Re: TrueType fonts, Type1 fonts, X, and the FHS

[Eric Sharkey <sharkey@netrics.com>]

> Did anything ever come of this?

Last I heard was this text, attached to bug #109490:

  Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 01:06:24 +0000
  From: Robert McQueen <robot101@debian.org>
  To: 109490@bugs.debian.org

  [clip]

  I have spoken to Overfiend on IRC about this bug... essentially:
  <Overfiend> What Eric Sharkey says is correct.
  <Overfiend> I did make a policy proposal that would legitimize
  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
  <Overfiend> however, no one seconded it and we were frozen anyway
  <Robot101> but it didn't make it in?
  <Overfiend> I suspect it will go through anyway

  [clip]

Eric

> 
> On Thu, Oct 18, 2001 at 10:23:01AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > Hi guys,
> > 
> > Okay, I guess it's time things got straightened out with regards to
> > scalable fonts in Debian.
> > 
> > As you are all probably aware, there is no current Debian Policy governing
> > fonts other than fonts for X, and no Policy at all regarding TrueType
> > fonts.
> > 
> > Policy is already frozen for woody, but that doesn't mean we can't work
> > something out between ourselves, implement it now, and get a policy
> > proposal written up for inclusion later.
> > 
> > There are a few guiding principles that I think should be adhered to
> > when writing up a Debian Font Policy:
> > 
> > 1) Fonts should go in an FHS-compatible location.  This probably means
> > /usr/share/fonts, which some packages already use.
> > 2) /usr/share/fonts should probably be broken into subdirectories
> > indicating the file format of the font.  E.g.:
> >    /usr/share/fonts/truetype
> >    /usr/share/fonts/type1
> > Again, some packages already do this.
> > 3) Per FHS, only static data should go into /usr/share.  This is not an
> > appropriate place for fonts.dir files, because these can change.  See
> > the Debian X Font policy.
> > 4) A subdirectory of /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts should be created and used
> > in the short run to make these fonts accessible to font rasterizers for
> > the X Window System.  These directories should not contain fonts
> > themselves, but should contain symlinks on a per-file basis to, e.g.,
> > /usr/share/fonts/truetype/font.ttf
> > 5) Again, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType should NOT be a symlink to
> > /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
> > 6) In the long run, /usr/X11R6/lib/fonts should become a symlink into
> > /var/lib, because the fonts.* are updated on font package installation
> > and removal.
> > 
> > As a practical matter, I propose:
> > 
> > 1) To add /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType to dexconf-generated
> > XF86Config{,-4} files, to /etc/X11/fs/config, and to /etc/X11/XftConfig;
> > 2) That maintainers of packages containing Type1, and TrueType fonts:
> > 	A) install them to /usr/share/fonts/{truetype,type1,type3} as
> > 	appropriate;
> > 	B) provide fonts.scale files per existing Debian X Font Policy;
> > 	C) symlink each individual font file (.pfa, .pfb, .afm, .ttf,
> > 	etc.) from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/{Type1,TrueType} to
> > 	/usr/share/fonts/{truetype,type1};
> > 	D) invoke update-fonts-{alias,scale,dir} as prescribed in
> > 	existing Debian Policy.
> > 
> > For the time being, I propose that xfonts-scalable be grandfathered and
> > permitted to install files directly into /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,
> > though I may go ahead and change this before woody releases if testing
> > demonstrates that I can do it without breaking anything.
> > 
> > Is there anything I'm missing?  Any comments on the above?
> > 
> > -- 
> > G. Branden Robinson                |     Communism is just one step on the
> > Debian GNU/Linux                   |     long road from capitalism to
> > branden@debian.org                 |     capitalism.
> > http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |     -- Russian saying