GNU bug report logs - #33094
latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip@prefix has an extra }.

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pierre Neidhardt <mail <at> ambrevar.xyz>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Cc: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Subject: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix has an
 extra }.
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2018 15:35:58 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

I've just committed texlive-latex-koma-script which only works partly,
but I can't figure out the root of the issue.

This linked example works:

	https://github.com/oliverklee/latex-examples/tree/master/simple-article-koma-script

The following fails:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
\documentclass[a4paper]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\title{A very simple document}
\author{Oliver Klee}
\date{\today\ (a very good day)}

\begin{document}

This is an example of how to create line breaks and paragraphs:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,\\
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,\\
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,\\
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

\end{document}
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

with

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix has an extra }.

--- TeX said ---
<inserted text> 
                \par 
l.12 \begin{document}
                     
--- HELP ---
From the .log file...

I've run across a `}' that doesn't seem to match anything.
For example, `\def\a#1{...}' and `\a}' would produce
this error. If you simply proceed now, the `\par' that
I've just inserted will cause me to report a runaway
argument that might be the root of the problem. But if
your `}' was spurious, just type `2' and it will go away.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I can't install the full Texlive distribution as I don't have enough
space.

Ricardo, if you can, could you try this out and see if it works with the
full Texlive?

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #8 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pierre Neidhardt <mail <at> ambrevar.xyz>
To: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#33094: Acknowledgement (latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR:
 Argument of \strip <at> prefix has an extra }.)
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2018 16:07:34 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

I've also reported the issue upstream:

	https://komascript.de/node/2201

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #11 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix has
 an extra }.
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2022 09:38:19 +0100

I can reproduce this with xelatex, lualatex, and pdflatex.  This does
not happen with the monolithic texlive package.

Interestingly, the files that are directly involved are all the same.
All the koma-script files are identical to their counterparts in the
monolithic texlive.

The monolithic texlive prints this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(/gnu/store/pllzpxmvcldqq89x6w36w77xnr1p4lav-texlive-texmf-20210325/share/texmf
-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-pdftex.def) (./komatest.aux) [1{/gnu/store/
pllzpxmvcldqq89x6w36w77xnr1p4lav-texlive-texmf-20210325/share/texmf-dist/fonts/
map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./komatest.aux) )</gnu/store/pllzpxmvcldqq89x6w
36w77xnr1p4lav-texlive-texmf-20210325/share/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfo
nts/cm/cmr12.pfb>
Output written on komatest.pdf (1 page, 15553 bytes).
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

My guess: the argument is the absolute file name of pdftex.map.  It
doesn’t belong to any real package in the tlpdb, and I’m pretty sure we
generate it.  However, in this case it must be missing, so that there is
no argument to \strip <at> prefix.

-- 
Ricardo

Message #14 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:15:58 +0100

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:

> My guess: the argument is the absolute file name of pdftex.map.  It
> doesn’t belong to any real package in the tlpdb, and I’m pretty sure we
> generate it.  However, in this case it must be missing, so that there is
> no argument to \strip <at> prefix.

This was wrong, but I can’t blame myself: the LaTeX errors are
incredibly useless and misleading.

I added \setcounter{errorcontextlines}{999} to the document to see some
context, but it served little more than to confuse me.  (It didn’t print
999 context lines but only 4 lines with elisions.)  It did however
indicate that the error might be related to languages.

So I changed the document to this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
\documentclass[a4paper]{scrlttr2}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

% This line is new.  Set the language!
\usepackage[british]{babel}
%\setcounter{errorcontextlines}{999}

\title{A very simple document}
\author{Oliver Klee}
\date{\today\ (a very good day)}

\begin{document}

This is an example of how to create line breaks and paragraphs:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,\\
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,\\
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,\\
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

\end{document}
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

It worked.

I don’t know why the monolithic TeX Live package doesn’t have this
problem, but at least we’ve got a workaround now: load babel and set a
default language.

I’ll also add that the texlive-latex-koma-script package in Guix is not
up to our standards.  It’s not built from source (= not generated from
dtx/ins files) and it doesn’t include all files such as documentation
and source files.  We should fix that too.

-- 
Ricardo

Message #17 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 12:00:30 +0100

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:

> % This line is new.  Set the language!
> \usepackage[british]{babel}

It is in fact sufficient to add only this line

   \def\languagename{english}

The only problem is that languagename is undefined.

-- 
Ricardo

Message #20 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 13:14:12 +0100

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:

> Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net> writes:
>
>> % This line is new.  Set the language!
>> \usepackage[british]{babel}
>
> It is in fact sufficient to add only this line
>
>    \def\languagename{english}
>
> The only problem is that languagename is undefined.

pdflatex.fmt is a gzipped file.  Unzipping it we see differences in the
file from the working monolithic texlive package and the
texlive-latex-base package.  The former retains references to babel
files while the one from texlive-latex-base does not.

-- 
Ricardo

Message #23 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Thu, 26 May 2022 14:05:30 +0200

Hi Ricardo,

this problem is biting me too now.

> > % This line is new.  Set the language!
> > \usepackage[british]{babel}
> 
> It is in fact sufficient to add only this line
> 
>    \def\languagename{english}
> 
This workaround only works fine for scrlttr2, but unfortunately not for
scrbook, scrartcl, … Any idea?

Cheers,
Lars

Message #26 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net>
Cc: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Tue, 31 May 2022 12:32:44 +0200

Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net> writes:

> Hi Ricardo,
>
> this problem is biting me too now.
>
>> > % This line is new.  Set the language!
>> > \usepackage[british]{babel}
>> 
>> It is in fact sufficient to add only this line
>> 
>>    \def\languagename{english}
>> 
> This workaround only works fine for scrlttr2, but unfortunately not for
> scrbook, scrartcl, … Any idea?

The correct solution to this problem would be to add a little build
cycle: build a bootstrap version of pdflatex (and the other formats) so
that we can build babel; then rebuild pdflatex (and all the other
formats, and everything that goes into texlive-latex-base) in an
environment where babel exists.

The resulting pdflatex.fmt would then likely be aware of babel and
behave like the file from the monolithic texlive package.

-- 
Ricardo

Message #29 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net>
To: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2022 12:25:36 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Ricardo,

> The correct solution to this problem would be to add a little build
> cycle: build a bootstrap version of pdflatex (and the other formats) so
> that we can build babel; then rebuild pdflatex (and all the other
> formats, and everything that goes into texlive-latex-base) in an
> environment where babel exists.
indeed, adding this package variation to the manifest fixed the issue for me:

---snip---
(define-public texlive-latex-base-fixed
  (package
    (inherit texlive-latex-base)
    (name "texlive-latex-base-fixed")
    (propagated-inputs (modify-inputs (package-propagated-inputs texlive-latex-base)
                                      (append texlive-babel)))))
---snap---

Looking at `guix refresh -l texlive-latex-base` a change like that would
be a world rebuild though. I tried adding something similar to
Guix’ tree, but there’s a loop somewhere I can’t figure out
(see attached patch). I’m guessing through texlive-build-system’s
#:texlive-latex-base.

Cheers,
Lars

[texlive-latex-base-bootstrap.diff (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #32 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
To: Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net>, Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
Cc: 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2022 13:00:17 +0200

Am Sonntag, dem 05.06.2022 um 12:25 +0200 schrieb Lars-Dominik Braun:
> Looking at `guix refresh -l texlive-latex-base` a change like that
> would be a world rebuild though. I tried adding something similar to
> Guix’ tree, but there’s a loop somewhere I can’t figure out
> (see attached patch). I’m guessing through texlive-build-system’s
> #:texlive-latex-base.
I think grafts would fix your problem, no?  That is instead of defining
a "bootstrap" variant, you'd simply add texlive-latex-base/fixed as a
replacement to texlive-latex-base.

Cheers

Message #35 received at 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars-Dominik Braun <lars <at> 6xq.net>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>, 33094 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix
 has an extra }.
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2022 19:48:15 +0200

Hi Liliana,

> I think grafts would fix your problem, no?  That is instead of defining
> a "bootstrap" variant, you'd simply add texlive-latex-base/fixed as a
> replacement to texlive-latex-base.
from my understanding no, because latex-babel indirectly depends on
texlive-latex-base. (Through texlive-build-system, since trivial? is
false and thus gnu-build-system is *not* used.)

Cheers,
Lars

Message #40 received at 33094-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado <at> elephly.net>
To: 33094-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: Pierre Neidhardt <mail <at> ambrevar.xyz>
Subject: latex-koma-script: scrlttr2: ERROR: Argument of \strip <at> prefix has
 an extra }.
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2023 11:04:40 +0200

This is now fixed:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix shell texlive-collection-latexrecommended -- pdflatex latex.tex

pdflatex latex.tex 
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.25 (TeX Live 2023/GNU Guix) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./latex.tex
LaTeX2e <2022-11-01> patch level 1
L3 programming layer <2023-02-22> (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrlttr2.cls
Document Class: scrlttr2 2022/10/12 v3.38 KOMA-Script document class (letter)
(/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrkbase.sty (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrbase.sty (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrlfile.sty (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrlfile-hook.sty (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrlogo.sty))) (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty))) (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/scrsize12pt.clo) (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/typearea.sty)) (/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/koma-script/DIN.lco)
(/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/inputenc.sty)

Class scrlttr2 Warning: \date changes the internal \LaTeX date only.
(scrlttr2)              You should note that this changes the default
(scrlttr2)              value of variable `date' only as long as nobody
(scrlttr2)              uses `\setkomavar` to change the content of
(scrlttr2)              variable `date'.
(scrlttr2)              Therefore, usage of `\setkomavar' is recommended
(scrlttr2)              to change the letter's date on input line 6.

(/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-pdftex.def)
No file latex.aux.
[1{/gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./latex.aux) )</gnu/store/k6d1433yxpb1g3whfdh1h5pmf4bnmlzg-profile/share/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr12.pfb>
Output written on latex.pdf (1 page, 16397 bytes).
Transcript written on latex.log.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The resulting document looks fine to me.

-- 
Ricardo

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