Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-formatstymy.html


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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label formatstymy</title>
</head><body>
<h3>&ldquo;Fatal format file error; I&rsquo;m stymied&rdquo;</h3>
<p/>(La)TeX applications often fail with this error when you&rsquo;ve been
playing with the configuration, or have just installed a new version.
<p/>The format file contains the macros that define the system you want to
use: anything from the simplest (Plain TeX) all the way to the most
complicated, such as LaTeX or ConTeXt.  From the command you
issue, TeX knows which format you want.
<p/>The error message
<pre>
  Fatal format file error; I'm stymied
</pre>
means that TeX itself can&rsquo;t understand the format you want.
Obviously, this could happen if the format file had got corrupted, but
it usually doesn&rsquo;t.  The commonest cause of the message, is that a new
binary has been installed in the system: no two TeX binaries on the
same machine can
understand each other&rsquo;s formats.  So the new version of TeX you
have just installed, won&rsquo;t understand the format generated by the one
you installed last year.
<p/>Resolve the problem by regenerating the format; of course, this
depends on which system you are using.
<ul>
<li> On a teTeX-based system, run
<pre>
  fmtutil --all
</pre>
  or
<pre>
  fmtutil --byfmt=&lt;format name&gt;
</pre>
  to build only the format that you are interested in.
<li> On a MiKTeX system, click <code>Start</code>-&gt; 
<code>Programs</code>-&gt; 
<code>MiKTeX <em>version</em></code>-&gt; 
<code>MiKTeX Options</code>, and in the options window, click
  <code>Update now</code>.
</ul>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=formatstymy">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=formatstymy</a>
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