MacTex successfully installed but unable to launch

Question

I have successfully Installed mactex using brew as shown below

  $ brew cask install mactex
==> Satisfying dependencies
==> Downloading http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/mac/mactex/mactex-20170524.pkg
Already downloaded: /Users/amar/Library/Caches/Homebrew/Cask/mactex--20170524
.pkg
==> Verifying checksum for Cask mactex
==> Installing Cask mactex
==> Running installer for mactex; your password may be necessary.
==> Package installers may write to any location; options such as --appdir are 
Password:
==> installer: Package name is MacTeX-2017
==> installer: Installing at base path /
==> installer: The install was successful.
  mactex was successfully installed!

The issue is that how do I launch it now. I am not able to find it in applications or using search (command + space)

I still have the same issue, I even I open TexShop I cant see GUI for MacTex — Amarjit Dhillon, Nov 22 '17 at 08:41
You should start TeXShop and not MAcTeX. Then write your document and run it. — , Nov 22 '17 at 09:08
Perhaps this question What TeX software to write technical papers with? will give you an overview of how everything fits together. MacTeX is a whole set of programs/scripts that work together. It is not a single piece of software, and if you are a beginner it's best to interact with it via an editor like TeXShop. There is lots of good information in the TeXShop Help menu to get you started. — Alan Munn, Nov 22 '17 at 15:54
Also What are good learning resources for a LaTeX beginner?. — Alan Munn, Nov 22 '17 at 16:07
I’m not familiar with that way of installing MacTeX; it has its own installer. I wonder if that method installs the TeX distribution structures and symbolic links that MacTeX installer does so everything works out of the box. — Herb Schulz, Nov 22 '17 at 20:07
@HerbSchulz homebrew simply downloads the MacTeX installer and runs it in this case, so you end up with a regular MacTeX installation. — Alan Munn, Nov 22 '17 at 23:35

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 21 '21 at 16:27

1

For anyone still confused, the GUIs installed with homebrew can be found in the /Applications/TeX folder. Searching TeX with Cmd + [Space] will not find the nested programs by default.

Source: What Is Installed? (Section 3 GUI Applications)

answered Apr 21 '21 at 16:27

NNNComplex

11

I think the confusion on the original question was that the OP thought that MacTeX installs a GUI Application that is TeX, but this is simply not the case. – Alan Munn Apr 21 '21 at 16:43
Understood, I agree that the distinction is important. However there is still the follow-up question of "How do I launch the GUI?" so my answer is meant to address that specifically. Currently the standard way of installing TeX using brew is to run the command brew install --cask mactex, which includes several GUIs as part of the package. From my understanding, the older command brew cask install mactex also includes GUIs: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/155081/240361 – NNNComplex Apr 21 '21 at 17:03

MacTex successfully installed but unable to launch

1 Answers1