it be some configuration parameter that has changed in
> my own setup?
> Of course I can move the directory or use a symlink, but I would like to
> know why this has changed.

I suspect it's because ~/texmf is the default for Linux, so it may be to
bring the systems into line. C:\texmf used to be the location for [old]
Windows, but that's now something like
Computer\System\Users\your~name\texmf unless that too has been changed.

I document ~/Library/texmf in Formatting Information at
http://latex.silmaril.ie/formattinginformation/personal.html#macpers
so I'll update that with a warning if someone can confirm that ~/texmf
is indeed now the place.

Peter

[Pieter van Oostrum]

The MacTeX FAQ still mentions ~/Library/texmf as the place to use (https://www.tug.org/mactex/faq/faq.html#qm05).

[Stefan Möding]

Check the setting of TEXMFHOME in /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf (the
local config) and /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf (the
distribution settings). I have:

% grep ^TEXMFHOME /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
TEXMFHOME = ~/texmf

% grep ^TEXMFHOME /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf
TEXMFHOME = ~/Library/texmf

I'm not sure if I created the setting in /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf
myself or if that was done by the installation.

--
Stefan

[Pieter van Oostrum]

I have the same, so it must be the installation. However, the first one seems to have priority.

% kpsewhich --expand-var='$TEXMFHOME'
/Users/pieter/texmf
% kpsewhich -var-value 'TEXMFHOME'
/Users/pieter/texmf

[Stefan Möding]

Pieter van Oostrum <piet...@vanoostrum.org> writes:

> % kpsewhich --expand-var='$TEXMFHOME'
> /Users/pieter/texmf
> % kpsewhich -var-value 'TEXMFHOME'
> /Users/pieter/texmf

These commands show the expected path below ~/Library in my environment.
Do you have any TeX related environment variables in your shell?

% env | grep TEX

--
Stefan

[Pieter van Oostrum]

I found the problem. It was my own fault.

I had changed the stack_size parameter. But I had done it by copying
/usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf to
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/web2c/ and changing that value there.
This file contains the TEXMFHOME = ~/texmf value thereby overriding the
value of TEXMFHOME in /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf which contains
TEXMFHOME = ~/Library/texmf (because texmf-local has priority).

Instead I should have created a
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/web2c/texmf.cnf with only the stack_size
parameter.

Now everything works again as it should.

[John Doe]

On Nov 10, 2022 at 9:11:38 AM CST, "Pieter van Oostrum"

<piet...@vanoostrum.org> wrote:

> On my MacOS system (Catalina) the directory ~/Library/texmf used to be
> my personal TeX tree. I could put personal files there and they would be
> found by TeX, and of course also by kpsewhich.
> However I noticed that recently it stopped to do that. Debugging with
> kpsewhich it seems that it is now ~/texmf. Is that a conscious change in
> TeXlive or could it be some configuration parameter that has changed in
> my own setup?
> Of course I can move the directory or use a symlink, but I would like to
> know why this has changed.

Howdy,

What TeX distribution are you using? TeX Live as installed by MacTeX still
uses ~/Library/texmf for TEXMFHOME.

[John Doe]

On Nov 11, 2022 at 2:55:40 AM CST, "Stefan Möding"

Howdy,

It was set by the installation if you installed using the MacTeX installer.

[John Doe]

On Nov 11, 2022 at 12:16:46 PM CST, "Pieter van Oostrum"

<piet...@vanoostrum.org> wrote:

> Stefan Möding <Nov2022....@spamgourmet.com> writes:
>
>> Pieter van Oostrum <piet...@vanoostrum.org> writes:
>>
>>> Peter Flynn <pe...@silmaril.ie> writes:
>>
>>
>> Check the setting of TEXMFHOME in /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf (the
>> local config) and /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf (the
>> distribution settings). I have:
>>
>> % grep ^TEXMFHOME /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf
>> TEXMFHOME = ~/texmf
>>
>> % grep ^TEXMFHOME /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf
>> TEXMFHOME = ~/Library/texmf
>>
>> I'm not sure if I created the setting in /usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf.cnf
>> myself or if that was done by the installation.
>>
> I have the same, so it must be the installation. However, the first one seems
> to have priority.
>
> % kpsewhich --expand-var='$TEXMFHOME'
> /Users/pieter/texmf
> % kpsewhich -var-value 'TEXMFHOME'
> /Users/pieter/texmf

Howdy,

No it doesn't. You must be resetting it somewhere else.

[Pieter van Oostrum]

John Doe <john...@myemail.invalid> writes:
>
> What TeX distribution are you using? TeX Live as installed by MacTeX still
> uses ~/Library/texmf for TEXMFHOME.
>

See my last reply which explains what went wrong.`