[tex4ht] erorr code 256, possible perl error code, come up with using --lua option with make4ht, error --- Improper dvi file

[Nasser M. Abbasi]

On 12/5/2015 5:41 PM, Karl Berry wrote:
>
> So, it appears a bad DVI file is being created by dviluatex.  That
> should never happen and thus is something we should report to them.
> However, we have to be able to provide input that they can run directly
> with the engine binary, not using make4ht.
>
> Copying the dvilualatex command from the make4ht output and running it
> by hand results in a perfectly fine .dvi file.

Aha! But it does not on my end? Why?

I deleted the .dvi file. Run the dvilualatex command. I see
no error message on screen, but when I did dvitype, I
still get the same error!

Please see:

-----------------------------------
>rm KERNEL.dvi
rm: remove regular file ‘KERNEL.dvi’? y

>dvilualatex  -jobname=KERNEL  '\makeatletter\def\HCod......(long command!
[1] (./KERNEL.aux))
(see the transcript file for additional information)
  265 words of node memory still in use:
    2 hlist, 1 vlist, 1 rule, 2 glue, 40 glue_spec, 1 write nodes
    avail lists: 2:17,3:6368,4:21965,5:1441,6:13424,7:3,9:10891,10:25
Output written on KERNEL.dvi (1 page, 208428 bytes).
Transcript written on KERNEL.log
------------------------------------

Ok, no error, but the DVI file is bad:

---------------------------------------
>dvitype KERNEL.dvi
This is DVItype, Version 3.6 (TeX Live 2015)
Options selected:
   Starting page = *
   Maximum number of pages = 1000000
   Output level = 4 (the works)
   Resolution = 300.00000000 pixels per inch
numerator/denominator=25400000/473628672
magnification=1000;       0.00006334 pixels per DVI unit
' LuaTeX output 2015.12.05:1815'
Bad DVI file: byte 208301 is not post!
---------------------------------------

So does this mean dvilualatex  is generating bad dvi?


>So something more is
> happening in between runs, probably generation of intermediate files,
> but I don't see any obvious way to determine what's needed to reproduce.
>
> Also, it could be helpful for make4ht to run dvitype on any .dvi file
> right after it is created, so that the error can be caught as soon as
> possible in the process.
>
> Also, I think it would be helpful to add a -recorder option to make4ht,
> since what we really want to do is bundle up all the input files to give
> to the luatex developers, along with the command line to reproduce that
> problem.  And the recorder file is what would tell us for sure what
> input files are needed.
>
> I suppose it could all be figured out from strace output, but it would
> be much simpler to get it from make4ht.
>
> So, Michal ... wdyt?  Can you add stuff to help debug this to make4ht?
>
> (BTW, it would also be conventional to actually recognize --help and
> --version, and send their output to stdout instead of stderr, and exit
> successfully.  Anyway ...)
>
> Thanks,
> Karl
>

thanks,
--Nasser