Bug#748962: texlive-bastexlive-base: fmtutil-sys --all may not return error exit code under low free space condition.
Hi,
> second
> execution would print error message to console (unlike the re-directed
> execution on LHS of "||").
Yes, that was quite surely his intention ;-) But you can also try to
ask him ;-)
Anyway, rewriting fmtutil in perl is on my personal todo list.
I have already rewritten (based on previous work) updmap in perl,
and at the end I want to get rid of the separation c-code for Windpws
and shell code for the rest of fmtutil, by replacing it with all
perl code.
At that point, my aim is also to have a decent error handling ;-)
> You are right. My point here was that the script seems to "forget" that the
> error was there during the re-production of the whole set of .fmt files, and
> did not return error code (my casual reading. Maybe I am wrong.) at the end.
> I think it should.
Actually, that is a known problem. fmtutil does not do *any* proper
error handling. We are well aware of that, one other reason why I want
to rewrite it in perl ;-)
> Thank you again. I noticed by reading tex live mailing list that
> you and a few others are at the core of maintaining tex live.
Indeed, indeed. Although I also maintain the Debian packages, my
main part is in upstream (now, not originally).
> (Yeah, I even tried to install OLD ASCII ptex on my own after encountering
Oh, bad bad idea. There is Okumura-sensei's TeX Q-A and there was
ptetex and ptexlive, but I incorporated all the pTeX stuff and
support packages over the last years, with lots of support from
many of the Japanese TeX community, into TeX Live. Before it was
a drag to get pTeX (upTeX etc) running.
> I wonder what people would do when old TeX files that were once typeset
> using the vertical writing feature supported by ASCII's ptex needed to be
> modified afresh and typeset again.
That is not a problem. You are speaking about the *format*.
The format can be regenerated. There has been a problem 6 years
ago when the released version we had in Debian just fell out
of these 5 years, and we had to patch the latex.ltx, but that
has no influence. You can still run old code and get the same
output (unless you use many packages that have changed
considerably - if you *reall* want 100% reproducibility in the
future, you have to stay with *plain* ptex and not use latex
and add-on packages!).
> We may need a time machine (of a sort) where the old typeset software is
> kept intact so that in the future the old documents that need modification
We have mirrors of old TeX Live's, so you can go back at least with
TeX Live.
A, one more remark: TeX Live is in the hot phase of pre-release,
so don't expect toooo much activity and response *now* on fmtutil
requests, as everyone of (the few of us) is busy for the final
image burning etc etc.
Thanks for all your work on fmtutil, much appreciated.
Norbert
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PREINING, Norbert http://www.preining.info
JAIST, Japan TeX Live & Debian Developer
GPG: 0x860CDC13 fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0 ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13
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