possible (minor) glitch in fontconfig SlackBuild (14.1)

sanjioh · 02-02-2014, 07:50 AM

Hi everybody,

I think I've found an issue in fontconfig's SlackBuild.
Looking inside /etc/fonts/conf.d (after a fresh install) I've noticed that every link's target is something in '../conf.avail', es.:

Code:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  30 Feb  1 19:32 40-nonlatin.conf -> ../conf.avail/40-nonlatin.conf

This is not true for 10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf (provided by the fontconfig package):

Code:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  48 Feb  1 19:32 10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf -> /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf

The final result is obviously the same, but I was curious about this exception, since it could reveal an unintended behaviour.
The cause of this difference seems to be the fact that this specific link is not managed by the SlackBuild (see section with the comment: 'Set up the default options in /etc/fonts/conf.d:').
In fact, fontconfig's Makefile deals with the creation of these links itself (at compilation time); then the SlackBuild re-creates the links using the '../conf.avail' format. This happens for every link except that specific one.

The full list (taken from fontconfig's sources, specificly from conf.d/Makefile.am) should be:

Code:

CONF_LINKS = \
        10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf \
        20-unhint-small-vera.conf \
        30-urw-aliases.conf \
        30-metric-aliases.conf \
        40-nonlatin.conf \
        45-latin.conf \
        49-sansserif.conf \
        50-user.conf \
        51-local.conf \
        60-latin.conf \
        65-fonts-persian.conf \
        65-nonlatin.conf \
        69-unifont.conf \
        80-delicious.conf \
        90-synthetic.conf

Of course, if Pat's intention was instead to remove that specific link from the default list, the problem has to be addressed in a different way.

What do you think? I'll email Pat about this ASAP.

Bye!

allend · 02-02-2014, 06:12 PM

Steady little grasshopper.
The 10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf should not be symlinked in /etc/fonts/conf.d by default. It is an example of a rendering default that needs to be set for each specific system.

Have a look at the README in /etc/fonts/conf.d/ and for much more detailed info see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php..._configuration

sanjioh · 02-02-2014, 06:35 PM

That file is part of fontconfig's default settings since version 2.10.91 (see: http://www.freedesktop.org/software/...ngeLog-2.10.91 , commit dc11dd581f228623f0f14b3a6a1e4beaa659266b).

It's just included by default by the Makefile, who creates the proper link between conf.d and conf.avail. It's not managed by the slackbuild, so the link has a different target format (but with the same meaning).

However it's right there after a fresh install of the fontconfig package.

allend · 02-02-2014, 06:50 PM

OK -Thanks for the clarification. I get the point now. An upstream commit is now making a new default that is not specifically handled by the current Slackbuild.

sanjioh · 02-03-2014, 01:39 AM

Yes, that exactly summarizes what I meant

sanjioh · 02-05-2014, 05:09 PM

sorry guys, does anybody else have a second opinion on this? thanks