error building pdf docs, everything fine with info html dvi ps

[Marco Maggi]

Ciao,

  on a  i686-pc-linux-gnu with  GNU Automake 1.12.1  and GNU
Texinfo 4.13,  I can correctly build  documentation in info,
html, dvi and ps formats, but:

  $ make pdf
  TEXINPUTS="../../doc:$TEXINPUTS" \
          MAKEINFO='/bin/sh /home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/missing --run makeinfo -I ../../doc' \
          texi2dvi --pdf --batch --clean ../../doc/vicare.texi
  This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)
   file:line:error style messages enabled.
  entering extended mode

  (/home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/vicare.texi
  (/home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/texinfo.tex
  Loading texinfo [version 2012-05-16.16]: pdf, fonts, markup, glyphs,
  page headings, tables, conditionals, indexing, sectioning, toc, environments,
  defuns, macros, cross references, insertions,
  (/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/epsf/epsf.tex) localization, formatting,
  and turning on texinfo input format.)
  (/home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/version.texi)
  (/home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/macros.texi) [1{/usr/share/texmf-var/f
  onts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] [2] Chapter 1
  /home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/vicare.texi:249: Undefined control sequ
  ence.
  @txiescapepdf ... @else @xdef #1{@pdfescapestring
                                                    {#1}}@fi
  @pdfmkdest ...name {#1}@txiescapepdf @pdfdestname
                                                    @safewhatsit {@pdfdest nam...

  @setref #1#2->@pdfmkdest {#1}
                               @iflinks {@atdummies @edef @writexrdef ##1##2{@...

  @donoderef ...empty @else @setref {@lastnode }{#1}
                                                    @global @let @lastnode =@e...

  @chapmacro ...y {@toctype }{#1}{#3}@donoderef {#2}
                                                    @nobreak @vbox {@hyphenpen...

  @chapterzzz ...acro {#1}{Ynumbered}{@the @chapno }
                                                    @global @let @section = @n...
  ...
  l.249 @chapter Overview of Vicare Scheme

followed by a lot of similar errors (one for each heading in
the source file, it seems).  It appears that I have the same
problems with all my texi files; for example:

<http://raw.github.com/marcomaggi/cre2/master/doc/cre2.texi>
    <http://github.com/marcomaggi/cre2/tree/master/doc>

  It  is  my   understanding  that  the  "texinfo.tex"  file
installed by Automake is the very latest from:

             <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/>

  I know nothing of Texinfo internals, any hints?

TIA
--
Marco Maggi

[Karl Berry]

      It  is  my   understanding  that  the  "texinfo.tex"  file
    installed by Automake is the very latest from:

True.  Usually that is not the case, but at the moment it is.  (It won't
be after I fix this bug.)

  This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)

That version of pdftex is many years old.  Apparently you're the first
person to try the new texinfo.tex with such an old tex.

  /home/marco/src/devel/scheme/vicare/doc/vicare.texi:249: Undefined
  control sequence.  @txiescapepdf

Can you try changing the one line as below and see if that does the job?

Thanks,
Karl

--- texinfo.tex.~1.367.~ 2012-05-16 16:35:40.000000000 -0700
+++ texinfo.tex 2012-06-05 12:49:55.000000000 -0700
@@ -1119,3 +1119,3 @@ where each line of input produces a line
 \def\txiescapepdf#1{%
-  \ifx\pdfescapestring\relax
+  \ifx\pdfescapestring\thisisundefined
     % No primitive available; should we give a warning or log?

[Marco Maggi]

Karl Berry wrote:
>   This is pdfeTeXk, Version 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4)

> That  version of  pdftex  is many  years old.   Apparently
> you're the  first person to  try the new  texinfo.tex with
> such an old tex.

Damn, yes!  I am indeed  about to upgrade this old Slackware
installation.

> Can you try changing the one line as below and see if that
> does the job?

It make everything work.  Thanks.
--
Marco Maggi