[tex-live] nasty bug in TL6's/tetex's mktexpk: gs died due to signal 13

[Petr Sojka]

Hi,
I do have fresh texlive-6 setup, gs 7.0 on
SunOS anxur 5.8 Generic_108528-09 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-Enterprise.

I am running mktexpk script (via xdvi or dvips -V) and
trying to generate (on the fly) pk's from Czech Times pfbs 
(http://www.cstug.cz/stormtype/slido.html#english) via gsftopk:

$ dvips -j0 -V stestl
This is dvips(k) 5.86e Copyright 2001 Radical Eye Software (www.radicaleye.com)
' TeX output 2001.09.14:2043' -> stestl.ps
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag 4+300/600 --dpi 2700 sldr8z
mktexpk: Running gsftopk sldr8z 2700
gsftopk(k) version 1.19.2/700
...

I _randomly_ get 
gs died due to signal 13
error (after gsftopk finished its job):

...
mktexpk: /packages/share/texlive-6/texmf-var/fonts/pk/modeless/storm/lido/sldr6s.720pk: successfully generated.
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag 1+120/600 --dpi 720 sldb8z
mktexpk: Running gsftopk sldb8z 720
gsftopk(k) version 1.19.2/700
[1] [10] [12] [13] [16] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]
[29] [30] [31] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45]
[46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61]
[62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] [75] [76] [77]
[78] [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] [89] [90] [91] [92] [93]
[94] [95] [96] [97] [98] [99] [100] [101] [102] [103] [104] [105] [106] [107]
[108] [109] [110] [111] [112] [113] [114] [115] [116] [117] [118] [119] [120]
[121] [122] [123] [124] [125] [126] [127] [128] [129] [130] [131] [132] [133]
[134] [136] [137] [138] [141] [142] [143] [144] [151] [152] [154] [155] [156]
[157] [158] [159] [161] [163] [164] [165] [166] [167] [169] [171] [172] [174]
[175] [176] [177] [179] [181] [182] [184] [185] [187] [188] [190] [191] [192]
[193] [194] [195] [196] [197] [198] [199] [200] [201] [202] [203] [204] [205]
[206] [207] [208] [209] [210] [211] [212] [213] [214] [215] [216] [217] [218]
[219] [220] [221] [224] [225] [226] [227] [228] [229] [230] [231] [232] [233]
[234] [235] [236] [237] [238] [239] [240] [241] [242] [243] [244] [245] [246]
[247] [248] [249] [250] [251] [252] [253] [254] [255]
gs died due to signal 13

grep: can't open sldb8z.log
mktexpk: `gsftopk sldb8z 720' failed to make sldb8z.720pk.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
dvips: Font sldb8z not found,  using cmr10 instead.
dvips: Checksum mismatch in font sldb8z


This error has been reported already on 
http://www.ghostscript.com/pipermail/bug-gs/2001-April/000336.html
so it seems to resist in tetex for a long time.

I've found that signal 13 means "Piping error"
(cf http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg/msg11597.html)
and I suspect something is wrong in mktexpk or mktex.opt
that causes that trap. The mktexpk and mktex.opt scripts used
are from the texlive-6 CD setup. 

I came to the conclusion that it is not gs error (gsftopk 
usually finishes when I repeat _the same_ mktexpk command
line again (in the same shell, just a few seconds later). 
Anyway, my gs -h gives
AFPL Ghostscript 7.00 (2001-04-08)
Copyright (C) 2001 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA.  All rights reserved.
Usage: gs [switches] [file1.ps file2.ps ...]
Most frequently used switches: (you can use # in place of =)
 -dNOPAUSE           no pause after page   | -q       `quiet', fewer messages
 -g<width>x<height>  page size in pixels   | -r<res>  pixels/inch resolution
 -sDEVICE=<devname>  select device         | -dBATCH  exit after last file
 -sOutputFile=<file> select output file: - for stdout, |command for pipe,
                                         embed %d or %ld for page #
Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PDF
Available devices:
   x11 bbox x11alpha x11cmyk x11gray2 x11gray4 x11mono bmpmono bmpgray
   bmpsep1 bmpsep8 bmp16 bmp256 bmp16m bmp32b deskjet djet500 laserjet
   ljetplus ljet2p ljet3 ljet3d ljet4 ljet4d lj5mono lj5gray cdeskjet
   cdjcolor cdjmono cdj550 pj pjxl pjxl300 uniprint bj10e bj200 bjc600
   bjc800 faxg3 faxg32d faxg4 pcxmono pcxgray pcx16 pcx256 pcx24b pcxcmyk
   pbm pbmraw pgm pgmraw pgnm pgnmraw pnm pnmraw ppm ppmraw pkm pkmraw pksm
   pksmraw tiffcrle tiffg3 tiffg32d tiffg4 tifflzw tiffpack tiff12nc
   tiff24nc psmono psgray psrgb bit bitrgb bitcmyk pngmono pnggray png16
   png256 png16m jpeg jpeggray pdfwrite pswrite epswrite pxlmono pxlcolor
   gif8 gifmono cljet5 cljet5c nullpage
Search path:
   . : /packages/share/gs-7.00/lib :
   /packages/share/gs-7.00/share/ghostscript/fonts


I will appreciate somebody suggesting a way to trace down
the bug.

--ps