Manual: update-fonts-scale

update-fonts-scale(8)				   System Manager's Manual			       update-fonts-scale(8)

NAME
       update-fonts-scale - generate fonts.scale files

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

DESCRIPTION
       update-fonts-scale  assembles a fonts.scale file in an X font directory using one or more scale files found in a sub‐
       directory of /etc/X11/fonts/.  It is typically invoked only from the post-installation and post-removal scripts of  a
       package	containing  scalable  fonts  usable  by the X Window System whose X LFD font names are not in the font files
       themselves, but may be invoked at any time to reconstruct fonts.scale files.  For each directory, which is either  an
       absolute	 path  to  an  X  font	directory  or (preferably) simply the last component of its path (such as ‘75dpi’ or
       ‘misc’), update-fonts-scale will assemble either /usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory/fonts.scale or /usr/share/fonts/X11/di‐
       rectory/fonts.scale from the index files found at /etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.scale, where package is  the	name
       of the package installing the fonts.

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

       For instance, the two packages ‘xfonts-scalable’ (real) and ‘xfonts-nifty’ (hypothetical) may both install fonts into
       the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1.	They each place their fonts.scale files in /etc/X11/fonts/Type1/xfonts-scal‐
       able.scale  and	/etc/X11/fonts/Type1/xfonts-nifty.scale	 (respectively).   update-fonts-scale concatenates these two
       files (as well as any others that match /etc/X11/fonts/Type1/*.scale) into /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/fonts.scale.

       The format for fonts.scale files is given in the mkfontdir(1x) manual page.

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

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

OPERANDS
       update-fonts-scale 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-scale 75dpi
       is     correct,	   while     ‘update-fonts-scale     /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi’	 and	 ‘update-fonts-scale
       /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.

       DEBUG  determines whether low-level diagnostic messages are issued to standard error output.  A null (empty) or unset
	      value indicates that they are not, and a non-null value indicates that they are.

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

       usage error: unrecognized option
	      update-fonts-scale  was invoked with an unrecognized option argument.  Use only the options documented in “OP‐
	      TIONS”, 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  direc‐
	      tory.

       warning: directory does not exist or is not a directory
	      The supplied directory was invalid.  update-fonts-scale skipped it.

   Notes
       Notes are only displayed under special circumstances; see “ENVIRONMENT”.	 above.

       note: index references nonexistent font file filename
	      The  index  file /etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.scale, refers to a nonexistent font file, filename.  This is
	      normal when package has been removed, but not purged from the system.  In other circumstances, it likely indi‐
	      cates an error in package.

EXIT STATUS
       0      update-fonts-scale ran successfully.

       1      update-fonts-scale experienced a fatal error; see the section on diagnostic messages above.

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

BUGS
       See the Debian Bug Tracking System ⟨https://bugs.debian.org/xfonts-utils⟩.  If you  wish	 to  report  a	bug  in	 up‐
       date-fonts-scale, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.

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

SEE ALSO
       mkfontdir(1x)

Debian Project						 2004-11-12				       update-fonts-scale(8)