Bugs item #824, was opened at 2007-06-26 00:22 You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=824&group_id=106 Category: Image inclusion Group: v1.40.3 Status: Open Resolution: Accepted Priority: 5 Submitted By: Robin Houston (robinhouston) Assigned to: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Summary: Bus error caused by loading an image into a format file Initial Comment: I have written a tool that speeds up repeated compilation of a source file, by generating a format from the preamble of the document, and then using it to compile the body. One user reported a crash when using this tool with a custom letterhead class; the class in question may be found at http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~elm/LaTeX/ucletter.cls (though note that a simpler demonstration is attached to this report). The bug is triggered by the fact that this class loads an image during the processing of the preamble (i.e. during the processing of the .ini file) and saves it in a box. When this box is used, during the compilation of the body, pdftex crashes. This does work with ordinary (non-PDF) TeX, so the problem is specific to PDFTeX. The attachment contains a simple demonstration of the problem. Unpack it and run 'make'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2007-06-26 23:01
Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 Sorry, pdf things work different then dvi, so we can not make \pdfximage etc. in ini mode without a lot of work; we will probably disable a bunch of primitives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Robin Houston (robinhouston) Date: 2007-06-26 15:49 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=4579 Simplifying the example by eliminating the graphics package: ==> foo.ini <== \documentclass{minimal} \newbox\picbox \pdfximage{pic.pdf} \setbox\picbox\hbox{\pdfrefximage\pdflastximage} \dump ==> foo.tex <== \begin{document} \box\picbox \end{document} Also, I see now that my comparison with dvi-mode is indeed a false one, because the mechanisms are quite different, and the DVI graphics driver only has to include a \special, rather than the graphic itself. A simple solution, I suppose, would be to make \pdfrefximage (and, presumably, the other \pdfrefx commands) invalid in IniTeX mode. Perhaps this is too brutal, since it forbids certain harmless activities such as finding the dimensions of an image from an .ini file; and of course I would be delighted if it were made to work instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Reinhard Kotucha (reinhard) Date: 2007-06-26 01:26 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=4195 Martin, you probably can't do everything in a format file. However, it would be nice to be able to put graphics to a format file at least. Suppose that a web server has to generate PDF files on-the-fly, each contains a company logo. The best place place for the logo is the format file if speed matters. It would be nice if there are no restrictions. Regards, Reinhard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Robin Houston (robinhouston) Date: 2007-06-26 00:42 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=4579 I'm impressed by the speed of your response! Thanks. If you replace the PDF image by an EPS file, and use -output-format dvi, then it does work. That suggests to me that the problem is not fundamentally caused by a limitation of IniTeX. But I don't know enough about the inner workings of the \includegraphics command to be sure about that. (Perhaps PDF graphics are handled in a sufficiently different way for this to be a false comparison?) In any case, as you say, it shouldn't crash! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comment By: Martin Schröder (oneiros) Date: 2007-06-26 00:30 Message: Logged In: YES user_id=421 I can reproduce it, and it obviously shouldn't crash, but I'm really not shure if it's supposed to work, as the format of course will not save the picture. You can't do everything in IniTeX... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can respond by visiting: http://sarovar.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=493&aid=824&group_id=106