Format file differences (was: Re: pdflatex does not work on win after todays update but does on linux)

[Jonathan Fine]

Siep wrote:
>
> [...] if I try under Linux to compile a latex file with a
> windows-generated pdflatex.fmt, then this ends with [could not undump].


 As Siep is correct, this is not a network error. Nor is it, I think, a
LaTeX error. After all, LaTeX is just TeX macros and commands.

Is it a documented feature, that "pdftex --ini" creates a fmt file that
works cross-platform? If so, then we have a bug in pdftex (and perhaps
opportunities for improvement elsewhere).

And if not a documented feature? Well, all else being equal, I'd prefer fmt
files to be cross-platform and archival. But I don't know the difficulties
involved in this.

It would help to know what changed between 2020 and 2021, to make the
pdftex latex.fmt file no longer be cross platform.

An aside. It's possible that 2020 pdftex with 2021 LaTeX creates a
latex.fmt that is not cross-platform.

-- 
Jonathan
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