> I have the same observation. The TeXLive 2005 definition is
>
> TEXFORMATS = .;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,}
>
> but it seems to me tex binaries do not set $engine variable. If so, it
> can be locally solved (without changing binaries and supposing not using
> xetex or another engine) by
>
>TEXFORMATS = .;$TEXMF/web2c//
>
> Vit

I'm sorry it doesn't work for me either. (have TL2005 on WinXP)
I still get the message "I can't find the TeX format 'cont-en'" unless I copy it into the 'web2c' directory.

I've noticed this in context.cnf:

TEXMFMAIN     = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf
TEXMFLOCAL    = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-local
TEXMFFONTS    = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-fonts
TEXMFEXTRA    = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-extra
TEXMFPROJECT  = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-project
VARTEXMF      = $SELFAUTOPARENT/texmf-var
TEXMF         = {!!$TEXMFPROJECT,!!$TEXMFFONTS,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFEXTRA,!!$TEXMFMAIN}

% --- cut ---

TEXFORMATS    = .;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,}

It's strange that there isn't $VARTEXMF included in the TEXMF path. I've tried to add it:

TEXMF         = {!!$TEXMFPROJECT,!!$TEXMFFONTS,!!$TEXMFLOCAL,!!$TEXMFEXTRA,!!$TEXMFMAIN,!!$VARTEXMF}

but with no result... :-(

I'm attaching the complete context.cnf file for reference.

-Richard