[pdftex] compilation question

[Samuel Ainsworth]

I’m trying to compile pdftex from scratch but a lot of documentation seems to be out of date. The manual linked to on the home page (https://www.tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/texmf-dist/doc/pdftex/manual/pdftex-a.pdf <https://www.tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/texmf-dist/doc/pdftex/manual/pdftex-a.pdf>) indicates that there should a “build-pdftex.sh” script somewhere, but there’s no such file in the TexLive 2018 sources (downloaded from ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2018/texlive-20180414-source.tar.xz). Some googling turned up some sources on CTAN, but it sounds like that’s deprecated now?

I tried following the “Build one package" instructions (https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/tlbuild.html#Build-one-package <https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/tlbuild.html#Build-one-package>) using the package “pdftex” instead of "dvipdfm-x” in the example. These instructions also reference build-pdftex.sh
 oh well. Anyways I was able to get the rest of the instructions to run just fine but unfortunately I can’t actually find the pdftex package or executable anywhere afterwards.

What should I be doing here to actually build pdftex?

Thanks,
Samuel

[Karl Berry]

If you build pdftex in TL using the Build-one-package method, the
executable will (by default) end up in
../Build/Work/texk/web2c/pdftex. Source directory != build directory.

The documentation is correct (as far as I know). The point of confusion
seems to be that there are two repositories for pdftex, the TL
repository and the separate pdftex repository; the latter is the one
with build-pdftex.sh and the "cut-down TL tree". It's linked to from
pdftex.org. --best, karl.

[Samuel Ainsworth]

Post by Karl Berry
If you build pdftex in TL using the Build-one-package method, the
executable will (by default) end up in
../Build/Work/texk/web2c/pdftex. Source directory != build directory.

Actually I found that this wasn’t the case. But by inspection of the build-pdflatex.sh script (found here: https://tug.org/svn/pdftex/branches/stable/source/build-pdftex.sh?view=markup <https://tug.org/svn/pdftex/branches/stable/source/build-pdftex.sh?view=markup>) I discovered that I also need to run `make pdftex` in the Work/texk/web2c directory. I think that’s sorted things out, although now I’m stuck on actually performing the install.

Post by Karl Berry
The documentation is correct (as far as I know). The point of confusion
seems to be that there are two repositories for pdftex, the TL
repository and the separate pdftex repository; the latter is the one
with build-pdftex.sh and the "cut-down TL tree". It's linked to from
pdftex.org. --best, karl.

Yes, that was an initial point of confusion. Although I’m not seeing this link
 The “sources” link at the top is taking me to https://www.tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/source/ <https://www.tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/source/> which appears to be the source for TL 2017.

Best,
Samuel

[Karl Berry]

stuck on actually performing the install.

https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/tlbuild.html#Installing

There is no simple way to run "make install" anywhere and end up with a
pdftex that can actually process documents.

My suggestion is to do a minimal installation of TeX Live (whatever
formats you want to use, e.g., scheme-minimal if you just want plain and
no latex), and then replace the pdftex binary that is installed with the
one you built. -k