TOPIC Information

File Updated: July 29, 1999

About LaTeX
LaTeX is a structured text formatting and typesetting package for UNIX compatible systems. Current version is 0.4; version 1.06 or later will be installed late fall of 1999.

To use teTeX Version 0.4 (LaTeX):

Edit your .cshrc file or equivalent and add the following statement at some point after the code used to set your shell "PATH" variable:


source /usr/local/etc/latex.env

This is all that is necessary. The file "latex.env" will add to your UNIX shell environment all of the necessary paths and environment variable defaults.

Notes.

A copy of this file follows:

               #
               # CS.PITT.EDU The necessary teTeX-0.4 environment
               #
               set path = (/usr/local/share/teTeX/bin $path)
               setenv TEXMF     /usr/local/share/teTeX/texmf
               setenv TEXINPUTS .:$TEXMF//:$HOME/tex/inputs//
               setenv BIBINPUTS .:$TEXMF/bibtex/bib//:$HOME/tex/bib//
               setenv BSTINPUTS .:$TEXMF/bibtex/bst//:$HOME/tex/bib//
               setenv MANPATH   ${MANPATH}:/usr/local/share/teTeX/man
               if ($?INFOPATH == 0) then
                       setenv INFOPATH         /usr/local/share/teTeX/info
               else
                       setenv INFOPATH         ${INFOPATH}:/usr/local/share/teTeX/info
               endif
               #
               # end of text
               #

This file (1) specifies the location of the binaries and (2) defines where the font tree resides. Note that where the variable $HOME appears, provision is made for LaTeX to search for users' personal style and bibliograhy files. A user may create in their home directory a "tex" directory with two sub-directories called "inputs" and "bib". And store their personal style files in "inputs" and bibliography files in "bib".

Tips.

Remove all references to TeX environment variables and paths you may have lying around in your .cshrc file. These multiple references will only cause conflicts in finding TeX related programs, font, and style files.

If latex reports that it can not find font files, it is probably due to paths set for the TEXINPUTS variable causing latex to look elsewhere. Unset this variable (% unsetenv TEXINPUTS) and try running latex again. Users are urged to make use of style and font files with this distribution by not setting the TEXINPUTS variable at all or minimizing the number of paths listed for this variable. Conflicts exist with personal style files that have been around for years pointed to by TEXINPUTS and with the current distribution files. If all latex users do this, disk space could be reclaimed, ".tex" source files could be simplified, and many headaches prevented.

Old Versions.

The old versions of latex will be made unavailable September 1, 1999.

Disclaimer.

The file latex.env will prepend to your existing PATH variable, the location of the new TeX binaries. Until the many old versions of LaTeX are removed from the system, the new path (/usr/local/share/teTeX/bin) will need to appear first in the list of search paths to prevent conflicts with the older binaries.

Because the older versions have not been deleted from the system and will remain useable for some period, conflicts (and probably confusion) are bound to occur. The command: "which latex" will tell you which binary you are using. Sticking to the above directions will certainly help. Most of you will no longer have to set your TEXINPUTS environment variable either, unless you are using style and font files not found under "/usr/local/share/teTeX/texmf/fonts" or "$HOME/tex/{inputs | bib}.

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