compile erros (tex)

[Harry Putnam]

My setup:
Redhat 8 
emacs-21-2.1 (installed from Redhat rpms)

Compiling todays cvs tramp I get errors invoving tex.
I get kicked into an ed like editor 

make 
[...]
  @macro trampver{}
  2.0.25
  77471
  sed "s/address@hidden x\{0,1\}emacs$/@set emacs/g" tramp.texi >$$; \
  mv $$ tramp.texi
  test -d ../info || mkdir ../info
  makeinfo --footnote-style=end --no-split -o ../info/tramp tramp.texi
  texi2dvi tramp.texi
  This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1)
  (/usr/local/tramp/texi/tramp.texi (/usr/share/texmf/tex/texinfo/texinfo.tex
  Loading texinfo [version 1999-09-25.10]: Basics, pdf, fonts, page headings,
  tables, conditionals, indexing, sectioning, toc, environments, defuns, macros,
  cross references, (/usr/share/texmf/tex/plain/dvips/epsf.tex) localization,
  and turning on texinfo input format.) (tramp.aux)
  ! Undefined control sequence.
  l.70 @copying
              
  ? 
If I then type q to run quietly, it finishes like:

  OK, entering @batchmode/usr/bin/texi2dvi: tex exited with bad status, 
quitting.
  /usr/bin/texi2dvi: see tramp.log for errors.
  make[1]: *** [tramp.dvi] Error 1
  make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/tramp/texi'
  make: *** [all] Error 2

Tex version problems?