[tex-k] testfont.tex infinite loop

[Karl Berry]

I'm getting an infinite non-x-able loop in the following situation:

- create this one-line file as, say, table.tex:
\input testfont \table \end

- run it like this:
echo nonesuch | tex table

- while mktextfm is trying (and failing) to create nonesuch.tfm, hit
CTRL-C to interrupt.  (If you let mktextfm run to completion, then all
is well, the job exits.)

- I then get the messages (exactly as shown):
! Font \testfont=hello not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found.
...
? ! Interruption.
...
? Now type a test command (\help for help):

- At this point, we are stuck.  If I type x to exit, it sits there.  Hit
CTRL-C again, and get:
! Interruption.
l.80676360 
? 
Cool line number :).  x just hangs again.

CTRL-\ does quit, or the tex process can be killed from another window.

This behavior has been there since at least texlive6 (3.14159 (Web2C
7.3.3.1)).  It happens on both Red Hat 9 and Red Hat Workstation 2.1.
Strange that I never noticed before now, since I do this all the time.

texlive4 (3.14159 (Web2C 7.3)), and the teTeX that comes with Red Hat 9,
works ok in this case.  In those cases, TeX never waits for input after
the CTRL-C (which is what I would expect), but rather does:
! Emergency stop.

and delivers me safely back to the shell.

Hope it's not too painful ...

karl