In order to be able to use MkIV and Luatex I started, as a MacTeX-user, by updating ConTeXt (MacTeX: You need to update ConTeXt first.), following instructions on

http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Running_Mark_IV#Updating_ConTeXt

The command as given (copied and pasted in terminal) does not work: everything fails: Operation not permitted. Redoing it as Sudo does the job. But then: “luatools --generate”  gives: -bash: /usr/texbin/luatools: Permission denied, “sudo luatools --generate” gives “luatools: command not found”. So I cd-ed to /usr/texbin, gave the command “sudo chmod 755 luatools” and then “luatools --generate” and got:

LuaTools | error unable to identify cnf file

LuaTools | no cnf files found (TEXMFCNF may not be set/known)

LuaTools | 

LuaTools | runtime: 0.002 seconds

But worst of all is that after all this I could not use MkII any more: Older files that before updating had been nicely typeset couldn’t be processed anymore:  permission denied. I tried “sudo chmod 755” on texexec and on texmfstart but that did not help.

So in the end I reinstalled MacTeX 2008 and I was back at where I started.

The least one can say is that the updating instructions on contextgarden do not work in all circumstances. In all fairness, everybody is warned: “Note that this is a quick-and-dirty way to upgrade TL. Use at your own risk. One should be able to update in a more elegant way.”  

But now what? Lots of MacTeX-users must have successfully updated ConTeXt. Can anybody disclose a more elegant way that worked for them? Especially one that does not render the existing ConTeXt useless by meddling with permissions.

Just for the sake of completeness, I use an Intel iMac under OSX 10.5.6.

Thanks in advance,

Robert Blackstone