[tex-live] Re: [NTG-pdftex] pdftex.cfg

[Fabrice Popineau]

>> Actually, you can even run latex --output-format=pdf foo

> Well, to get something useful, you have to make sure that the latex
> format is created with useful setting for e.g. \pdfhorigin and
> \pdfvorigin.

> If you just latex -ini latex.ltx latex --output-format=pdf sample2e
> you'll get a messed-up sample2e.pdf.

> This means, that we either have to make sure to set useful defaults
> for *all* formats that we dump with pdfetex or that we reactivate the
> config file.

Surely those variables must be intialized with sensible values ?

But when I wrote that, I meant that we probably can't expect that
every package will take care of potential pdf output. So my question is
: shouldn't we allow to switch pdf_output on command line only in INI
mode ?

>> Maybe the problem is that you just don't expect from inipdfetex to be
>> initialized to DVI output format ...

> Maybe, pdf*tex should defer this message until the dvi vs. pdf
> decision is finally decided (don't know when this is: when typesetting
> the first boxes or when shipping out the first page).

That makes sense.

Fabrice