Problem using a .bst file in TeXShop--TeXShop cannot find file

Question

I am trying to use spbasic.bst to work on a manuscript for a journal. I copied the file into

/usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf/tex/bibtex/bst

and ran texhash. However, TeXShop doesn't find the file. When I run bibtex I get the error:

I couldn't open style file spbasic.bst
---line 12 of file MyDocument.aux
 : \bibstyle{spbasic
 :                  } 

If the .bst file is in the same folder as the .tex document it works fine. I would like to use this .bst file for other projects as well and I don't want to have to copy and paste it every time. Have I put the .bst file in the wrong location? Or is there something I am missing? I am running TeXShop 2.41 on OSX 10.6.8.

Answer 1

It's not a good idea to put non TeX Live files in the main distribution tree: an update will make the file disappear or unavailable anyway. It's probably a permission problem: did you run texhash prefixed by sudo?

Nevertheless, the best strategy is to put your .bst under

~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bst

creating the necessary folders. If you need to make the file available to all users of your machine, then the place is

/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/bibtex/bst

If you're not afraid of the Terminal, the sequence of commands is

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/bibtex/bst
sudo cp spbasic.bst /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/bibtex/bst
sudo mktexlsr

The first method (that is, the folder below your Home) doesn't require mktexlsr.

You should also upgrade to MacTeX 2011.