[pdftex] stymied

[Sebastian Rahtz]

Nigel W. Moriarty writes:
 > pdflatex runs on some simple files but 
 > 
 > This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159-13d (Web2C 7.3.1)
 > (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
 > 
 > on a more complicated file that worked yesterday.  Is
 > it because I changed the file somehow or have I not
 > set up correctly.  

your setup is screwed, ie you have a mismatch between versions of
pdftex and its format files.

running

 fmtutil --byfmt pdftex
 fmtutil --byfmt pdflatex

can do no harm. if they fail, saying that the pool file does not
match, you *are* up the creek.

sebastian