Bug#427562: texlive-base-bin: Launches forkbomb on upgrade/install

[Frank Küster <frank@kuesterei.ch>]

John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 08:31:32AM +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
>> Okay, in case you want to get your system working, simply remove
>> jadetex.  In case you want to help us debugging (please!), do the
>> following:
>> 
>> - Does the command "fmtutil-sys --byfmt jadetex" also trigger the
>>   behavior?
>
> Yes.  The output looks like this:
>
> # fmtutil-sys --byfmt jadetex
> fmtutil: running `pdftex -ini   -jobname=jadetex -progname=jadetex &latex jadetex.ini' ...
> This is pdfTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.40.3 (Web2C 7.5.6) (INITEX)
>  %&-line parsing enabled.
> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt latex.fmt
> Sorry, I can't find the format `latex.fmt'; will try `jadetex.fmt'.

Okay, I'm beginning to understand.  This last message is not from
fmtutil, it comes from the very bowels of pdftex, see tex.ch:

@x [29.524] l.10124 - replace `PLAIN' in error messages with `default'.
  wterm_ln('Sorry, I can''t find that format;',' will try PLAIN.');
@y
  wterm ('Sorry, I can''t find the format `');
  fputs (stringcast(name_of_file + 1), stdout);
  wterm ('''; will try `');
  fputs (TEX_format_default + 1, stdout);
  wterm_ln ('''.');
@z

I don't know yet how it defines TeX_format_default to be "latex.fmt",
but well.

So now there are two questions:

- Why does it not find latex.fmt?  

- It might always occur again that somehow a format A which is about to
  be created depends on format B, but format B cannot be found.  In this
  case, either tex should be changed to not try the fallback (which
  won't happen), or fmtutil (under the name of mktexfmt) needs to be
  enhanced to detect such loops.

As for the first question, what's the output of

kpsewhich -progname=jadetex latex.fmt

compared to 

kpsewhich -progname=latex latex.fmt

and what is the version of jadetex on your system?  If it isn't 3.13-8,
can you try whether upgrading to that version helps?

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)