Pandoc should not install texlive if MacTex is already installed

[RivetBenoit (Benoit Rivet)]

I recently reinstalled pandoc and discovered that pandoc installs texlive, even when a full texlive installation as provided by Mactex ​https://www.tug.org/mactex/ is already present. This is especially inconvenient since texlive as installed by Macports takes precedence over MacTex, which disrupted my workflow. I found a nice workaround : uninstall pandoc and texlive as provided by Macports and install pandoc as proposed on ​https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases. Maybe I missed a variant in the pandoc ports which enables installing pandoc without requiring texlive and relying on MacTex instead. If that is not the case, it could a variant worth providing for any user who don't wish to disrupt their workflow by installing Macports's texlive.

[mouse07410 (Mouse)]

I cannot agree more.

Macports' inability of accepting, as a variant, dependencies outside of Macports itself is very bad for packages that depend on large well-known software like JDK or MacTeX.

I don't mind having a duplicate of something small - but having a real JDK (I use Azul-21) and a Macports version is just annoying. Similarly with MacTeX. Macports texlive is inferior to the CTAN MacTeX, and doesn't get updated nearly as quickly or frequently.

Proposed solution is good: add a variant that does not include dependency on Macports MacTeX.

P.S. My solution so far has been:

• I install pandoc myself using cabal, since my Haskell toolchain is better maintained;
• if a Macports package installs Rust, texlive, or GHC, I promptly remove it after sudo port upgrade outdated. It's a pain, but it beats keeping around unnecessary texlive - which broke my LaTeX compilation more than once, before I decided to pay attention and clean it up from my boxes.