OK, I've updated to the latest context via Gerben's i-installer on my mac osx 10.4.6. I have no idea what texmfstart is nor do I understand its purpose. I imagine the first thing I have to do is configure, because it is certainly not found on my system. tmp $ which texmfstart tmp $ texmfstart -bash: texmfstart: command not found Here is my path: tmp $ echo $PATH /sw/bin:/sw/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current:/opt/local/bin:/usr/ local/mysql/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin For example: tmp $ texexec --version TeXExec 5.4.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2005 texexec : TeXExec 5.4.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2005 texutil : TeXUtil 9.0.1 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1992-2006 tex : pdfeTeX, 3.141592-1.30.4-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.5) context : ver: 2006.06.23 20:39 cont-en : ver: 2006.06.23 20:39 fmt: 2006.6.27 mes: english cont-nl : ver: 2006.06.23 20:39 fmt: 2006.6.27 mes: dutch total run time : 3 seconds warning : use 'texmfstart texexec' instead tmp $ which texexec /usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/texexec Which appears to be some sort of shell script. tmp $ cat /usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/texexec #!/bin/sh test -f /bin/sh5 && test -z "$RUNNING_SH5" \ && { UNAMES=`uname -s`; test "x$UNAMES" = xULTRIX; } 2>/dev/null \ && { RUNNING_SH5=true; export RUNNING_SH5; exec /bin/sh5 $0 ${1 +"$@"}; } unset RUNNING_SH5 test -f /bin/bsh && test -z "$RUNNING_BSH" \ && { UNAMES=`uname -s`; test "x$UNAMES" = xAIX; } 2>/dev/null \ && { RUNNING_BSH=true; export RUNNING_BSH; exec /bin/bsh $0 ${1 +"$@"}; } unset RUNNING_BSH export PATH # hack around a bug in zsh: test -n "${ZSH_VERSION+set}" && alias -g '${1+"$@"}'='"$@"' what=`echo $0 | sed 's@.*/@@'` p=`kpsewhich -format=texmfscripts $what.pl` { test -n "$p" && test -f "$p"; } \ || { echo "\`$what.pl' not found."; exit 1; } perl "$p" ${1+"$@"} Ruby is installed: tmp $ which ruby /usr/bin/ruby tmp $ ruby --version ruby 1.8.2 (2004-12-25) [powerpc-darwin8.0] And here is the location of texmfstart: /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/scripts/context/ruby/texmfstart.rb /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/scripts/context/stubs/lib/texmfstart /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/scripts/context/stubs/lib/ texmfstart/base /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/scripts/context/stubs/lib/ texmfstart/base/kpse Now for questions: 1. How do I configure my system to use texmstart? 2. What are some of the usual uses I should be employing of texmfstart? How will it improve performance? How will it simplify my work? Etc? I.e what are the advantages?