luametatex needs an update

[Mojca Miklavec]

Hi,

On Wed, 29 Mar 2023 at 03:03, Norbert Preining wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Mar 2023, Jim wrote:
> > as reported on a ConTeXt mail list, there was a bug in luametatex which
> > caused the following file to produce incorrect output.
>
> We (TeX Live) don't do binary updates during the year. I am not sure we
> will make an exception for luametatex.

Related to what Max said in the later email: I don't see any
particular reason why we couldn't upgrade one broken binary. (I can
volunteer to take care of it if I get a thumbs-up from Karl.)

>From my understanding the rule about not updating binaries is there
mostly because it takes a non-trivial amount of work to coordinate all
the builds, fix all the build issues, fix all the (known) runtime
issues, make sure that various packages end up in a consistent state,
...

Now, just to make it clear:
- I would like to see Hans "tag" an official version because the
"work" branch is supposed to be just experimental stuff that is there
just for random testing (it may include fixes of course, but it may
also include other stuff that is not supposed to circulate in the
wild).
- I would like to get Hans' approval that it's OK to use the new
version combined with the version of ConTeXt that's already in TeX
Live.
- I'm not exactly following the state of frozennes of TeX Live, so I
would like to get a confirmation from Karl: both that it's ok to
commit in the first place, and when is the moment to do that.

Updating luametatex would require:
- Ideally me setting up a job that will automatically build luametatex
on CentOS 7 x86_64 and NetBSD amd64 (though that's not a strict
requirement, it can still be done manually for a limited number of
times).
- Asking other builders for a new binary for macOS, Cygwin, NetBSD
(unless I manage to set up the VM by then).
- Fetching all the binaries from the build farm.

There has also been a bug report about incorrect handling of the
binary (and finding the correct texmfcnf.lua) when it lives in
/usr/[local/]bin/luametatex, but that one might require some changes
in the scripts as well.

Mojca