[XeTeX] "I can't find the format file `xetex.fmt'!"

[Jonathan Kew]

On 9 Oct 2005, at 8:57 am, Stephen Moye wrote:

>
> On Oct 8, 2005, at 9:22 PM, Herbert Schulz wrote:
>
>
>>
>> On Oct 8, 2005, at 5:56 PM, Stephen Moye wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> It has been a long day. I just installed the latest update of  
>>> gwTeX, reinstalled XeTeX, and now I am confronted with this error  
>>> message:
>>>
>>> This is XeTeX, Version 3.141592-2.2-0.95 (Web2C 7.5.3)
>>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt xetex.fmt
>>> fmtutil: format directory `/Users/smoye/Library/texmf/web2c' is  
>>> not writable.
>>> I can't find the format file `xetex.fmt'!
>>> tcsh: rm: No match.
>>>
>>> What am I doing wrong?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> SGM
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Howdy,
>>
>> did you download the new XeTeX i-package?
>>
>
> Yes.
>
>
>> It should be trying to install in texmf.local/web2c using fmtutil- 
>> sys rather than in ~/Library/texmf/web2c/. You'll also need to  
>> remove any format files in ~/Library/texmf/web2c/.
>>
>
> The only thing there is fmtutil.cnf -- do I remove that? I've  
> already tried that and had to enter a password to do it. And, once  
> again, had to clear the font caches.


I'm not sure I fully understand what went on for you, but one factor  
may be if you had at some point installed a recent gwTeX/TL2005  
system (recent enough to include the "personal configuration" stuff,  
and to require the use of fmtutil-sys for "normal" system-wide  
setup), and then tried to install a pre-0.95 XeTeX package.

The result of this is that the xetex installation script, because it  
uses fmtutil (rather than fmtutil-sys), will try to create formats,  
etc., in ~/Library/texmf. If that folder doesn't exist at all, it  
will get created, owned by root, and not readable by anyone else -  
and so in normal use you'll get errors because the files can't be found.

You really don't want these there, unless you're sure you know what  
you're doing (and are properly managing a personal configuration).  
But reinstalling gwTeX and (new) XeTeX won't remove them, because  
they're in your personal space, not the shared texmf tree that gwTeX  
owns. Therefore, some manual cleanup may be needed.

It may be possible to get the XeTeX installer to check for some of  
these problems and tidy things up, but it's a little tricky because  
some users may legitimately have their own stuff there and want to  
keep it!

JK