[XeTeX] Odd and confusing diagnostics during XeTeX run

[Jonathan Kew]

Phil,

Put the font name in quotes. That will be taken as a hint that it should try for an installed font by that name *before* asking kpathsearch to try and find a TFM, rather than vice versa.

JK

On 23 Sep 2011, at 16:48, Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote:

> Dear Colleagues -- I just knocked up this little
> six-line XeTeX source file in order to typeset
> some labels for my spice jars in "an appropriate
> font" :
> 
>    \parindent = 0 em
>    \parskip = 6 ex
>    \font \Hindi = Samarkan at 36 pt
>    \Hindi
>    CA's Curry Masala
>    \end
> 
> When I ran it, I saw some diagnostics flash across
> the TeXworks screen, but then the expected PDF appeared,
> containing the text "CA's Curry Masala" in Samarkan
> as intended.
> 
> Puzzled, I removed the \end and re-ran it, and this
> time managed to trap the diagnostics; they read --
> 
>    This is XeTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.2-0.9997.4 (Web2C 2010)
>    entering extended mode
>    (./Hindi.texname = Samarkan, rootname = Samarkan, pointsize =
>    mktexmf: empty or non-existent rootfile!
> 
>    kpathsea: Running mktexmf Samarkan.mf
> 
>    The command name is E:\TeX\Live\2010\bin\win32\mktexmf
>    Cannot find Samarkan.mf.
>    )
> 
> Now why is XeTeX trying to use MetaFont sources when
> I already have Samarkan in in my system fonts directory
> as a Truetype font; XeTeX "knows" that I have it there,
> because it successfully uses it, so why does it first
> try to use a non-existent MetaFont version.  And why
> do the diagnostics :
> 
>    mktexmf: empty or non-existent rootfile!
> 
>    kpathsea: Running mktexmf Samarkan.mf
> 
>    The command name is E:\TeX\Live\2010\bin\win32\mktexmf
>    Cannot find Samarkan.mf.
> 
> not end up in the document log file (and indeed, where
> am I meant to find them) ?
> 
> Philip Taylor
> 
> 
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