update-fonts-alias(8) - phpMan

update-fonts-alias(8) update-fonts-alias(8)

NAME
update-fonts-alias - compile fonts.alias files

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

DESCRIPTION
update-fonts-alias assembles a fonts.alias file 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 package containing X Window System
fonts that provide aliases for their XLFD names, but may be invoked at any time to recon-
struct fonts.alias files. For each directory, which is simply the last component of its
path (such as '75dpi' or 'misc'), 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.alias file 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 'xfonts-base' and 'xfonts-base-transcoded' may both install
fonts into the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc. They each place their fonts.alias files
in /etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-base.alias and
/etc/X11/fonts/misc/xfonts-base-transcoded.alias (respectively). update-fonts-alias con-
catenates 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.alias files is described in the mkfontdir(1x) manual page.

An example of how to use update-fonts-alias in package maintainer scripts is provided in
the Debian Policy Manual.

OPTIONS
-h, --help displays a brief usage message and exits.

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 'update-fonts-alias /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi' and
'update-fonts-alias /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi' are not.

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
stty(1) to determine its width. If that fails, a value of '80' is assumed.

DIAGNOSTICS
Errors
usage error: one or more font directories must be provided
update-fonts-alias was invoked without operands. Supply one or more X font direc-
tory names to operate on.

usage error: unrecognized option
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.

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 directory was invalid. update-fonts-alias skipped it.

EXIT STATUS
0 update-fonts-alias ran successfully.

1 update-fonts-alias experienced a fatal error; see the section on diagnostic mes-
sages above.

2 update-fonts-alias was invoked with invalid arguments.

BUGS
See the Debian Bug Tracking System <http://bugs.debian.org/xfonts-utils>. If you wish to
report a bug in update-fonts-alias, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or
the reportbug(1) command.

AUTHOR
update-fonts-alias was written by Branden Robinson.