Re: Critical infrastructure update failing in TLU alone

> On 19 Aug 2026, at 16:24, Bruno Voisin <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> On 19 Aug 2026, at 15:34, Adam R. Maxwell <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> Try setting this in Terminal. It should log the child task environment so we can see what PATH is.
>> 
>> defaults write com.googlecode.mactlmgr.tlmgr_cwrapper LogEnvironment 1
> 
> This doesn't seem to have any effect (I checked ~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.mactlmgr.tlmgr_cwrapper.plist included the new value): restarting TLU and asking for an infrastructure update, I think the log output (below) is exactly the same as before, no env info there.


Just thought of another test: make sure kpsewhich is in the default macOS path, with

	% cd /usr/local/bin
	% sudo ln -s /usr/local/texlive/2026/bin/universal-darwin/kpsewhich

so that

	% which -a kpsewhich
	/usr/local/bin/kpsewhich
	/Library/TeX/texbin/kpsewhich

No effect: still the same in TLU,

	2026-08-21 17:47:17 +0000 Warning tlu_ipctask[4873]	0%    47%    95%  100%   MD5 checksums are OK.     0%    47%    95%  100%  ./runme.sh: line 15: kpsewhich: command not found

So I tend to think PATH isn't involved.

I'm running out of ideas. I thought maybe (a long shot) this is connected with

	https://wojciechregula.blog/post/golden-gate-appdata-protection/

as the temporary directory created by TLU, like

	/var/folders/jk/khszwygs023gr2sdrkk02w100000gn/T/TLMInfraUpdateOperation.S7LNMg

and containing

	update-tlmgr-latest.sh
	update-tlmgr-latest.sh.sha512

has a com.apple.macl extended attribute:

	% xattr TLMInfraUpdateOperation.S7LNMg
	com.apple.macl
	com.apple.provenance

	% xattr -px com.apple.macl TLMInfraUpdateOperation.S7LNMg
	08 20 47 C3 BD F7 76 52 41 53 AB CB 6C 74 8C 88 
	EA B9 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
	00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
	00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
	00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

Terminal has full disk access on my setup. I tried giving full disk access (in System Settings > Privacy & Security) to

	/Applications/TeX/TeX Live Utility.app
	/Applications/TeX/TeX Live Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/TeX Live Utility 
	/Applications/TeX/TeX Live Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/tlu_ipctask 
	/var/folders/jk/khszwygs023gr2sdrkk02w100000gn/T/TLMInfraUpdateOperation.RSZQxC/update-tlmgr-latest.sh

(for the latter, acting after I ask to Reinstall TeX Live Manager, which creates the temporary directory, but before I authenticate, which leads to failure and immediate erase of the directory).

No change, the problem is the same. The only thing I didn't try is giving full disk access to runme.sh, simply because I never see it created in the Finder after I authenticate, everything happens so fast it's authenticate/failure/erase in a fraction of a second, I never see the decompression taking place.

But maybe this isn't related at all. I imagine in a month or so when macOS OS 27 is released we'll see how things are.

Bruno