Adding a language to TeX Live for use by XeTeX (re-post, no response seemingly received, further anomaly reported)

[Philip Taylor]

I have just installed TeX Live 2024, and wished to add a language for 
use by XeTeX, but was uncertain as to whether I should do this by 
creating "language-local.dat", "language-local.def" or both.  I ask 
because having created both, populated them as below, and run "tlmgr 
generate language --rebuild-sys", my test file (see also below) still 
reported "! e-TeX error: language zymurgy undefined..". Incidentally, 
"TeXdoc tlmgr", while displaying the correct PDF, says nothing about the 
"generate" parameter, and I had perform a "tlmgr generate --help" to 
learn about the "--rebuild-sys" option.  However, even after learning 
about (and using) the latter option, my test file still reported "! 
e-TeX error: language zymurgy undefined.." and I had to manually invoke 
the action "Regenerate formats" from the TeX Live shell before my test 
program could make use of the new language "zymurgy" (so-named only for 
debugging purposes).  So, a few questions —

 1. For XeTeX, do I need to create and populate "language-local.dat",
    "language-local.def" or both ?
 2. Why does the output of "TeXdoc tlmgr" make no mention of the
    "generate" command and its modifiers ?
 3. Why does "tlmgr generate language --rebuild-sys" not regenerate the
    formats as the "help" text (below) suggests ?

Exhibits :

 1. Language-local.dat

        zymurgy loadhyph-en-gb.tex

 2. Language-local.def

        \addlanguage{zymurgy}{loadhyph-en-gb.tex}{}{2}{3}

 3. Theorematic.tex (test file)

        \showhyphens {theorematic}
        \uselanguage {zymurgy}
        \showhyphens {theorematic}
        \end

 4. Output from "tlmgr generate --help" (relevant part only)

         --rebuild-sys
             tells "tlmgr" to run necessary programs after config files
    have been
             regenerated. These are: "fmtutil-sys --all" after "generate
             fmtutil", "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.dat" after
    "generate
             language.dat", and "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen
    .../language.def" after
             "generate language.def".

             These subsequent calls cause the newly-generated files to
    actually
             take effect. This is not done by default since those calls are
             lengthy processes and one might want to made several
    related changes
             in succession before invoking these programs.

Further anomolies, added 03-Apr-2024


In TeX Live 2024, the output of "tlmgr generate --help" includes the 
following :

    --rebuild-sys
         tells "tlmgr" to run necessary programs after config files have 
been
         regenerated. These are: "fmtutil-sys --all" after "generate
         fmtutil", "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.dat" after "generate
         language.dat", and "fmtutil-sys --byhyphen .../language.def" after
         "generate language.def".

However, if one attempts to /use/ "tlmgr generate fmtutil --rebuild-sys" 
in order to obtain the effect of "fmtutil-sys --all" as the intended 
side effect, one is informed :

tlmgr.pl: generate fmtutil is no longer needed or supported.
tlmgr.pl: Please read the documentation of the `fmtutil' program.
tlmgr.pl: Goodbye.
tlmgr.pl: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.

-- 
/Philip Taylor/
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