[pdftex] Upgrade 13d -> 14f failed

[Prof Brian D Ripley]

On Fri, 19 Jan 2001, Thomas Neumann wrote:

> Dear list members,
>
> I have to upgrade my old pdftex from 13d to 14f on a Linux 6.3
> machine with teTeX 1.0.

I think 0.14g and 0.14h are around....

> After downloading the precompiled linux archive from CTAN I have
> copied the files where the 13d binaries and pool files are located.
> texmf.cnf seems to be o.k., and I get:
>
> root at anu:~ > kpsewhich pdftex.pool
> /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex.pool
>
> But, if I try to build the format files pdfinitex cannot read the pool file:
>
> root at anu:~ > fmtutil --byfmt pdftex
> ! I can't read pdftex.pool; bad path?
> fmtutil: `pdftex -ini -fmt=pdftex -progname=pdftex pdftex.ini' failed.
>
>
> I'm not able to understand that. The pool files are not corrupted.
>
> Can anyone give me a hint, how to make things work?

I am guessing of course, but I have seen similar things before.  I think
that pre-compiled version is probably compiled against a later version of
web2c (hence the kpathsearch stuff) than teTeX 1.0.  Putting pool files in
a var directory is a strange place (they don't vary), and I think you
should put them in the main texmf tree.

Try debugging:

pdftex -ini -fmt=pdftex -kpathsea-debug=32 pdftex.ini

(and redirect stderr and look at it). On my system that does not look
in VARTEXMF (it is not in TEXMF by default), and has lines like

kdebug:start search(file=pdftex.pool, must_exist=0, find_all=0,
path=.:/home/ripley/texmf/web2c:!!/tex/share/texmf_local/web2c:!!/tex/share/texmf/web2c).
kdebug:db:match(/tex/share/texmf/web2c/pdftex.pool,/tex/share/texmf_local/web2c)
 = 0
kdebug:db:match(/tex/share/texmf/web2c/pdftex.pool,/tex/share/texmf/web2c)
= 1
kdebug:search(pdftex.pool) => /tex/share/texmf/web2c/pdftex.pool

The information you get should illuminate this for you.  (I forget where
the Kpathsea debug flags are documented, but I find 32, which logs file
paths, very useful.)

>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Thomas
> --
> Thomas Neumann               Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg
> Tel/Fax: +49-(0)345-55-23062/-27239    Institut fuer Bibelwissenschaften
> http://anu.theologie.uni-halle.de                 Franckeplatz 1/Haus 25
> mailto:neumann at theologie.uni-halle.de              D-06099 Halle (Saale)
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595