font policy changes
I am wrapping up the Debian packages (font + sources + binary utilities
package) for the GNU Unifont. I believe that some things in the Debian
Policy Manual version 3.8.0.1, 2008-06-05, concerning fonts are
outdated. Comments and suggestions are welcome. I'm running the stable
Etch 4.0r3 release.
1) Section 11.8.5, Packages providing fonts, specifies running
"update-fonts-dir". The man page for this command further specifies
that it should only be given the last directory in a path for a newly
added font. For example, if a font was just added to the X11 100dpi
directory, then it is only proper to run "update-fonts-dir 100dpi"
rather than give the full pathname to the fonts directory. This utility
then searches in /usr/lib/X11/fonts. That directory is deprecated on
Debian. Debian X11 fonts now appear under /usr/share/fonts/X11. The
wrong directory is searched even with "update-fonts-dir -7" or
"update-fonts-dir --x11r7-layout" -- the man page says those options
will search in /usr/share/fonts/X11. This looks like a bug.
2) If, to get around this, "update-fonts-dir" is given an absolute path,
it complains that it was given an absolute path.
3) Even if "mkfontdir" were invoked directly or if it's okay to give
"update-fonts-dir" an absolute path (in which case its man page needs to
be updated and the warning removed), isn't it also advisable to run
"xset fp rehash" in postinst and postrm scripts? That program is the
standard mechanism for updating installed fonts on recent versions of
X11, including in Debian and other GNU/Linux distributions.
4) What are the preferred steps for registering a TrueType font in
Debian? It is outside the X11 directory structure, and depends on the
TrueType font server. GNOME recognizes a newly installed TrueType font
but is there anything that should appear in a postinst or postrm script?
5) If I wanted to have symbolic links checked with dh_link, what is the
preferred way to enter an absolute path to your current location in the
file? Should I "just know" that the path will be
"/usr/share/<packagename>/", or will putting "$(CURDIR)/file.extension"
work in the debian/<package>.links file, or is there some other
preferred method? Right now I'm not using dh_link; I'm creating
symlinks with absolute paths in a Makefile using $(CURDIR).
Thanks for any advice.
Paul Hardy
unifoundry@unifoundry.com
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