texlive-bin: TeXDist prefpane support prevents non-root installation

[pereimer]

I am trying to install texlive without root priv. I installed macports with

export MP_PREFIX=/Users/me/local
./configure --prefix=$MP_PREFIX --with-applications-dir=$MP_PREFIX/Applications --with-no-root-privileges
make
make install
port -v selfupdate

That worked fine, and everything I've installed until texlive followed $MP_PREFIX. However,

port install texlive

gives, after computing the dependencies and agreeing to them, the following message

--->  Activating texlive-bin @2023.66589_4+x11
Error: Failed to activate texlive-bin: can't create directory "/Library/TeX/Distributions/.FactoryDefaults/MacPorts-Users_reimer_local-TeXLive": permission denied
    while executing
"::file mkdir $dstfile"
    (procedure "_activate_file" line 18)
    invoked from within
"_activate_file "${extracted_dir}${file}" $file"
    ("foreach" body line 2)
    invoked from within
"foreach file $files {
                    if {[_activate_file "${extracted_dir}${file}" $file] == 1} {
                        lappend rollback_fileli..."
    ("try" body line 3)
    while executing
"throw [dict get $eOptions -errorcode] [dict get $eOptions -errorinfo]"
    ("try ... on" handler line 5)
    invoked from within
"registry::write {
            # Activate it, and catch errors so we can roll-back
            try {
                $port activate $imagefiles
       ..."
Error: See /Users/reimer/local/var/macports/logs/_Users_reimer_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_tex_texlive-bin/texlive-bin/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there is a bug.
Error: Processing of port texlive failed

Clearly, it is trying to put data in /Library rather than the directory $MP_PREFIX. I have tried setting

export TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/Users/me/local

as suggested in several locations for a generic installation of texlive, but I couldn't find any suggestions specifically for MacPorts.

Is this a bug or feature request, or simply a switch/environmental variable which I have not found?

Thanks,

Paul

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

I assume this is intentional, but I don't know the TeX software well enough to explain why. Maybe the TeX software requires that it is installed there.

Using the command port file all|sort -u|xargs grep /Library/TeX I found several ports referencing this path, chiefly texlive-bin.

MacPorts will not see that you have set the environment variable TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX because MacPorts intentionally ignores user environment variables in order to provide a consistent experience. MacPorts can be told not to ignore certain environment variables but I doubt that's the correct thing to do in this case; it doesn't look like texlive-bin would make use of that environment variable.

[pereimer]

Since it is probably the only way that I will be able to install this package, could you tell me how I can get port to use external environmental variables (e.g. TEXLIVE_INSTALL_PREFIX)? While I could install it directly, I am installing things which depend on texlive and would like to do those via macports, so I believe that I need texlive installed via macports.

I did notice that from port file all|sort -u|xargs grep /Library/ that kde4-kile uses a variable TEXPREFIX to reference the installation location; although /Library/TeX seems to be hardwired into most of the other ports.

I doubt that I am the only person to not have root privileges and wanting to install TeX, so would be of general use.

Thanks,

Paul

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

Yes, this is to support the TeX Distribution prefpane that's used by MacTeX and is used to select between multiple TeX Live installations. The actual TeX files are in $prefix.

There's no reason to try to change where the TeX Distribution symlinks are installed, but we could control whether they are installed with a variant.

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

Incidentally, the other references to /Library/TeX are all ports that want to be able to (optionally) support using MacTeX instead of the texlive ports if they're installed.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Replying to drkp:

There's no reason to try to change where the TeX Distribution symlinks are installed, but we could control whether they are installed with a variant.

If it's a matter of not having permission to write to /Library, then I wouldn't use a variant; I would just skip installing those files if the user is using a non-root MacPorts installation.

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

Ah, good point, I can't think of any other reason you'd want to control it.

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

In 0639c3c3f7d66708f7c0290cf071477d6d2881fb/macports-ports (master):

texlive-bin: only install TeXDist prefpane support as root

This fixes breakage for non-root MacPorts installations.

Closes: #69243