Mavericks upgrade screwed up my pdflatex (command not found)

Question

so everything was working fine ... until i upgraded to os x mavericks (version 10.9.2) a couple days ago.

using

• emacs version 24.3 (9.0)
• auctex version 11.87.3

after upgrade, tried to compile and got:

Running `LaTeX' on `test' with ``pdflatex  -interaction=nonstopmode "\input" test.tex''
/bin/sh: pdflatex: command not found

LaTeX exited abnormally with code 127 at Wed Mar  5 09:45:28

where did my pdflatex go? what is the fix?

Answer 1

Note: users on more recent versions of macOS will not be able to follow these instructions due to new restrictions introduced in those versions. See comments for workarounds.

It seems that the upgrade wiped the link from your Library (where MacTeX puts your actual TeX distribution) into your /usr/texbin. You can reinstate this link with the following:

ln -s /Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/texbin \
      /usr/texbin

This will essentially create a shortcut at /usr/texbin that points to your texbin in MacTeX's internal directory. You still should make sure that /usr/texbin is in your PATH environment variable, though.

NB. If you use DVI → PS → PDF, you may also need to repair the link to Ghostscript:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/gs-noX11 /usr/local/bin/gs

Answer 2

For those less comfortable with the command line: I had this problem after upgrading to OSX 10.9.2 as well. After the upgrade, in my /Applications/TeX/ directory I found a FixMacTeX2013.pkg. Running this fixed the pdflatex issue.

Answer 3

The suggestion

ln -s /Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/texbin \
      /usr/texbin

did not quite work for me, because in my /Library/.../Programs I do not have the directory texbin, but rather two directories: i386 and powerpc. I have an Intel processor and thus used:

ln -s /Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/i386 \
      /usr/texbin

which worked fine.

Answer 4

First go to the TeXworks preferences to add /usr/Texbin to the path. May cure the problem without having to create the symbolic links.

Answer 5

In summary, all you have to do is to add /usr/texbin to the environment variable $PATH. Using Terminal you can do it in 3 steps:

1) Ensure that pdflatex command is installed in /usr/texbin

mac:yourname$ ls /usr/texbin
afm2tfm          dvired           initex           luaotfload-tool  mktexlsr         simpdftex        texluajitc
allcm            dvitomp          kpseaccess       luatex           mktexmf          synctex          thumbpdf
allec            ebb              kpsepath         makeindex        mktexpk          teckit_compile   tlmgr
allneeded        etex             kpsereadlink     man              mktextfm         tex              updmap
bibtex           extractbb        kpsestat         mf               mpost            texconfig        updmap-sys
dvi2fax          fmtutil          kpsetool         mf-nowin         mptopdf          texconfig-dialog xdvi
dvilualatex      fmtutil-sys      kpsewhere        mfplain          pdfetex          texconfig-sys    xdvi-xaw
dviluatex        gftodvi          kpsewhich        mft              pdflatex         texhash          xdvipdfmx
dvipdfm          gftopk           kpsexpand        mkindex          pdftex           texlinks         xelatex
dvipdfmx         gftype           latex            mkocp            pktogf           texlua           xetex
dvipdft          gsftopk          luajittex        mkofm            pktype           texluac
dvips            inimf            lualatex         mktexfmt         rungs            texluajit

2) Print the old $PATH value

mac:yourname$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

3) If /usr/texbin is not part of $PATH value you can append it by adding or editing your .profile file (needs superuser permissions)

mac:yourname$ sudo vi /Users/yourname/.profile

...
\#This is the concerned part of .profile
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH:/usr/texbin
...

After saving the file, you can restart Terminal or open a new window/tab.

Answer 6

The document I am working on has a compile system that runs pdflatex and I hit the same problem. I just downloaded and installed MacTeX on Mavericks, which added /usr/texbin to my PATH, which contains 23 links to pdftex, however pdflatex is not one of them. The following fixed it for me:

cd /usr/texbin
ln -s pdftex pdflatex