The pdfTeX-Version included in gentoos teTeX package is very old: $ pdftex --version pdfTeX (Web2C 7.3.1) 3.14159-0.13d A recent version would be: $ pdftex --version pdfTeX (Web2C 7.3.7) 3.14159-1.00a-pretest-20010806 The new version is available from CTAN (http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/pdftex/snapshots/20010806/pdftex-20010806.tgz) and builds fairly easily apart from one bug in src/texk/web2c/Makefile:739 which I could only work around by using the already compiled tetex's tangle instead of the one failing to build in the pdftex-snapshot. The "fix" was to change ./tangle into tangle when creating target tangleboot.p. So what I did to get it running was: untar the archive cd src ./configure cd texk/web2c (change line 739 from the makefile) make pdftexbin copy binaries to /usr/bin, cp pdftex.pool and pdfetex.pool to /usr/share/texmf/web2c texconfig init (to rebuild format-files) that was it.
This was reopened and now given to me. I'll process it tomorrow.
On second thoughts, I don't know enough about *tex matters to deal with this (I first thought it was a simple package update, but it turns out to be a part of tetex, etc.). Sorry for delaying it in the pipe.
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/pdftex/ Matthias, does that have any effect on this bug?
No, that does not have an effect on the bug. I think that: http://tug.org/pipermail/pdftex/2002-May/002625.html http://tug.org/pipermail/pdftex/2002-May/002631.html point to the relevant information. On CTAN Source is still available, the latest package beeing: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/web2c/web2c-7.3.7-pdftex-1.00a-pretest-20011127-ojmw.tar.gz http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/web2c/web2c-7.3.7-pdftexlibs.tar.gz
I'm taking over the bug, although to be honest I think dvipdfm does a much better job... ;-)
Am going to separate teTeX and pdfTeX. Will still allow building of pdfeTeX in teTeX, but not pdfTeX.
Scratch that... I'm going to remove both pdfeTeX and pdfTeX from teTeX.
Hmm, why not use the latest teTeX? I've been using the betas for awhile now on both linux and Cygwin, I've seen no problems so far [of course I only use english typsetting, so that may skew the issue]. The latest beta is supposed to be really stable and the only reason it hasn't been released as stable is because Thomas is waiting for a new web2c and a useable Omega. Due to problems with Omega's stability and lack of support in general, it has been temporarily removed from the latest beta. However, the May teTeX beta is also fairly stable, but it contains the buggy Omega [which I guess is better then no Omega at all?]. I think separating pdftex from tetex is a bad idea. First, and foremost, an announcement last year stated that pdftex is no longer being developed independant of teTeX and would be merged into the main teTeX sources. That snapshot of pdfTeX is old and rather broken, IIRC. Thus to get the latest pdfTeX, you must get the latest teTeX. I encourage you to check out the announcement and the files contained in this directory: ftp://dante.ctan.org/pub/tex/systems/unix/teTeX-beta/teTeX-beta-20020825-ANNOUNCE And check out this post for a few minor last-minute issues: http://www.mail-archive.com/tetex-pretest%40informatik.uni-hannover.de/msg00439.html I can't even begin to say how much has been fixed in general compared to the release used in Gentoo [from 1999]. As for Omega, that is something you'll have to judge. Frankly, I think having a more up2date TeX distribution with an enhanced version of pdfTeX is more important then having a working Omega.
I have made an ebuild for the new teTeX distribution. Test it out by unmasking it, and let me know of any problems. It includes: $ pdftex -version pdfTeX (Web2C 7.3.7) 3.14159-1.00b-pretest-20020211 I will close this bug report when the new version is unmasked; please help me test so it can be unmasked quickly. :)
Ok, it's unmasked.
