Manual: update-fonts-alias

update-fonts-alias(8)			   System Manager's Manual		       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 reconstruct 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/direc‐
       tory/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 over‐
       writing 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  (respec‐
       tively).	  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.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 fi‐
       nal 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 format‐
	      ting  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 directory 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 messages above.

       2      update-fonts-alias 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 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.

SEE ALSO
       mkfontdir(1x)

Debian Project					 2004-11-11			       update-fonts-alias(8)