missing latex.fmt and pdflatex.fmt files

[Dominique Lohez]

i I am upgrading my system to fedora core 5 linux from the the scratch I have installed the following teTex package from the rpm tetex-3.0-17.i386.rpm-3.0-17.i386.rpm tetex-afm-3.0-17.i386.rpm tetex-latex-3.0-17.i386.rpm tetex-fonts-3.0-17.i386.rpm tetex-dvips-3.0-17.i386.rpm tetex-xdvi-3.0-17.i386.rpm Additionnally I have installed latex2html-2002-2.1-5.1.rpm Trying to run latex with some existing file i am asked for a missing file  latex.fmt in the following context This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.141592-1.21a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.4) kpathsea: Running mktexfmt latex.fmt fmtutil: format `latex' not available. I can't find the format file `latex.fmt'! Similarly runing pdflatex with the same file I am asked   for the missing  file pdflatex.fmt Searching from the existing *.fmt files i get the following list /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/lambda.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/mptopdf.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/pdftex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/etex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/omega.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/lamed.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/amstex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/bamstex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/pdflatex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/aleph.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/latex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/bplain.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/cont-en.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/tex.fmt /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/pdfetex.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex209-jis.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex209.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex209-euc.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex-jis.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex-sjis.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/ptex-jis.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/ptex.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/ptex-sjis.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex-euc.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/ptex-euc.fmt /usr/share/texmf/web2c/platex209-sjis.fmt Since both pdflatex.fmt and latex.fmt do exist and not listed in /usr/share/texmf-var/ls-R regenerating this file  allow to correct the problem. Now my question Why the file ls-R is not uptodate Do i update all such files ( there is a lot ) have to be updated to avoid further difficulties ? Thank for your help Dominique