Okay, I'll not be afraid in parading my ignorance in front of everybody. I see web2c configuration as a form of voodoo. Sometimes it works for me, but clearly my mental model is insufficient, because it really can surprise me, as well. I'm having some kpathsea issues on a new reinstall of gwTeX. in my texmf.cnf: TEXFORMATS = .;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,}// I'm trying to get xetex to find /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/web2c/xetex/cont-en.fmt, which exists. at the command line: atl% kpsewhich -show-path=fmt .:/Users/atl/Library/texmf/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/ texmf.local/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/web2c///:!!/ usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/ texmf/web2c///:/Users/atl/Library/texmf/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/ share/texmf.local/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/web2c// /:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/ share/texmf/web2c/// atl% kpsewhich cont-en.fmt /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/web2c/cont-en.fmt ...as expected. But with a different engine: atl% kpsewhich -show-path=fmt -engine=xetex .:/Users/atl/Library/texmf/web2c/xetex//:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/ texmf.local/web2c/xetex//:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.gwtex/web2c/ xetex//:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/web2c/xetex//:!!/usr/ local/teTeX/share/texmf/web2c/xetex//:/Users/atl/Library/texmf/web2c// /:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/ share/texmf.gwtex/web2c///:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/web2c// /:!!/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/web2c/// atl% kpsewhich -engine=xetex cont-en.fmt /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.local/web2c/cont-en.fmt That is, -show-path gets it right, but kpsewhich on a normal search gets it wrong. I'm stymied. many thanks for whatever help you can point me to, adam