1. NAME▲

update-fonts-alias - compile fonts.alias files

2. SYNOPSIS ▲

update-fonts-alias [OPTION] directory ...

3. DESCRIPTION ▲

update-fonts-alias assembles a fonts.aliasfile in an X font directory using one or more alias files found in a subdirectory of /etc/X11/fonts/ . It is typically invoked only from the post-installation and post-removal scripts of a packagecontaining X Window System fonts that provide aliases for their XLFD names, but may be invoked at any time to reconstruct fonts.aliasfiles. For each directory , which is simply the last component of its path (such as (oq75dpi(cq or (oqmisc(cq),

update-fonts-alias will assemble either /usr/lib/X11/fonts/ directory /fonts.alias or /usr/share/fonts/X11/ directory /fonts.alias from the files found in /etc/X11/fonts/ directory / package .alias .

This enables multiple packages to provide aliases for fonts in the same directory. No font package actually provides the fonts.aliasfile in the X font directory itself, so there is no danger of overwriting one package's aliases with those of another.

For instance, the two packages (oqxfonts-base(cq and (oqxfonts-base-transcoded(cq may both install fonts into the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc . They each place their fonts.aliasfiles in /etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-base.aliasand /etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-base-transcoded.alias(respectively).

update-fonts-alias concatenates these two files (as well as any others that match /etc/X11/fonts/misc/*.alias ) into /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/fonts.alias .

The format of fonts.aliasfiles is described in the

R mkfontdir (1x) manual page.

An example of how to use

update-fonts-alias in package maintainer scripts is provided in the Debian Policy Manual.

4. OPTIONS ▲

-h\fR, \fB--help displays a brief usage message and exits.

5. OPERANDS ▲

update-fonts-alias takes one or more X font directory names to operate on as operands. Only the final path component of the directory name should be specified; e.g.,

update-fonts-alias 75dpi is correct, while (oq "update-fonts-alias /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi" (cq and (oq "update-fonts-alias /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi" (cq are not.

6. ENVIRONMENT ▲

COLUMNS

    indicates the width of the terminal device in character cells. This value is used for formatting diagnostic messages. If not set, the terminal is queried using

R stty (1) to determine its width. If that fails, a value of (oq80(cq is assumed.

7. DIAGNOSTICS ▲

7.1. Errors ▲

usage error: one or more font directories must be provided

    .B update-fonts-alias was invoked without operands. Supply one or more X font directory names to operate on.

usage error: unrecognized option

    .B update-fonts-alias was invoked with an unrecognized option argument. Use only the options documented in « OPTIONS », above.

fatal error: path to X font directory must be used

    A directory name was supplied that was not an X font directory name. Supply X font directory names only.

7.2. Warnings ▲

  • warning: absolute path directory was provided
        Usage of absolute paths is deprecated. Use only the final component of the X font directory name for directory .
  • warning: directory does not exist or is not a directory
        The supplied directorywas invalid.

update-fonts-alias skipped it.

8. EXIT STATUS ▲

  • 0
        .B update-fonts-alias ran successfully.
  • 1
        .B update-fonts-alias experienced a fatal error; see the section on diagnostic messages above.
  • 2
        .B update-fonts-alias was invoked with invalid arguments.

9. BUGS ▲

See .URL "http://bugs.debian.org/xfonts-utils" "the Debian Bug Tracking System" . If you wish to report a bug in

R update-fonts-alias , please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txtor the

R reportbug (1) command.

10. AUTHOR ▲

update-fonts-alias was written by Branden Robinson.

11. SEE ALSO ▲

R mkfontdir (1x)