texlive-bin-extra: where is xindy?

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Hi,

Thanks for all the efforts! Xindy is producing *much* better indexes than texindex or makeindex. This package seems to provide its support files, but not the executable itself.

Well, actually, there is a Perl script here:

/opt/local/share/texmf-texlive/scripts/xindy/texindy.pl

But it does not work

xindy.pl: Cannot locate xindy library directory at /opt/local/share/texmf-texlive/scripts/xindy/xindy.pl line 327.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /opt/local/share/texmf-texlive/scripts/xindy/xindy.pl line 347.

Thanks in advance!

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

We don't currently build xindy because it has some heavy dependencies (clisp). We should either make it an optional variant on texlive-bin, or put it in a separate port. In either case, texlive-bin-extra shouldn't install the support files without the executable.

I'll see about doing this as part of the TL 2010 update (which should be happening soon).

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

I removed the xindy files from texlive-bin-extra when updating the ports to texlive 2010. The plan is to make a separate port for xindy but that hasn't happened yet.

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

I just created a portfile for xindy and committed it in r73542. Let me know if you run into any problems with it; I haven't tested it extensively.

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Thanks for your work! The installation went perfectly smoothly.

I gave it a quick shot, and it failed on my (large and rich) document. I have to track down to see what's the problem and if it's in my document, or xindy. It works with stock makeindex.

Reading indexstyle...
Loading module "/var/folders/qn/qnQcq104GhSx0tghyVh3Gk+++TM/-Tmp-/W4Yo0BLx3X"...
Loading module "lang/general/latin9-lang.xdy"...
Loading module "lang/general/latin9.xdy"...
Finished loading module "lang/general/latin9.xdy".
Finished loading module "lang/general/latin9-lang.xdy".
Loading module "tex/inputenc/latin.xdy"...
Finished loading module "tex/inputenc/latin.xdy".
Loading module "texindy.xdy"...
Loading module "numeric-sort.xdy"...
Finished loading module "numeric-sort.xdy".
Loading module "latex.xdy"...
Loading module "tex.xdy"...
Finished loading module "tex.xdy".
Finished loading module "latex.xdy".
Loading module "latex-loc-fmts.xdy"...
Finished loading module "latex-loc-fmts.xdy".
Loading module "makeindex.xdy"...
Finished loading module "makeindex.xdy".
Loading module "latin-lettergroups.xdy"...
Finished loading module "latin-lettergroups.xdy".
Finished loading module "texindy.xdy".
Loading module "page-ranges.xdy"...
Finished loading module "page-ranges.xdy".
Loading module "word-order.xdy"...
Finished loading module "word-order.xdy".
Finished loading module "/var/folders/qn/qnQcq104GhSx0tghyVh3Gk+++TM/-Tmp-/W4Yo0BLx3X".
Finished reading indexstyle.
Finalizing indexstyle... (done)

Reading raw-index "/var/folders/qn/qnQcq104GhSx0tghyVh3Gk+++TM/-Tmp-/zm07xZ_Gxj"...
WARNING: unknown cross-reference-class `hyperindexformat'! (ignored)
ERROR: CHAR: index 0 should be less than the length of the string
../../../doc/document-aux/bin/texi2dvi: texindy failed
gmake[1]: *** [urbi-sdk.pdf] Error 1

[drkp (Dan Ports)]

Replying to akim.demaille@…:

WARNING: unknown cross-reference-class `hyperindexformat'! (ignored)

This seems to be an incompatibility between xindy and the latest hyperref (in TL2010): ​http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.text.xindy.general/698

ERROR: CHAR: index 0 should be less than the length of the string
../../../doc/document-aux/bin/texi2dvi: texindy failed

Not sure whether this is caused by the earlier warning, or a separate issue...

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Replying to dports@…:

Replying to akim.demaille@…:

WARNING: unknown cross-reference-class `hyperindexformat'! (ignored)

This seems to be an incompatibility between xindy and the latest hyperref (in TL2010): ​http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.text.xindy.general/698

ERROR: CHAR: index 0 should be less than the length of the string
../../../doc/document-aux/bin/texi2dvi: texindy failed

Not sure whether this is caused by the earlier warning, or a separate issue...

Well, I finally took some time to track this down. It is indeed, unrelated. Cutting down my idx file, the culprit is:

\indexentry {!=@\lstinline []{!=}|hyperpage}{288}

So xindy does not like ! in entries that do not start with something. I can understand that, since it can be used as a separator of sub-index entries (see ​http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Indexing for instance). I had never noticed I had a problem there, since makeindex did not complain, but did not issue the index entry, indeed.

To summarize:

• this is clearly a bug in xindy which forgets to check that the string before ! is not empty
• this is clearly a bug in my document and I need to find a means for makeindex/xindy to accept this != entry.

I meant to answer here, since Google makes it the best match for ERROR: CHAR: index 0 should be less than the length of the string :)