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hi there, i am a (somewhat) long time pdflatex user and i am trying to convert to ConTeXt. openbsd comes with teTeX 3.0 pre-packaged, that is with a very old ConTeXt. the package has some openbsd specific stuff, but minimal, and only for keeping cnf files between updates and a couple of paths are different, but that is it. i was (am) having font problems, so i thought an upgrade would not hurt. the lovely guides on contextgarden.net got me started, and with minor changes i have a fresh ConTeXt up and running, but i have some problems still i am afraid. i am very new to ConTeXt and to TeX in general, i was always behind the "safe" curtains of macros (like memoir, etc). as i followed the instructions from here: http://wiki.contextgarden.net/TeTeX_3.0_installation my question are related to this page.... i will break down my question into more mails, so it's not too long, and so that people can answer to mails they know the answer to :) the first one: the first step to upgrade context is: --\startquote--------------------------------------------------- Fix texmf.cnf Now first you have to fix texmf.cnf as supplied with teTeX: # vi /usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf You have to add an engine path to the TEXFORMATS line, so that it reads: TEXFORMATS = .;$TEXMF/web2c/{$engine,} --\stopquote---------------------------------------------------- i deliberately skipped this one, and the new context worked without it. what does this precisely do? when i first run the new context, a new line in the output immediately caught my attention: TeXExec 5.4.3 - ConTeXt / PRAGMA ADE 1997-2005 fixing texformat path : .:{!!/home/f/.texmf-config,!!/home/f/.texmf-var,/home/f /texmf,!!/etc/texmf,!!/var/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/tex mf-local,!!/usr/local/share/texmf-dist}/web2c/{$engine,}{pdfetex,} so i thought, ok, here's the path issue. so i added "{$engine,}" as intructed, but it turned out that that this new line comes up anyway. could anyone comment on it? the next tip is to --\startquote--------------------------------------------------- While at it, you probably want to set shell_escape = t if it isn't already. --\stopquote---------------------------------------------------- in the default openbsd package this line says: shell_escape = f what is the difference? and what is it for anyway? some external execution of the legends are true? :) -f -- i'm not old. i'm chronologically gifted.