Asymptote compiling error

[dramac.nicolas@…]

When trying to update Asymptote to 2.38_0 I had a compiling error. I then uninstalled all Asymtptote, cleaned, and tried to make a clean install. A first problem was to update to python35, but it didn't solve all the problems.

[dramac.nicolas@…]

main.log

[mojca (Mojca Miklavec)]

This is a problem in TeX Live (a dependency of asymptote) and has nothing to do with any actual bug in asymptote.

First of all, the texlive formats should have been generated by the time asymptote builds its documentation, but the super weird thing starts here:

:info:build mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf file for writing changes:
:info:build mktexfmt:   /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_graphics_asymptote/asymptote/work/.home/.texlive2016/texmf-config/web2c/fmtutil.cnf

Another weird thing is that during the format generation Basque hyphenation patterns are being loaded (and fail because that package is not installed). So it would help to know the output of

kpsewhich language.dat

This could either be a bug in MacPorts packaging (I didn't check, but I assume many others would complain in that case) or more likely some dangling language.dat that's somewhere on the computer and overloads the default file from the installation of texlive.

My suggestion would be to start debugging the TeX Live installation first. Perhaps via the mailing list, I'm not sure. But in any case you should first make sure that you are able to compile simple LaTeX documents with pdflatex, otherwise there's no hope in being able to compile Asymptote's documentation.

It is also possible that the asymptote package is missing a few dependencies that would be needed to generate the pdflatex format before compiling the docs.

Here's the list of the dependencies in case that Dan can spot a problem:

Build Dependencies: texinfo, texlive-latex-recommended, texlive-fonts-recommended
Runtime Dependencies: texlive-basic

One way to circumvent the problem would be to fetch the PDF with documentation from sourceforge.

[dramac.nicolas@…]

Replying to mojca@…:

This is a problem in TeX Live (a dependency of asymptote) and has nothing to do with any actual bug in asymptote.

First of all, the texlive formats should have been generated by the time asymptote builds its documentation, but the super weird thing starts here:

:info:build mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf file for writing changes:
:info:build mktexfmt:   /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_graphics_asymptote/asymptote/work/.home/.texlive2016/texmf-config/web2c/fmtutil.cnf

Another weird thing is that during the format generation Basque hyphenation patterns are being loaded (and fail because that package is not installed). So it would help to know the output of

kpsewhich language.dat

This could either be a bug in MacPorts packaging (I didn't check, but I assume many others would complain in that case) or more likely some dangling language.dat that's somewhere on the computer and overloads the default file from the installation of texlive.

My suggestion would be to start debugging the TeX Live installation first. Perhaps via the mailing list, I'm not sure. But in any case you should first make sure that you are able to compile simple LaTeX documents with pdflatex, otherwise there's no hope in being able to compile Asymptote's documentation.

It is also possible that the asymptote package is missing a few dependencies that would be needed to generate the pdflatex format before compiling the docs.

Here's the list of the dependencies in case that Dan can spot a problem:

Build Dependencies: texinfo, texlive-latex-recommended, texlive-fonts-recommended
Runtime Dependencies: texlive-basic

One way to circumvent the problem would be to fetch the PDF with documentation from sourceforge.

I cleaned texlive and updated it. It appears the texlive was broken as you said. I removed Asymptote, updated everything (needed to do it several times) and now everything works. Thanks.

[mojca (Mojca Miklavec)]

OK, I'm closing the ticket then. I'm glad that you found the solution and thanks for the feedback.