Default `convert` command - MacPorts ImageMagick vs. existing installation

[Mr. Puneet Kishor]

On Sep 29, 2011, at 8:21 AM, Sam Kuper wrote:

> I
> didn't recall installing ImageMagick, and because of this fact, and
> also the fact that `which convert` yielded "/usr/local/bin/convert", I
> assumed that the `convert` command had come included with my OS
> (10.6.8), or perhaps the XCode or X11 utilities or some such. In other
> words, I assumed that the reason `convert` was installed was that I'd
> somehow obtained it via Apple.
> 
> So my first question is: was this assumption likely to be correct?
> I.e. has anyone else found that their Snow Leopard system, either by
> default or after it has had some of Apple's developer tools installed,
> has ended up with the `convert` command present (in /usr/local/bin/)
> but not the `mogrify` command?


I don't think your assumption is correct. As far as I know, Apple will never install anything in `/usr/local/` and definitely not so on a machine fresh from the factory. By convention, `/usr/local/` is for the stuff that the user installs.

While you may not recall installing ImageMagick yourself, you might have installed something that might have installed ImageMagick. `/usr/local/` is a protected directory space, so whatever you installed would have had to ask for your password (perhaps via `sudo`).

In any case, installing ImageMagick via macports gives you easy control over updating it, and, of course, knowing exactly what you installed when.

Keep in mind, however, macports can also install stuff without you "knowing" (I put that in quotes). You might knowingly install software "foo" but foo may have dependency on "bar" so you will get bar as well without having knowingly installed bar.

--
Puneet Kishor