Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

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Hi all,

with MacTeX 2020 on a newly installed Mac, I have the problem that 
ConTeXt doesn't work anymore:

     $ context file.tex
     mtx-context     | warning: no format found, forcing remake 
(commandline driven)
     […] snip lots of lines
     resolvers       | formats | changing to format path 
'/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
     resolvers       | formats | unable to change to format path 
'/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
     mtx-context     | error, no format found with name: cont-en, 
aborting
     system          | total runtime: 5.315 seconds

The [ConTeXt docs][1] say that I should run `mtxrun --generate`, which 
seems to run successfully, and `context --make`, which finishes with the 
same „unable to change format path“ error (I believe this is what 
context automatically does when compiling my file, hinted by the „no 
format found. forcing remake“ message). I tried explicitly running 
`context --make cont-en` which yields the same result. The given path 
does exist on my hard drive.

I don't even know if the „unable to change format path“ message is 
actually an error, but I have no other indicator of what goes wrong. The 
only line that explicitly says „error“ is the one I get when trying 
to process the file.

Interestingly, I have another Mac where I upgraded from MacTeX 2019 to 
MacTeX 2020 and everything works there.

I made sure that everything is up-to-date with the TeX Live Utility.

How can I fix this problem?

Regards,
Felix


  [1]: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Running_Mark_IV

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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Otared Kavian]

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Hi Felix,

Some time ago I encountered the same problem and we had a thread on this list about this:

	https://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context@ntg.nl/msg95355.html

The problem on my Mac came from the fact that a directory
	/opt/local/etc/texmf/
existed (installed by MacPorts, without me knowing it…) where ConTeXt tries to find a format, while there is none.
I removed that directory and then I could use ConTeXt from MacTex 2020.

Best regards: Otared


> On 18 Sep 2020, at 09:41, Felix Krause <contact@flyx.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> with MacTeX 2020 on a newly installed Mac, I have the problem that ConTeXt doesn't work anymore:
> 
> $ context file.tex
> mtx-context     | warning: no format found, forcing remake (commandline driven)
> […] snip lots of lines
> resolvers       | formats | changing to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
> resolvers       | formats | unable to change to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
> mtx-context     | error, no format found with name: cont-en, aborting
> system          | total runtime: 5.315 seconds
> The ConTeXt docs <https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Running_Mark_IV> say that I should run mtxrun --generate, which seems to run successfully, and context --make, which finishes with the same „unable to change format path“ error (I believe this is what context automatically does when compiling my file, hinted by the „no format found. forcing remake“ message). I tried explicitly running context --make cont-en which yields the same result. The given path does exist on my hard drive.
> 
> I don't even know if the „unable to change format path“ message is actually an error, but I have no other indicator of what goes wrong. The only line that explicitly says „error“ is the one I get when trying to process the file.
> 
> Interestingly, I have another Mac where I upgraded from MacTeX 2019 to MacTeX 2020 and everything works there.
> 
> I made sure that everything is up-to-date with the TeX Live Utility.
> 
> How can I fix this problem?
> 
> Regards,
> Felix
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
> If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!
> 
> maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
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> ___________________________________________________________________________________


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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

On 18 Sep 2020, at 11:20, Otared Kavian wrote:

> Hi Felix,
>
> Some time ago I encountered the same problem and we had a thread on 
> this list about this:
>
> 	https://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context@ntg.nl/msg95355.html
>
> The problem on my Mac came from the fact that a directory
> 	/opt/local/etc/texmf/
> existed (installed by MacPorts, without me knowing it…) where 
> ConTeXt tries to find a format, while there is none.
> I removed that directory and then I could use ConTeXt from MacTex 
> 2020.

Hm. I don't have this directory (not using MacPorts) and my error seems 
to be quite different (the scripts to be executed seem to be found).
I dug through the thread but for all I can see, nothing there describes 
my problem or a solution for solving it.

Regards,
Felix
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Thomas A. Schmitz]

> On 18. Sep 2020, at 11:35, Felix Krause <contact@flyx.org> wrote:
> 
> Hm. I don't have this directory (not using MacPorts) and my error seems to be quite different (the scripts to be executed seem to be found).
> I dug through the thread but for all I can see, nothing there describes my problem or a solution for solving it.

Then tell us a bit more about your system. What is the output of

which -a context

for example? Is 

/var/folders/

the normal path where mactex would expect a format file? I use a Mac, but I have vanilla texlive installed; I never quite understood where mactex was any better, so I can’t test on my system.

Thomas
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

> Am 18.09.2020 um 09:41 schrieb Felix Krause <contact@flyx.org>:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> with MacTeX 2020 on a newly installed Mac, I have the problem that ConTeXt doesn't work anymore:
> 
> $ context file.tex
> mtx-context     | warning: no format found, forcing remake (commandline driven)
> […] snip lots of lines
> resolvers       | formats | changing to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
> resolvers       | formats | unable to change to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
> mtx-context     | error, no format found with name: cont-en, aborting
> system          | total runtime: 5.315 seconds

Try to delete the luatex cache (i.e. all of /var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache) and try again.

HTH
Hraban
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

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On 18 Sep 2020, at 11:43, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:

> Then tell us a bit more about your system. What is the output of
>
> which -a context

     /Library/TeX/texbin/context

which is an alias of

     /Library/TeX/texbin/context@ -> 
../../texmf-dist/scripts/context/stubs/unix/context

and texbin is

     /Library/TeX/texbin@ -> Distributions/Programs/texbin
     /Library/TeX/Distributions/Programs/texbin@ -> 
../.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/texbin
     /Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents@ -> 
../TeXLive-2020.texdist/Contents

> for example? Is
>
> /var/folders/
>
> the normal path where mactex would expect a format file? I use a Mac, 
> but I have vanilla texlive installed; I never quite understood where 
> mactex was any better, so I can’t test on my system.

The directory name luatex-cache suggests it's used for caching. I 
interpret the output like „something happens during the generation of 
the format file and therefore the file never gets generated“. I don't 
know much about the internals.

I don't really have any reason for using MacTeX over texlive; I was once 
told that this is the thing I want to use on a Mac when I was a student, 
and have used it ever since.
I could switch over and try texlive if nothing else helps, though I 
think it would be good to pin down the cause of this error and tell the 
MacTeX folks about it.

Regards,
Felix

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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

On 18 Sep 2020, at 11:45, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:

> Try to delete the luatex cache (i.e. all of 
> /var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache) and try 
> again.

Did that, it regenerates the contents of the directory and the error 
keeps coming up.

Regards,
Felix
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Thomas A. Schmitz]

On 18. Sep 2020, at 12:00, Felix Krause <contact@flyx.org> wrote:
> 
> The directory name luatex-cache suggests it's used for caching.

That doesn’t help a lot.

> I interpret the output like „something happens during the generation of the format file and therefore the file never gets generated“. I don't know much about the internals.

What does 

mtxrun --expand-var TEXMFCACHE

return?

Thomas

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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Arthur Rosendahl]

  I think I may have found the origin of the error:

On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 09:41:23AM +0200, Felix Krause wrote:
>     resolvers       | formats | changing to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'
>     resolvers       | formats | unable to change to format path '/var/folders/rj/hfjmjx796q102y4v23vh038c0000gp/T/luatex-cache/context/a86c089b384a3076dc514ba966a1fac9/formats/luatex'

  These messages come from the middle of the file luat-fmt.lua (lines
180 and 183, respectively, on my system) when ConTeXt tries to change
the working directory (that’s what “change” means in this context, just
moving to another directory, as in cd or chdir).  The relevant extract
is

	report_format("changing to format path %a",validformatpath)
	lfs.chdir(validformatpath)
	if dir.current() ~= validformatpath then
	    return fatalerror(startupdir,"unable to change to format path %a",validformatpath)
	end

  In your case validformatpath is a subdirectory of $TMPDIR, under
/var/folders/.  However, if your Mac is anything like mine, /var is
actually a symbolic link to /private/var, so that dir.current() reports
a path starting with /private and the test fails.

  You can work around that by setting TMPDIR to some other value, that
doesn’t start with /var -- and not /tmp either because that’s also a
symbolic link :-)  It should work with a temporary directory in your
home folder.  Can you try that?

	Best,

		Arthur
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

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On 18 Sep 2020, at 12:36, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:
>
>
> What does
>
> mtxrun --expand-var TEXMFCACHE
>
> return?

    selfautoparent:texmf-var;/Users/flyx/Library/texlive/2020/texmf-var

Regards,
Felix

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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Felix Krause]

On 18 Sep 2020, at 12:50, Arthur Rosendahl wrote:

>   I think I may have found the origin of the error:
>
>   In your case validformatpath is a subdirectory of $TMPDIR, under
> /var/folders/.  However, if your Mac is anything like mine, /var is
> actually a symbolic link to /private/var, so that dir.current() reports
> a path starting with /private and the test fails.

Yes, this is the setup here as well.

>   You can work around that by setting TMPDIR to some other value, that
> doesn’t start with /var -- and not /tmp either because that’s also a
> symbolic link :-)  It should work with a temporary directory in your
> home folder.  Can you try that?

This works. Thanks a lot (also to everyone else involved)!

Regards,
Felix
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Arthur Reutenauer]

On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 01:48:16PM +0200, Felix Krause wrote:
>>   In your case validformatpath is a subdirectory of $TMPDIR, under
>> /var/folders/.  However, if your Mac is anything like mine, /var is
>> actually a symbolic link to /private/var, so that dir.current() reports
>> a path starting with /private and the test fails.
> 
> Yes, this is the setup here as well.

  That was rhetorical :-)  /var and /tmp (as well as /etc) have been
symbolic links for at least ten years, probably earlier.

>>   You can work around that by setting TMPDIR to some other value, that
>> doesn’t start with /var -- and not /tmp either because that’s also a
>> symbolic link :-)  It should work with a temporary directory in your
>> home folder.  Can you try that?
> 
> This works. Thanks a lot (also to everyone else involved)!

  Glad to hear that, and you’re welcome, but this should also be fixed
in ConTeXt -- Hans, can you do something about that?  It should be
enough to resolve symbolic links on either sides of the test
dir.current() ~= validformatpath

	Best,

		Arthur
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Re: Error setting up ConTeXt in MacTeX 2020

[Hans Hagen]

On 9/18/2020 2:49 PM, Arthur Reutenauer wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 01:48:16PM +0200, Felix Krause wrote:
>>>    In your case validformatpath is a subdirectory of $TMPDIR, under
>>> /var/folders/.  However, if your Mac is anything like mine, /var is
>>> actually a symbolic link to /private/var, so that dir.current() reports
>>> a path starting with /private and the test fails.
>>
>> Yes, this is the setup here as well.
> 
>    That was rhetorical :-)  /var and /tmp (as well as /etc) have been
> symbolic links for at least ten years, probably earlier.
> 
>>>    You can work around that by setting TMPDIR to some other value, that
>>> doesn’t start with /var -- and not /tmp either because that’s also a
>>> symbolic link :-)  It should work with a temporary directory in your
>>> home folder.  Can you try that?
>>
>> This works. Thanks a lot (also to everyone else involved)!
> 
>    Glad to hear that, and you’re welcome, but this should also be fixed
> in ConTeXt -- Hans, can you do something about that?  It should be
> enough to resolve symbolic links on either sides of the test
> dir.current() ~= validformatpath
I need to find a problematic mac ... I remember that Taco did some tests 
recently so I'll ask him.

Hans


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