Some installed packages not found

Question

I'm using LaTeX on a Mac. The editor I use is Textmate 2.

When I hit "typeset & view", what I get is something like

! LaTeX Error: File 'xy.sty' not found.

However, if I do pdflatex abc.tex from the command line, everything works fine.

From the information provided by pdfLaTeX, I noticed that the only .sty files that can be found are in the folder /usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/, while the other packages are in places like /usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/generic/.

That seems to cause the problem. I don't want to shuffle .sty files among folders. Can I make things work by changing some settings? Like can I let the compiler know to look for some .sty files in some other folders under /usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/?

Answer 1

I figured it out by myself. It's more about installing TeX Live on a Mac than about TextMate 2.

This problem is likely to be caused by installing Tex Live twice. Here is the solution:

1. Clean out all previous Tex Live file. (sudo rm -rf /usr/local/texlive)

2. On Mac OS X, an online installation is done by a command line tool (install-tl) with a text interface. Make sure it is a "sudo install" (on a Mac, the installer need root privilege but won't have it if not "sudo"ed.) Put type sudo and then drag the install-tl Unix executable in the terminal. Put in password if necessary.

3. Be sure to set the options (O) before installing, tick the box of create symlinks in standard directories:(L) (This is why you need a sudo install.)

4. After installation, tick the box of PATH in > Preference > Variables of TextMate. Make sure the directory of kpsewhich (which you can find by putting which kpsewhich in the terminal) is in the PATH variable.