Re: st: ado file location in Macintosh OS X

[Michael Hanson <mshanson@mac.com>]

On Feb 2, 2007, at 8:54 PM, Michael McCulloch wrote:

> Hello,
> I've migrated to the Mac, and located my ado file location.
	Congrats!  Apologies if the discuss below is more basic than you  
require;  hopefully it will set you on the path (small pun intended)  
to solving your current problem.



> Within directory <ado> are two subdirectories:
> 	<base>
> 	<updates>
	These are in the Stata folder that is located in the Applications  
folder, correct?  In typical Unix fashion (since Mac OS X is a BSD- 
Unix variant), this folder (aka directory) is /Applications/Stata/.   
That is what is listed as your "STATA" directory by -sysdir-.

	[Aside:  in Mac OS X, / is the "root" directory on your Mac, which  
typically is represented in the Finder by your hard drive icon.  (If  
you are switching from Windows, it is roughly analogous to the C:\  
directory.)  Typical subdirectories are /Applications, /Library, / 
Users, and /System.  Stata (the program) in installed in Stata (the  
folder), which is located in Applications (another folder).  Programs  
like Stata are typically installed in /Applications so that they are  
available to all users of your Mac.]

	Within /Users, there are at least two subdirectories:  /Shared and  
your personal user directory, which for the sake of argument I'll  
presume is named "michael".  In Unix parlance, your personal user  
directory is your home directory, which is denoted as ~.  Hence, any  
directory that begins with a tilde is actually a subdirectory of / 
Users/michael.  For example, -sysdir- indicates that your PLUS  
directory is located in ~/ado/plus/ -- that is, /Users/michael/ado/ 
plus/.



> When I ask Stata to examine the directories, I see:
>
> . sysdir
>    	STATA:  /Applications/Stata/
>  	UPDATES:  /Applications/Stata/ado/updates/
>     	BASE:  /Applications/Stata/ado/base/
>     	SITE:  /Applications/Stata/ado/site/
>     	PLUS:  ~/ado/plus/
> 	PERSONAL:  ~/ado/personal/
> 	OLDPLACE:  ~/ado/
>
> However, there is no <plus>, where ado files which I've downloaded,  
> for example -metan-.
	I'm not sure I follow.  If you use -ssc install- or -net install-,  
these files will be placed in your PLUS directory:  ~/ado/plus/, or  
equivalently, /Users/michael/ado/plus/.  Does that work for you?

	Notice there are two different "ado" folders:  one in /Applications/ 
Stata/, and a second in ~/ado/.  This set-up mirrors the arrangement  
on the standard installation on a PC (IIRC), which places one ado  
folder (for BASE and UPDATES) at C:\Program Files\Stata9\ and another  
(where your PLUS and PERSONAL ado files reside) at C:\ado\.



> And, if I copy the <plus> directory from my PC to the Mac under  
> <plus>, none of the ado files which I've downloaded are visible.
	Hmm, I'm puzzled:  in the previous sentence you said there was no  
PLUS directory, but now you say you have copied your PC files your  
Mac under the PLUS directory.  Without a better idea of exactly what  
you have done, I am going to guess that one of the following has  
happened:

	1. You copied your PC "plus" folder into /Applications/Stata/ado/ --  
beside the /Applications/Stata/ado/base/ and /Applications/Stata/ado/ 
updates/ folders.  That won't work, because Stata is not looking  
there for its PLUS directory.

	2. You copied your PC "plus" folder into /Users/michael/ado/ (the  
correct location according to -sysdir-), but the line endings are PC  
(CR/LF) instead of Mac (CR) or Unix (LF).  However, that would  
probably result in an execution error rather than a "not found" error.

	3. You copied your PC "plus" folder into /Users/michael/ado/, but  
permissions somehow were not set correctly.  If you know something  
about working with Unix permissions, you can fix this easily with  
Terminal.app.  Otherwise, you should be able to fix it by selecting  
the "plus" folder and selecting "Get Info..." from the contextual  
menu (right-click or control-click on the folder icon), then  
selecting "Read & Write" for your "Ownership & Permission" settings  
at the bottom of the "plus Info" window.

	Based on what you've written, I would put a very high prior  
possibility on #1 being the source of your problem, and a vanishingly  
small probability on #3.  It is not clear to me whether #2 is going  
to be a problem or not, because I have never attempted to move ado  
files across platforms.  While it may not seem efficient, I would  
recommend using -adoupdate- to get a list of ado files installed on  
your PC, then installing fresh copies on your Mac.  It's a bit of a  
pain to do that set-up the first time, but subsequently you can keep  
both machines up-to-date (if desired) with regular use of - 
adoupdate-.  In my opinion, that is a lot easier than copying .ado  
and .hlp files back and forth across machines.

	Hope this helps.

					-- Mike
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