Re: Bug#338046: whizzytex: FTBFS: einitex not provided anymore by tetex-bin (or elsewhere in sid)

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Junichi Uekawa <dancer@netfort.gr.jp> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>> > Running INITEX=einitex  ... ./checkconfig: line 115: einitex: command not found
>> > 
>> > *** Error:
>> > 
>> >   Command failed:
>> > 
>> >       einitex '&latex' dummy > initex.log && [ -f dummy.$FMT ]
>> > 
>> >   einitex seems to have problems building format latex for latex
>> >   It could be a problem with einitex, format extension efmt, 
>> >   or the initial latex.efmt may not be availableb.
>> >   See initex.log
>> 
>> Yikes.
>> This will need investigation, thanks.
>
>
> whizzytex users reported that tetex no longer etex.
> I've not quite investigated the problem; but I would like 
> to check the intention.
>
> Is the intention to remove 'etex' 'einitex' commands?
>
> From the 'NEWS' file, it looks like 'pdfetex' is the default now,
> so invoking pdfeinitex would be the right option?

Atsuhito has already answered the main points.  I've just had a look at
the whizzytex sources, and I found some other possible problems.

First of all, I wonder when initex (or now, pdftex -ini) is used at
all.  Usually formats should be generated in the postinst script, and
they should be defined by fmtutil.cnf snippets in /etc/texmf/fmt.d/.
This way it is guaranteed that, if there are changes in tetex-* that
require all formats to be rebuilt, this will be done in tetex-bin's
postinst. 

Second, whizzytex hardcodes the extension for the format that is
generated.  However, this is subject to change, too; and if you use the
fmtutil.cnf mechanism, you need not specify it.

We are currently introducing a Debian TeX Policy; the current draft is
available in the tex-common package.

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer