problems with local user format files

[Ulrike Fischer]

Am Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:50:28 +0900 schrieb Norbert Preining:

>> Well it happens, and quite regularly. In the last months I deleted
>> more than once a format there - and I swear I didn't delete the
> 
> If you can give me a recipe how to reproduce it, I will surely find an
> explanation and fix for it, but I have personally never seen this
> problem, so I cannot do anything.

I have now set mktexfmt to 0. Perhaps this will give me errors at
the time it happens and I can give details. Until now I often
realize that a wrong format is there only some times later. 


>> I can't say if it is due to something new in texlive - it could be
>> that it only pop ups now more often as expl3 checks if the format
>> has the correct date. 
> 
> What does that mean? But whatever expl3 rejects, I can't imagine that it
> triggers a format rebuild ... or?

No, but it means that an older format lurking around is detected
faster. 

Without expl3 you need to look at the date or test for something
specific in the new format. With expl3 you get an error if you have
new expl3 files and a format build with an older expl3---and I
naturally have normally very new expl3 files around. 



-- 
Ulrike Fischer 
http://www.troubleshooting-tex.de/