[tlbuild] test suite fails when TL2015 binaries are in PATH

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2016-06-05 at 22:37:15 GMT, Karl Berry wrote:

 > Back on this mail from quite a while ago, sorry.
 > 
 >     Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2016 23:09:15 +0200
 >     From: Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de>
 > 
 >     I can compile TL on x86_64-linux only if TL2015 is not in PATH,
 >     otherwise the test suite fails.
 > 
 > It is a sad truth that a few of the tests under Build/source are not
 > standalone, but require a working TeX installation.  pmpostdir/pmpsamp
 > is one of those.  It tests Japanese labels inside pmetapost, and thus
 > runs eptex (and euptex), and reproducing whole tex formats inside the
 > tests is not practical.  There is surely some way to simplify the whole
 > thing, but for now, that's the way it is.
 > 
 > Of course, the crash is still a bug somewhere.  Maybe you could run gdb
 > on your binary and see where it's crashing, if/since others can't
 > reproduce.  The actual invocation from the test log is evidently:
 > 
 > + ./pmpost -ini -kanji=utf8 -tex=eptex pmpsamp
 > This is pMetaPost, version 1.9991-0.04 (TeX Live 2016) (kpathsea version 6.2.2) (utf8.euc)
 > (./pmpsamp.mp (/xopt/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/metapost/base/plain.mp
 > pmpost: ./pmp.w:5641: do_set_attr_head: Assertion `A->type==mp_structured' failed.
 > 
 > where the pmpsamp.mp file is created by the pmpsamp.test script in the
 > Work/texk/web2c directory; attached for convenience.
 > 
 > I suppose it's possible that it's a compiler bug.  Compiling with just
 > -g, no optimization, would probably be the first thing to try there. -k

Hi Karl,
thanks for the response.  But I'm now even more confused than before.
When I go to

  Work/texk/web2c

and invoke 

  ./pmpost -ini -kanji=utf8 -tex=eptex pmpsamp

I get the error message

  warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these
  directories: /vc/texlive/trunk/Build/source/Work/texk/web2c:...

  This is pMetaPost, version 1.9991-0.04 (TeX Live 2016) (kpathsea version 6.2.2) (utf8.euc)
  ! I can't open file `pmpsamp'.


The Build script contains the lines

  # Kpathsea is not going to be able to find its cnf files during the
  # build, so omit the warning about it.
  : ${KPATHSEA_WARNING=0}

I assumed that a texmf.cnf file is always required by kpathsea.

After all, what I don't understand is why it makes a difference at all
whether a TL distribution is in PATH or not.  When programs are run
during the build, files (and texmf.cnf) should be found relative to
the binaries in the Build tree, regardless of what else is in PATH.  

I'm quite clueless and it's too late today to investigate further.
Any hints are welcome.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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