MacTeX Problem Solved

Posted Wed Oct 29, 2008 in

I downloaded and installed the new MacTeX 2008 a few days ago. I wanted to upgrade my distribution to include updates included in TeXlive 2008. The download took a long time even with broadband. The install, though, went easily.

Then I tried to compile a source file. The compile time was horrendous. The program load was nearly 20 seconds. So, something was wrong.

I was busy and then out of town, so I couldn’t work on the problem. However, yesterday morning I had a few minutes, so I wrote up the problem report and posted it to the mailing list. A suggestion came back quickly and I ran the tests, but I had to run to work so I couldn’t do the follow up.

When I arrived home this afternoon, I started checking things out. I created another user account and tested the install under that account. No change. Therefore, it wasn’t my local texmf tree, it had to be something else. I worked a little more and found a fossil texmf tree. The issue was that I had to do this last year when I installed TeX on my desktop to get my files to work.

I archived the tree and deleted it. When I compiled a TeX file, it went as quickly as it should have. Problem solved.

But, the process started me thinking about my local texmf tree. I have duplicate copies of the files in that tree — one on my desktop and one on my notebook. That’s bad juju. So, I figured out I can create a symbolic link from the local tree to my portable drive and keep my local texmf tree there. Tomorrow I’ll create a symbolic link on the internal disk of my notebook to point to the same location on the portable drive. There will only need to be one copy of the files in my local texmf tree. That’s a superior solution and will mean I no longer have to worry about those files being in synchronization.