Akira Kakuto writes: >> kpsewhich does not set $engine. The real engines do: >> TEXFORMATS=.;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,}// > Therefore, Olaf introduced an option --engine=STRING. Also, it seems a good idea to have engine = unset in texmf.cnf just like progname = unset -- Olaf Weber (This space left blank for technical reasons.)