Context again broken on Mac

Bruno Voisin bvoisin at icloud.com
Wed Mar 13 09:07:45 CET 2024


> Karl wrote:
> 
> 	It seems the initializations
> 	mtxrun --generate for LuaMetaTeX and
> 	mtxrun --generate --luatex for LuaLaTeX (1)
> 	need to be run manually beforehand
> 
> There is code in install-tl and tlmgr that runs those commands when
> context is installed or updated. The results are reported in the
> install-tl.log file (install-tl)
> or texmf-var/web2c/tlmgr-commands.log (tlmgr).
> 
> They do get executed for me by install-tl, along with all the myriad
> other special actions like creating formats, language.dat/def, etc.

Thanks Karl for these suggestions. As usual they're helpful and to the point.


Short version of the following:

- The ConTeXt-related initialization tasks

	mtxrun --generate
	context --luatex --generate
	context --luajittex --generate

aren't run by install-tl, at least on the Mac.

- These need to be run with sudo, at least for MacTeX whose TEXMFROOT is owned by root:wheel. The caches

	luametatex-cache
	luatex-cache
	luajittex-cache

are then created inside TEXMFSYSVAR. Running "mtxrun --generate" etc. without sudo results in caches created inside /var (/var/folders/1r/dhdtft1s4qgfjwbcpkfhqf5c0000gn/T/ in my tests).

- This, with sudo, happens whenever a ConTeXt-related update is applied via tlmgr or the TeX Live Utility app.


Longer version: I did an experiment, namely move the /usr/local/texlive/2024 (TEXMFROOT) installed by mactex-20240311.pkg away and put back into place (from a backup) the /usr/local/texlive/2024 installed at the beginning of the pretest then updated continuously afterwards. ConTeXt worked OK then, the examples StartTL.tex and HelloTL.tex typeset without any problem.

After that I put back into place the /usr/local/texlive/2024 (TEXMFROOT) installed by mactex-20240311.pkg: ConTeXt is working now, the examples typeset. It seems some initialization task needed to be performed, which was done when running ConTeXt with the older TEXMFROOT.

Some further info:

- None of the install-tl.log for the old TEXMFROOT and new TEXMFROOT contain ConTeXt-related initialization tasks. There are the usual initializations with updmap and ftmutil, but nothing involving mtxrun or context.

- texmf-var/web2c/tlmgr-commands.log for the new TEXMFROOT includes nothing involving mtxrun or context either.

- texmf-var/web2c/tlmgr-commands.log for the old TEXMFROOT contains several runs of

	mtxrun --generate
	context --luatex --generate
	context --luajittex --generate

with output written to

	/usr/local/texlive/2024/texmf-var/luametatex-cache
	/usr/local/texlive/2024/texmf-var/luatex-cache
	/usr/local/texlive/2024/texmf-var/luajittex-cache

These directories don't exist in the new TEXMFROOT.

Based on this, I have the impression the situation is as summarized above. The ultimate test would be to start a new install from scratch with install-tl, without using MacTeX, see what install-tl gives on my setup. But I won't be able to do that until much later today, if at all.

Bruno




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