[NTG-pdftex] pdfinitex != pdftex --ini?

[Hartmut Henkel]

What is the difference between pdfinitex and pdftex --ini?

hahe@hahepc1:~$ pdfinitex y
This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.20a-rc1-2.1 (Web2C 7.5.2)
 %&-line parsing enabled.
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdfinitex.efmt
fmtutil: no info for format `pdfinitex'.
I can't find the format file `pdfinitex.efmt'!

hahe@hahepc1:~$ pdftex --ini y
This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.20a-rc1-2.1 (Web2C 7.5.2) (INITEX)
 %&-line parsing enabled.
output format initialized to DVI
(./y.tex
! Missing { inserted.
<to be read again>
                   {
l.1 \hbox{
          abc}
?

Shouldn't the first behave as the second?

Man page says --ini: Be pdfinitex...

Regards, Hartmut