epstopdf does not start with a shebang, but instead tries to execute some shell code to find the perl executable. Shells deal with this, but i.e. trying to use it from python (as does rubber) breaks. Isn't env used to find executables these days? The following works for me as the first line of epstopdf: #!/usr/bin/env perl Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: python -c 'import os; os.execv("/usr/bin/epstopdf",());' Actual Results: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> OSError: [Errno 8] Exec format error Expected Results: EPSTOPDF 2.9.8gw, 2007/05/18 - Copyright 1998-2001 by Sebastian Rahtz et al., 2002-2007 by Gerben Wierda et al. Free software under a BSD-style license. Syntax: epstopdf [options] <eps file> <CUT>
"No shebang" seems to be popular in tex-world: /usr/bin/epstopdf /usr/bin/latex2html /usr/bin/pdfatfi /usr/bin/pdfcrop /usr/bin/pkfix /usr/bin/pstoimg /usr/bin/texexpand /usr/bin/thumbpdf /usr/bin/vpe Not to mention starting with #!/bin/sh and then unconditionally exec'ing perl with no changes. /usr/bin/a2ping Debian patches a few of these to start with #!/usr/bin/perl properly. http://patch-tracker.debian.org/package/texlive-bin/2009-5
Yeah, this breaks rubber (and hence the Gedit Latex plugin) for me. Changing to a shebang at the top fixes it.
should be fixed in texlive-2010 by upgrading dev-texlive/texlive-fontutils-2010 to -r1, thanks for the report
