Hans>> it seems that something is happening in the top file (the option file writtemn by texexec); did you change something in texexec.ini? is there some magic in your local cont-sys.tex? can you grep you system for {\setupsystem ?
Hans, Is texexec in any way influenced by OS environment variables? The warning "Don't change language in unprotected mode" in my log file caught my attention because a few days ago I added an environment variable LANG =en to my system (my OS not TeX). When I deleted this variable, texexec went back to running without any trouble. The error can't have been caused by any customizations in my texexec.ini or cont-sys.tex because even when I re-installed TexLive from scratch and didn't setup those files, texexec still ran into trouble in the top file with \setupsystem. Thanks for your help. Best regards, Matt