TeXLive distribution and macports

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> Ah, I assumed too much knowledge, sorry.  TeXLive itself comes with
>> binaries for MacOS (both legacy platforms, i.e., 10.6-10.10, and
>> recent versions, i.e., 10.10-10.13).  By simply prepending the path
>> to those binaries to PATH, the `texlive-*' ports from MacPorts
>> would be completely hidden and thus useless, more or less: TeXLive
>> wouldn't use any data, binaries, or libraries from MacPorts.
>> 
>> However, to build various packages like `lilypond', `port' needs to
>> believe that some `texlive-*' ports are installed.  What certainly
>> works is to create a small port repository similar to René Bertin's
>> `macstrop' repository to override MacPorts with dummy ports.  My
>> question was whether macports itself provides a simpler solution
>> similar to `texlive-dummy-opensuse', where I have to install just a
>> single .rpm file...  I guess the answer is no.
> 
> Its quite simple.  The macports build of lilypond should be
> configured to use the MacPorts provided builds of TexLive.

I was still unclear, sorry.  To continue with lilypond as an example:
This program uses only TeXLive *programs* and data, but no libraries.
In general, this is true for all other programs within MacPorts that
depend on texlive ports.  It is thus irrelevant whether MacPorts
itself contains the necessary data and binaries, or whether they are
provided externally (in this case, by the native TeXLive
distribution).

> If these ports do not provide what is needed, then just provide an
> additional port for what is missing.

There are no misses.  My `problem' is that the `texlive-*' ports
within MacPorts use a few GByte, doubling everything native TeXLive
already provides!  I want to use native TeXLive directly so that I can
actually call `tlmgr' (or the SVN repository) to update the TeX stuff.
For this reason I want to have some dummy portfiles to make `port'
believe that the `texlive-*' ports are present.  This will take a few
kBytes only...


    Werner