Man page 1 : fc-cache

fc-cache - build font information cache files

fc-cache [ -fsvVh ] [ --force ] [ --system-only ] [ --verbose ] [ --version ] [ --help ] [ \fBdir\fB... ]

fc-cache scans the font directories on the system and builds font information cache files for applications using fontconfig for their font handling.

If directory arguments are not given, fc-cache uses each directory in the current font configuration. Each directory is scanned for font files readable by FreeType. A cache is created which contains properties of each font and the associated filename. This cache is used to speed up application startup when using the fontconfig library.

Note that fc-cache must be executed once per architecture to generate font information customized for that architecture.

This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included below.

• -f
      Force re-generation of apparently up-to-date cache files, overriding the timestamp checking.
• -s
      Only scan system-wide directories, omitting the places located in the user's home directory.
• -v
      Display status information while busy.
• -h
      Show summary of options.
• -V
      Show version of the program and exit.
• \fBdir\fB
      Directory to scan for fonts.

• \fB%cachdir%/*-%arch%.cache-2\fB
      These files are generated by fc-cache and contain maps from file names to font properties. They are read by the fontconfig library at application startup to locate appropriate fonts.

fc-cat(1) fc-list(1) fc-match(1) fc-query(1) fc-scan(1)

The fontconfig user's guide, in HTML format: /usr/share/doc/fontconfig/fontconfig-user.html.

This manual page was written by Keith Packard <> and Josselin Mouette <>.