[tex-live] How to make TexLive 2008 the default TeX system?

[George N. White III]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:15 PM, Guoqin Ren <renguoqin at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have installed Tex Live 2008 and Kile 2.0 on my FreeBSD machine. Kile
> works well. But I'm not sure if Kile is using TexLive or things like tetex.
>
> The tex version I use is rather old: kpathsea version 3.5.4. I guess Texlive
> 2008 should includes kpathsea version 3.5.7.

There are several issues to consider:

1.  you can ensure that the TL2008 programs are used by adjusting the
PATH variable.  This can get a bit tricky if you use GUI tools that you
don't run from a command line.  It is easy to check/adjust the command
line PATH, but may take some work to ensure that GUI gets the same setting.
If you want to set and forget, you should look into the shell startup files
stored in /etc.  If you need to switch back and forth, you should investigate
"environment modules".

2.  if you want to use dvi viewers other than what is available from TL2008,
you may find they have problems finding fonts that aren't installed in the
old TeX.  This might convince you to switch to using pdf(la)tex.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia