Yihui Xie • 3/27/2026

TinyTeX on macOS: No More Messing with `/usr/local/bin`

This article explains the historical issue with TinyTeX on macOS where it used sudo chown to make /usr/local/bin writable for creating symlinks, a practice inherited from old Homebrew behavior. The author, Yihui Xie, apologizes for the outdated and insecure approach and details the fix in PR #489. The new method uses /etc/paths.d to register TinyTeX's bin path, avoiding permission changes to system directories and stale symlinks. It covers the security problems, the evolution of Homebrew, and the proper macOS way to add paths. Relevant for IT/tech users dealing with LaTeX installation on macOS.

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#Homebrew #Maco #Path Management