TeX Live issues

TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Hi there—

I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:

```
$ cat apen.tex 
\documentclass{article}
\author{Marco}
\title{Een titel}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
Wat een rare jongens!
\end{document}
$ latex apen
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=latex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./apen.tex
LaTeX2e <2018-04-01> patch level 2
Babel <3.18> and hyphenation patterns for 84 language(s) loaded.

! LaTeX Error: File `article.cls' not found.

Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
or enter new name. (Default extension: cls)

Enter file name: 
```

I am using the big texlive@20180414 package.  Is this a known issue?

Can I do something to test the more modular set-up of TeX Live?

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Je 17 jan 08:48 skribis Marco:
> Hi there—
> 
> I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:
> 
> [...]

and in another profile yet another issue:

```
$ pdflatex test
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.

kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
/gnu/store/znf7mmx3vslsscn9v3ilxmgkirqwswy8-texlive-bin-20180414/share/texmf-dist/scripts/texlive/fmtutil.pl: Unexpected non-option argument(s): pdflatex.fmt
Try "fmtutil --help" for more information.
I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
```

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Marco,

> I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:

Hmm, something broke here.  I also cannot compile my older documents any
more.  I’ll investigate.

> Can I do something to test the more modular set-up of TeX Live?

I’m only using the modular set up and it appears to suffer from the
exact same issue.

-- 
Ricardo

bug#39161: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

texlive-latex-base provides ltluatex.lua.  This file is generated from
ltluatex.dtx.

ltluatex.dtx contains literal tabs in the embedded Lua sources.  Upon
unpacking the dtx file to generate the file ltluatex.lua these tabs are
erroneously converted to the string “^^I”, which breaks the lualatex
tool and all other tools that derive from it.

It is easy to patch ltluatex.dtx, but this will lead to rebuilding 3480
dependent packages.

--
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:

> Je 17 jan 08:48 skribis Marco:
>> Hi there—
>>
>> I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:
>>
>> [...]
>
> and in another profile yet another issue:
>
> ```
> $ pdflatex test
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
>  restricted \write18 enabled.
>
> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
> /gnu/store/znf7mmx3vslsscn9v3ilxmgkirqwswy8-texlive-bin-20180414/share/texmf-dist/scripts/texlive/fmtutil.pl: Unexpected non-option argument(s): pdflatex.fmt
> Try "fmtutil --help" for more information.
> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
> ```

This sounds like a search path problem.  We are generating all the
common fmt files in texlive-latex-base.  So when using the modular LaTeX
this already works fine.

To try the modular LaTeX install at least “texlive-base” into your
profile and remove the monolithic package.

--
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:

> Ricardo—
>
> On 17 Jan 10:03 Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
>> > I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:
>>
>> Hmm, something broke here.  I also cannot compile my older documents any
>> more.  I’ll investigate.
>
> That's great, thanks!

This is now fixed on the core-updates branch.  Note that it should not
be a problem that pdftex.map cannot be found.  The PDF file gets
generated just fine.

Personally, I always use lualatex (which was broken by a weird syntax
error caused by unpacking ltluatex.dtx in texlive-latex-base).

I was able to compile your document as well as my older documents with
lualatex.

--
Ricardo

bug#39161: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:

> texlive-latex-base provides ltluatex.lua.  This file is generated from
> ltluatex.dtx.
>
> ltluatex.dtx contains literal tabs in the embedded Lua sources.  Upon
> unpacking the dtx file to generate the file ltluatex.lua these tabs are
> erroneously converted to the string “^^I”, which breaks the lualatex
> tool and all other tools that derive from it.
>
> It is easy to patch ltluatex.dtx, but this will lead to rebuilding 3480
> dependent packages.

Done on core-updates in commit 201015b10e.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Je 17 jan 13:05 skribis Ricardo:
> Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:
> 
> > Ricardo—
> >
> > On 17 Jan 10:03 Ricardo Wurmus wrote:  
> >> > I am unable to use LaTeX and friends.  I get this error:  
> >>
> >> Hmm, something broke here.  I also cannot compile my older documents any
> >> more.  I’ll investigate.  
> >
> > That's great, thanks!  
> 
> This is now fixed on the core-updates branch.  Note that it should not
> be a problem that pdftex.map cannot be found.  The PDF file gets
> generated just fine.

Thank you for fixing this bug!

I switched to the core-updates branch, but I am not sure if I did it
correctly.  First I did

    guix pull --branch=core-updates

which seemed to work fine as there is a new current-guix link.  Then I
tried

    guix package -i texlive-latex-base -u

which did not succeed:

    ...
       readline     8.0 → 8.0.1     /gnu/store/hjh0n0f734q1mx9dnjlwisjl32nn43yl-readline-8.0.1
       pinentry-gtk2        1.1.0 → 1.1.0   /gnu/store/g7ymwwc10gzzqkzbvnqxg07lvls369my-pinentry-gtk2-1.1.0
       claws-mail   3.17.4 → 3.17.4 /gnu/store/6gzi2jhj5v1j3scrmfmcrckcph9vpjmz-claws-mail-3.17.4
       The following package will be installed:
       texlive-latex-base 51265   /gnu/store/s9qr333cj87mc1gpns1xcid763mfgfz3-texlive-latex-base-51265
       substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 162.2% guix package: error: got unexpected path `/gnu/store/dwynpdsqpw24q1rkia7j4ifscc1ph2wg-libfontenc-1.1.4.tar.bz2' from substituter

(sorry for mangling of the lines; pasted text should never be touched,
it's really Claws Mail's fault).  Whereas that did not work, I was able
to only install texlive-latex-base, but compilation of a document gives:

    $ lualatex test
    This is LuaTeX, Version 1.07.0 (TeX Live 2018) 
     restricted system commands enabled.
    
    (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
    $ latex test
    This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=latex)
     restricted \write18 enabled.
    ---! /home/marco/.guix-profile/share/texmf-dist/web2c/latex.fmt made by different executable version
    (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

So what my actual question here probably is: How do I make sure things
are consistent when switching branch?

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:

>     $ lualatex test
>     This is LuaTeX, Version 1.07.0 (TeX Live 2018) 
>      restricted system commands enabled.
>     
>     (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
>     $ latex test
>     This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=latex)
>      restricted \write18 enabled.
>     ---! /home/marco/.guix-profile/share/texmf-dist/web2c/latex.fmt made by different executable version
>     (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

Can you show us what “guix package -I | grep texlive” says?  Also please
remove ~/.texlive* if it exists and show us the output of “env”.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Je 18 jan 16:12 skribis Ricardo:
> Can you show us what “guix package -I | grep texlive” says?  Also please
> remove ~/.texlive* if it exists and show us the output of “env”.

marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
guile: warning: failed to install locale
texlive-fonts-latex	49435	out	/gnu/store/5m5nqvjvykw9xgfsv4azs4iv2dw03kf0-texlive-fonts-latex-49435
texlive	20180414	out	/gnu/store/wlba9v03ypi0z5qz7p89sa0w12lh37zb-texlive-20180414
texlive-latex-base	51265	out	/gnu/store/s9qr333cj87mc1gpns1xcid763mfgfz3-texlive-latex-base-51265

marco@graviton ~/temp$ rm -rf .texlive*
marco@graviton ~/temp$ latex test.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=latex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
---! /home/marco/.guix-profile/share/texmf-dist/web2c/latex.fmt made by different executable version
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

marco@graviton ~/temp$ env
SHELL=/gnu/store/n1c9jiv2njnvdfz58v71fvzq0hkgivz1-bash-5.0.7/bin/bash
WINDOWID=41943043
FER_DATA=/scratch/fer_dsets/data
COLORTERM=truecolor
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/home/marco/.guix-profile/etc/xdg:/run/current-system/profile/etc/xdg
FER_PALETTE=/home/marco/ferret/palettes /lokale-data/scratch/ferret/ppl
BASH_LOADABLES_PATH=/run/current-system/profile/lib/bash
LINUX_MODULE_DIRECTORY=/run/booted-system/kernel/lib/modules
XCURSOR_PATH=/home/marco/.icons:/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/icons:/run/current-system/profile/share/icons
FER_GO=/lokale-data/scratch/ferret/go /home/marco/ferret/scripts
NM_VPN_PLUGIN_DIR=/gnu/store/70sm39p9sxrjjlg66r5fgxs9aik1fvnj-network-manager-vpn-plugins/lib/NetworkManager/VPN
SWM_STARTED=YES
GPG_TTY=/dev/pts/4
GTK_DATA_PREFIX=/run/current-system/profile
XDG_SEAT=seat0
PWD=/home/marco/temp
LOGNAME=marco
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
MANPATH=/run/current-system/profile/share/man:/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/man:/run/current-system/profile/share/man
GUILE_LOAD_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/guile/site/2.2:/run/current-system/profile/share/guile/site/2.2
XAUTHORITY=/home/marco/.Xauthority
FER_FONTS=/lokale-data/scratch/ferret/ppl/fonts
X_XFCE4_LIB_DIRS=/run/current-system/profile/lib/xfce4
LD_PRELOAD=/gnu/store/dh3243hav0ldyy42sd0b0p7f52s1ns7f-spectrwm-3.2.0/lib/libswmhack.so.0.0
GIT_EXEC_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/libexec/git-core
HOME=/home/marco
_SWM_PID=22164
GIT_SSL_CAINFO=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
LANG=en_US.utf8
FER_GRIDS=/scratch/fer_dsets/grids
VTE_VERSION=5802
TEXMF=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/texmf-dist
SSL_CERT_DIR=/etc/ssl/certs
_SWM_WS=3
GIO_EXTRA_MODULES=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules:/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/gio/modules
PULSE_CLIENTCONFIG=/etc/pulse/client.conf
GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache:/run/current-system/profile/lib/guile/2.2/site-ccache
INFOPATH=/home/marco/.config/guix/current/share/info:/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/info:/run/current-system/profile/share/info:/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/info:/run/current-system/profile/share/info
DICPATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/hunspell:/run/current-system/profile/share/hunspell
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
DBUS_FATAL_WARNINGS=0
PYTHONPATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/python3.7/site-packages:/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/python3.7/site-packages
TERM=xterm-termite
TEXMFCNF=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/texmf-dist/web2c
ACLOCAL_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/aclocal
USER=marco
LIBRARY_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib:/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib
FER_DIR=/lokale-data/scratch/ferret
TZDIR=/gnu/store/9mmsilz9avdl49i6a6nj5mzfyim8ihv2-tzdata-2019c/share/zoneinfo
VISUAL=vim
DISPLAY=:0
SHLVL=1
PLOTFONTS=/lokale-data/scratch/ferret/ppl/fonts
GUIX_LOCPATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/locale
XDG_VTNR=7
XDG_SESSION_ID=c5
GST_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/lib/gstreamer-1.0
TERMINFO_DIRS=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share/terminfo
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
PULSE_CONFIG=/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/home/marco/.guix-profile/share:/run/current-system/profile/share:/home/marco/.guix-profile/share:/run/current-system/profile/share
PATH=/run/setuid-programs:/home/marco/.config/guix/current/bin:/home/marco/.guix-profile/bin:/home/marco/.guix-profile/sbin:/run/current-system/profile/bin:/run/current-system/profile/sbin
FER_DESCR=/scratch/fer_dsets/descr
FER_DSETS=/scratch/fer_dsets
MAIL=/var/mail/marco
CPATH=/home/marco/.guix-profile/include:/home/marco/.guix-profile/include
GUIX_GTK3_PATH=/run/current-system/profile/lib/gtk-3.0
_=/run/current-system/profile/bin/env
OLDPWD=/home/marco


—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:

> Je 18 jan 16:12 skribis Ricardo:
>> Can you show us what “guix package -I | grep texlive” says?  Also please
>> remove ~/.texlive* if it exists and show us the output of “env”.
>
> marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
> guile: warning: failed to install locale
> texlive-fonts-latex	49435	out	/gnu/store/5m5nqvjvykw9xgfsv4azs4iv2dw03kf0-texlive-fonts-latex-49435
> texlive	20180414	out	/gnu/store/wlba9v03ypi0z5qz7p89sa0w12lh37zb-texlive-20180414
> texlive-latex-base	51265	out	/gnu/store/s9qr333cj87mc1gpns1xcid763mfgfz3-texlive-latex-base-51265

Please remove the “texlive” package from your profile.
The env output looks fine.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Ricardo—

Je 19 jan 09:59 skribis Ricardo:
> Marco van Hulten <marco@hulten.org> writes:
> 
> > Je 18 jan 16:12 skribis Ricardo:  
> >> Can you show us what “guix package -I | grep texlive” says?  Also please
> >> remove ~/.texlive* if it exists and show us the output of “env”.  
> >
> > marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
> > guile: warning: failed to install locale
> > texlive-fonts-latex	49435	out	/gnu/store/5m5nqvjvykw9xgfsv4azs4iv2dw03kf0-texlive-fonts-latex-49435
> > texlive	20180414	out	/gnu/store/wlba9v03ypi0z5qz7p89sa0w12lh37zb-texlive-20180414
> > texlive-latex-base	51265	out	/gnu/store/s9qr333cj87mc1gpns1xcid763mfgfz3-texlive-latex-base-51265  
> 
> Please remove the “texlive” package from your profile.
> The env output looks fine.

Removing texlive (which is from the master branch) makes sense.

But now there are no "latex" or "lualatex" binaries.  Which packages
should contain the basic binaries?

I remember that in Debian there are texlive-{minimal,recommended,full}
meta packages.  I have always found TeX Live packaging very
unintelligible.  I do not know how to find any LaTeX package.

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Marco,

> Removing texlive (which is from the master branch) makes sense.
>
> But now there are no "latex" or "lualatex" binaries.  Which packages
> should contain the basic binaries?

Please install “texlive-base”, not “texlive-latex-base”.  This should
give you the minimal set of TeX Live packages alongside the executables.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Ricardo—

Je 19 jan 14:42 skribis Ricardo:
> > Removing texlive (which is from the master branch) makes sense.
> >
> > But now there are no "latex" or "lualatex" binaries.  Which packages
> > should contain the basic binaries?  
> 
> Please install “texlive-base”, not “texlive-latex-base”.  This should
> give you the minimal set of TeX Live packages alongside the executables.

There is progress; I have now installed texlive-base without
conflicting packages:

```
marco@graviton ~$ guix package -r texlive-latex-base texlive-fonts-latex -i texlive-base
guile: warning: failed to install locale
The following packages will be removed:
   texlive-latex-base   51265   /gnu/store/s9qr333cj87mc1gpns1xcid763mfgfz3-texlive-latex-base-51265
   texlive-fonts-latex  49435   /gnu/store/5m5nqvjvykw9xgfsv4azs4iv2dw03kf0-texlive-fonts-latex-49435

The following package will be installed:
   texlive-base 51265   /gnu/store/iccw4cdkcgmccl5svndji830k55v9cxy-texlive-base-51265

substitute: updating substitutes from 'https://ci.guix.gnu.org'... 100.0%
The following derivations will be built:
   /gnu/store/7lki7hpac5nf4qgnb54zis44m834v6cj-profile.drv
   /gnu/store/dqdg9ghskvjnvz73hh7x1f0b8wiaffkx-texlive-base-51265.drv
The following profile hooks will be built:
   /gnu/store/03k448bg3i6391n0aixka6ikm5bc6j2a-gtk-im-modules.drv
   /gnu/store/102xji5hvss21jg9r8zn8xwchnkyqknb-xdg-mime-database.drv
   /gnu/store/7vxdmwddij0ggnvk958bgy6pii0v1fk0-ca-certificate-bundle.drv
   /gnu/store/dzcdjfw0f08cq4bbq7mm377srv6hfplf-texlive-configuration.drv
   /gnu/store/haph9h15ky4vsvmxs1pgkiqphbiki517-glib-schemas.drv
   /gnu/store/jf3jg046qdb4kxxdkf15a13q433w002m-gtk-icon-themes.drv
   /gnu/store/m3sd8zhn7qa7c1m017ga0lz72j0q8lv0-fonts-dir.drv
   /gnu/store/mr50ypjcxxy8a0bzsw2swqhv51kw6fv9-info-dir.drv
   /gnu/store/q70mkdl367cn5a2rivx59z9gr3nwqf5l-manual-database.drv
   /gnu/store/vswv1a5ja58i5r9j88zxk0q777vjdmf6-xdg-desktop-database.drv
building /gnu/store/dqdg9ghskvjnvz73hh7x1f0b8wiaffkx-texlive-base-51265.drv...
building CA certificate bundle...
building fonts directory...
generating GLib schema cache...
creating GTK+ icon theme cache...
building cache files for GTK+ input methods...
building directory of Info manuals...
building database for manual pages...
building TeX Live configuration...
building XDG desktop file cache...
building XDG MIME database...
building /gnu/store/7lki7hpac5nf4qgnb54zis44m834v6cj-profile.drv...
74 packages in profile
marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
guile: warning: failed to install locale
texlive-base    51265   out     /gnu/store/iccw4cdkcgmccl5svndji830k55v9cxy-texlive-base-51265
```

But I have a locale issue:

```
marco@graviton ~/temp$ export LANG="nl_NL.utf8"
marco@graviton ~/temp$ lualatex test
Unable to read environment locale: exit now.
marco@graviton ~/temp$ locale -a | grep '\bnl_NL.utf8\b'
nl_NL.utf8
```

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi Marco,

> marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
> guile: warning: failed to install locale
> texlive-base    51265   out     /gnu/store/iccw4cdkcgmccl5svndji830k55v9cxy-texlive-base-51265
> ```
>
> But I have a locale issue:
>
> ```
> marco@graviton ~/temp$ export LANG="nl_NL.utf8"
> marco@graviton ~/temp$ lualatex test
> Unable to read environment locale: exit now.
> marco@graviton ~/temp$ locale -a | grep '\bnl_NL.utf8\b'
> nl_NL.utf8
> ```

Earlier when you ran “guix package -I” you had the same issue.  Please
take a look at the “Application Setup” section in the manual.  It tells
you how to set up things.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Ricardo—

Je 19 jan 16:01 skribis Ricardo:
> > marco@graviton ~$ guix package -I | grep texlive
> > guile: warning: failed to install locale
> > texlive-base    51265   out     /gnu/store/iccw4cdkcgmccl5svndji830k55v9cxy-texlive-base-51265
> > ```
> >
> > But I have a locale issue:
> >
> > ```
> > marco@graviton ~/temp$ export LANG="nl_NL.utf8"
> > marco@graviton ~/temp$ lualatex test
> > Unable to read environment locale: exit now.
> > marco@graviton ~/temp$ locale -a | grep '\bnl_NL.utf8\b'
> > nl_NL.utf8
> > ```  
> 
> Earlier when you ran “guix package -I” you had the same issue.  Please
> take a look at the “Application Setup” section in the manual.  It tells
> you how to set up things.

I had GUIX_LOCPATH set but did not have glibc-locales installed.
Installing this packages solved the issue and I can now compile TeX
files with success.  Thanks for the help!

To recap, to reduce the damage of going off-topic, compiling a TeX file
with {,lua}latex works when only texlive-base is installed.  I had to
do this:

    guix pull --branch=core-updates
    guix package -r texlive texlive-bin texlive-latex-base -i texlive-base

—Marco

Re: TeX Live issues

[Marco van Hulten]

Je 19 jan 17:34 skribis Marco:
> I had GUIX_LOCPATH set but did not have glibc-locales installed.
> Installing this packages solved the issue and I can now compile TeX
> files with success.  Thanks for the help!
> 
> To recap, to reduce the damage of going off-topic, compiling a TeX file
> with {,lua}latex works when only texlive-base is installed.  I had to
> do this:
> 
>     guix pull --branch=core-updates
>     guix package -r texlive texlive-bin texlive-latex-base -i texlive-base

I've done all these things (locales, installed only texlive-base from
core-updates branch, removed any other texlive* packages and removed
~/.texlive*), now under a different user, same Guix system.  I have
issues again:

```
$ lualatex apen
This is LuaTeX, Version 1.10.0 (TeX Live 2019) 
 restricted system commands enabled.

kpathsea: Running mktexfmt lualatex.fmt
mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf files (in precedence order):
mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf file for writing changes:
mktexfmt:   /home/otheruser/.texlive2019/texmf-config/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
mktexfmt [INFO]: writing formats under /home/otheruser/.texlive2019/texmf-var/web2c
mktexfmt [INFO]: did not find entry for byfmt=lualatex, skipped
mktexfmt [INFO]: Total formats: 0
mktexfmt [INFO]: exiting with status 0
I can't find the format file `lualatex.fmt'!
```

Given the similarity of the issue (except for that this does not now
relate to the package texlive-bin-20180414 as it is not installed), the
fact that I won't have a lot of time at the moment and don't want to
waste other people's time, and that there will be a next staging branch
soon, would it be best to wait when the latter happens and switch to
that one?

Of course, if there is still an actual issue (instead of user error) it
may actually be relevant to look at this more closely (but I don't know
anymore!), so here is at least some info:

    $ guix package -I | grep texlive
    texlive-base	51265	out	/gnu/store/iccw4cdkcgmccl5svndji830k55v9cxy-texlive-base-51265

—Marco