David Kastrup wrote:

Frank Küster writes:

...

There is a configuration variable nest_size level, but it doesn't seem to help in this case: The attached file gives an error

! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [grouping levels=255].

although my texmf.cnf has nest_size=500.

I find it awfully hard to reliably trigger a semantic nest size overflow. The best I have been able to come up with was

Can anybody think of a semantic nest without grouping apart from unrestricted hmode (which I use above)?

The example that was attached by Frank (or Stijn?) does just fine. As I suspected, the problem is a macro error, not an actual limit. With \tracingall, the run ends with the output below. We cannot fix this: the enlarging limits will just result in a "capacity exceeded" message with a higher counter. Best wishes, Taco ------------ \bm@command ...nd \z@ {\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \bm@mchoice ... {\hbox {#1$\displaystyle \m@th #2$ }}{\hbox {#1$\textstyle \m... \bm@gr@@p ...fmmode \bm@mchoice #1{#2}{#2}{#2}{#2} \else \bfseries #1#2\fi \bm@command ...nd \z@ {\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \bm@mchoice ... {\hbox {#1$\displaystyle \m@th #2$ }}{\hbox {#1$\textstyle \m... \bm@gr@@p ...fmmode \bm@mchoice #1{#2}{#2}{#2}{#2} \else \bfseries #1#2\fi \bm@command ...30049 ^{\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \makelabel ...h {\makebm }\normalfont \bfseries #1 :} \sbox #1#2->\setbox #1\hbox {\color@setgroup #2 \color@endgroup } \@item ...i \fi \sbox \@tempboxa {\makelabel {#1}} \global \setbox \@labels \... l.11 \item[$a^{b^c}$] $a^{b^c}$ ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced! ------------------

Taco Hoekwater wrote:

The example that was attached by Frank (or Stijn?) does just fine. As I suspected, the problem is a macro error, not an actual limit.

Ah, thank you. I didn't investigate this, since I assumed that the PostgreSQL documentation must have been built successfully on some other system.

With \tracingall, the run ends with the output below.

We cannot fix this: the enlarging limits will just result in a "capacity exceeded" message with a higher counter.

Hm, can you give me a short hint - what tells you that it's a macro error, and - where the error probably is? I can't quickly interpret the \tracingall output, (probably also because I usually just use single \tracingfoo commands). I guess I could figure out with some effort, but since you seem to have seen it already, please? TIA, Frank

Best wishes, Taco

------------ \bm@command ...nd \z@ {\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \bm@mchoice ... {\hbox {#1$\displaystyle \m@th #2$ }}{\hbox {#1$\textstyle \m...

\bm@gr@@p ...fmmode \bm@mchoice #1{#2}{#2}{#2}{#2} \else \bfseries #1#2\fi \bm@command ...nd \z@ {\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \bm@mchoice ... {\hbox {#1$\displaystyle \m@th #2$ }}{\hbox {#1$\textstyle \m...

\bm@gr@@p ...fmmode \bm@mchoice #1{#2}{#2}{#2}{#2} \else \bfseries #1#2\fi \bm@command ...30049 ^{\bm@gr@@p \boldmath {{b^c}} } \makebm #1$->\bm {#1} $ \makelabel ...h {\makebm }\normalfont \bfseries #1 :} \sbox #1#2->\setbox #1\hbox {\color@setgroup #2 \color@endgroup } \@item ...i \fi \sbox \@tempboxa {\makelabel {#1}} \global \setbox \@labels \... l.11 \item[$a^{b^c}$] $a^{b^c}$ ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

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-- Frank Küster Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)