Hi, I've implemented a workaround, a special case for jadetex and xmltex, in update-fontlang. Here's a first draft for the documentation part in TeX-on-Debian:
+ <sect1 id="jadetex-xmltex-specialcase"> + <heading>A special case in <prgn>update-fmtutil</prgn>: + Formats which are based on other formats</heading> + <p> + The JadeTeX and xmlTeX formats are built on top of LaTeX + and therefore require special treatment. This is done + automatically for the Debian packages for these formats. + However, local administrators who similarly base their + custom formats on LaTeX (or any other format) might need + to take special care, in particular when dist-upgrading. + </p> + <p> + JadeTeX is based on LaTeX such that during format + generation, the LaTeX format dump is preloaded with this + line in <file>fmtutil.cnf</file>: +<example> +jadetex etex language.dat &latex jadetex.ini +</example> + This is problematic if the package which provides LaTeX + (currently <package>texlive-latex-base</package>) is + upgraded at the same time as the package which provides + the executables + (currently <package>texlive-base-bin</package>). In this + dpkg run, <package>texlive-base-bin</package> will be + configured while <package>texlive-latex-base</package> is + unpacked but unconfigured and might have + a <file>10texlive-latex-base.cnf.dpkg-new</file> file + in <file>/etc/texmf/fmt.d</file>. + <package>texlive-base-bin</package> will + call <prgn>update-fmtutil</prgn> just before it executes + <tt>fmtutil --all</tt>, and because of + the <file>dpkg-new</file> file information for LaTeX will + not be included. If JadeTeX would still be included, its + format generation would consequently fail. + </p> + <p> + <prgn>update-fmtutil</prgn> knows about this problem and + will ignore JadeTeX and xmlTeX if LaTeX is not + available. It does not know which other (locally + defined) formats are also based on LaTeX, though. To + prevent failures (and actually a possible fork bomb, see + Debian Bug #427562), local administrators should manually + disable such formats before upgrading TeX Live packages. + </p> + Comments? Regards, Frank -- Frank Küster Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
