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Re: fontconfig packaging suggestion


On 2014-04-04 03:40, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
On Apr  3 18:52, Ken Brown wrote:
There is a problem with having fontconfig include the Windows Fonts
directory in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf.  Namely, the font cache for that
directory is very likely to be out of date [*], but most users have
no idea that they need to run fc-cache to keep it up to date.  This
can cause slowdowns or worse for applications that use fontconfig.
See, for instance
http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2013-12/threads.html#00246 and several
similar reports that came later.

I propose that fontconfig *not* include the Windows Fonts directory,
but that a new package (perhaps called fontconfig-windows-fonts) be
created that takes over this functionality.  This could either be a
subpackage of fontconfig or an independent package, in which case I
would be glad to maintain it.

This package would handle the Windows Fonts directory by creating
the appropriate file in /etc/fonts/conf.d, and it would also provide
a script that calls fc-cache to update the Windows Fonts cache.  The
release announcement would warn users that the script should be
called whenever the Windows Fonts directory changed.  And I would
explicitly advise emacs-X11 users *not* to install the package
unless they really want to be able to use Windows fonts while
running emacs under X.

WDYT?

The concern is definitely valid and I'm considering various options.

I'm not Yaakov, but, may I throw in a dumb idea?

What if fontconfig installs scripts for sh and csh in /etc/profile.d,
which has only one task:  It checks if the fc cache is older than the
modification date of the Windows fonts directory.  If so, it either
calls fc-cache or, if that takes too long, it simply informs the user
in distinct words that fc-cache needs running.

Would that work?  Does it make sense?

That's one option, but I'm not sure yet if it covers all possible scenarios.


Yaakov


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