Bug#302827: tetex-bin: fails to install on several architectures

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

severity 302827 serious
thanks

Hi all,

Matthijs Mohlmann <matthijs@cacholong.nl> wrote:

> Package: tetex-bin
> Version: 2.0.2-27
> Severity: normal
>
> Hi,
>
> tetex-bin could not be installed on several architectures including:
> mipsel, s390, alpha and powerpc. See for example this buildd log:
> http://buildd.debian.org/fetch.php?&pkg=pdns&ver=2.9.17-8&arch=powerpc&stamp=1112391358&file=log&as=raw

The format that fails to build is in fact jadetex.  I suspected that
there is an error in the patch I provided, however things are not so
easy: I have (again today) tested to install jadetex, and Okura has
probably done the same.  Furthermore, it fails in a very strange way:

Generating /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf ... 
Creating config file /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf with new version
done
Generating /var/lib/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf ... done
Regenerating /var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg ... done
Running initex. This may take some time. ...
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt latex.efmt
running `tex -ini   -jobname=latex -progname=latex latex.ini' ...
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.4.5) (INITEX)
[...]
Beginning to dump on file latex.fmt
 (format=latex 2005.4.1)
[...]
No pages of output.
Transcript written on latex.log.
fmtutil: /var/lib/texmf/web2c/latex.fmt installed.
Error: `etex -ini  -jobname=jadetex -progname=jadetex &amp;latex jadetex.ini' failed
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.efmt
running `pdftex -ini   -jobname=pdflatex -progname=pdflatex pdflatex.ini' ...
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159-1.10b (Web2C 7.4.5) (INITEX)

First of all, it seems that the order of output is mangled (because of
redirections?).  But also what happens is not easy to understand.
Although we are redirecting stdout to a file, we get the complete output
from an attempt to create latex.efmt.  However, in fact it creates
latex.fmt with tex, not latex.efmt with etex.  After that, we get an
error that creation of jadetex.fmt failed, and once more after this we
see kpathsea trying to create pdflatex.fmt.  Then there's 

fmtutil: /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdflatex.fmt installed.
Error: `pdfetex -ini  -jobname=pdfjadetex -progname=pdfjadetex &amp;pdflatex pdfjadetex.ini' failed

I have to leave at once, not finishing my analysis.  But since I won't
have much time the next days, I think I should share these thoughts with
others



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