X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org From: "Dave Korn" To: References: Subject: RE: 'Fatal format file error; I'm stymied' Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 07:16:57 +0100 Message-ID: <005101c774ee$84936880$2e08a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com On 02 April 2007 00:15, Angelo Graziosi wrote: > I want to flag this problem with teTeX. > ---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex.fmt was written by pdfetex > (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)pdftex tex-ref.tex > ---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex.fmt was written by pdfetex > (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied) > ---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/etex.fmt was written by pdfetex > (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied) > /usr/bin/texi2dvi: texinfo.tex appears to be broken, quitting. > and similar. > > I have searched the list and Google finding the solutions suggested in: > http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/2006-07/msg00130.html > http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22tetex+3.0.0-3+format+file+problem%22&hl=en > http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2005-05/msg00963.html > http://www.karakas-online.de/mySGML/fatal-format-file-error.html > http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=formatstymy > > but they do not solve it. > > I have also tried uninstalling all teTeX packages, removing all 'texmf' > directory that uninstall does not remove and then reinstalling the tetex > packages, but the problem is still there. I had this problem just yesterday! And I found a solution, at least for etex.fmt. These files are generated automatically by tetex if they don't yet exist, it runs the command "mktexfmt etex.fmt" or whichever other *.fmt file is required. To see it happen, remove both the system-wide and the user-local etex.fmt files: rm /var/lib/texmf/web2c/etex.fmt rm ~/.texmf/var/web2c/etex.fmt then run etex //end When I do that, I see output that starts like this: /repository/gcc-build/gcc $ etex \\end This is e-TeXk, Version 3.141592-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4) file:line:error style messages enabled. %&-line parsing enabled. kpathsea: Running mktexfmt etex.fmt fmtutil: running `pdfetex -ini -jobname=etex -progname=etex -translate-file=cp 227.tcx *etex.ini' ... This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4) (INITEX) file:line:error style messages enabled. %&-line parsing enabled. (/usr/share/texmf/web2c/cp227.tcx) ...and ends like this: \font\preloaded=manfnt 14787 words of font info for 50 preloaded fonts 14 hyphenation exceptions Hyphenation trie of length 6075 has 181 ops out of 35111 181 for language 0 No pages of output. Transcript written on etex.log. fmtutil: /home/dk/.texmf/var/web2c/etex.fmt installed. ---! /home/dk/.texmf/var/web2c/etex.fmt was written by pdfetex (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied) So, you can see for some reason the fmtutil script (mktexfmt is a soft link -> fmtutil) is choosing the wrong engine to generate the etex.fmt file, and etex is correct when it complains the file was written by the wrong engine. To solve this, I would change into the user-local .texmf dir and remove the busted one it just generated: cd ~/.texmf/var/web2c rm etex.fmt then manually run a corrected version of the command that fmtutil output at the start of its run above: etex -ini -jobname=etex -progname=etex -translate-file=cp227.tcx *etex.ini and then I get a working etex.fmt, as shown by: ~/.texmf/var/web2c $ etex \\end This is e-TeXk, Version 3.141592-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4) file:line:error style messages enabled. %&-line parsing enabled. entering extended mode No pages of output. Transcript written on texput.log. ~/.texmf/var/web2c $ I don't know why fmtutil chooses the wrong engine, but I believe that is the entire underlying bug. cheers, DaveK -- Can't think of a witty .sigline today.... -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/