Subject: Re: Cygwin: texi2dvi stumbles over texinfo.tex (was: failed checks for automake 1.9.6)
From: Ralf Wildenhues <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 14:13:27 +0200

[ this is
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-automake/2006-05/msg00001.html aka
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2006-05/msg00017.html
and the original report is
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-automake/2006-04/msg00017.html
]

Hello Cygwin folks,

In the Automake testsuite, we're experiencing a bug with texi2dvi on
Cygwin that looks like a problem with the Cygwin TeX distribution or
setup.  See Karl's comments and the cited references for details.  It
would be greatly appreciated if you could take a look -- thanks!

* Karl Berry wrote on Sat, May 20, 2006 at 10:48:22PM CEST:
> | make[1]: Entering directory `/cygdrive/e/Programme/GNU/automake-1.9.6/tests/testSubDir/txinfo3-1.0/_build'
> | TEXINPUTS="..:$TEXINPUTS" \
> | MAKEINFO='/bin/sh /cygdrive/e/Programme/GNU/automake-1.9.6/tests/testSubDir/txinfo3-1.0/missing --run makeinfo   -I +..' \
> | texi2dvi ../textutils.texi
> | This is e-TeXk, Version 3.141592-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)
> |  file:line:error style messages enabled.
> |  %&-line parsing enabled.
> | ---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/etex.fmt was written by pdfetex

> I believe it's a Cygwin problem and/or TeX installation problem on the
> particular machine.  In essence, texi2dvi is doing this:
>   echo '\input texinfo @bye' >txiversion.tex
>   tex txiversion.tex
> 
> The error message from TeX means that the binary ("tex", which was
> hardwired) being run is trying to load a .fmt that was written by
> something else ("etex").  It has nothing to do with the contents of the
> file.  I'd expect "tex story" from the command line to fail in the same
> way.
> 
> Usually the solution would be to rebuild the .fmt file with the right
> executable, and usually just removing the .fmt and then invoking the
> binary should do that (it is able to make the .fmt automatically these
> days, although I don't know if that happens with this Cygwin setup).
> 
> In this case, it is not clear to me why running "tex" is trying to read
> etex.fmt (normally it would read "tex.fmt"); is Cygwin doing something
> with links or shell scripts?

> It is also not clear to me why PDF output works; I'd expect the same
> error, since the same "tex" binary gets invoked.

> I think you need to talk to whomever is responsible for the Cygwin TeX
> support.

Cheers,
Ralf

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