Back to the original problem. Just now building the latest tip on linux with make -j8 I got:
GEN doc/interpreter/splinefit3.png
GEN doc/interpreter/splinefit4.png
GEN doc/interpreter/splinefit6.png
MAKEINFO ../doc/interpreter/
octave.info TEXI2DVI doc/interpreter/octave.dvi
MAKEINFO doc/interpreter/octave.html/.octave-html-stamp
/usr/bin/texi2dvi: etex exited with bad status, quitting.
make[2]: *** [Makefile:30580: doc/interpreter/octave.dvi] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[2]: Leaving directory '/d2/home/dima/src/octave/gcc_def'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:26948: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/d2/home/dima/src/octave/gcc_def'
make: *** [Makefile:10811: all] Error 2
>>>>
Running "make V=1" -- finished building w/o problem.
This is on Fedora 29.
Dmitri.