updating fontconfig cache freezes system

toxygen · 2017-01-12 02:21:04

is anyone else experiencing a freeze when updating fonts? whether a regular update (pacman -Syu) or manual install of a font (pacman -U fontpackage.pkg.tar.gz), my system freezes while updating the font cache for around a minute (or higher if there are many fonts being updated).
my cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
6gb ram

:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/3) Updating fontconfig cache...

this part is where it get stuck

I have this many fonts:

fc-list | wc -l
477

updating fontconfig has always been a bit slow, but only in the past two weeks or so has it frozen the rest of the system

there's nothing in the log other than the usual pacman messages

Last edited by toxygen (2017-01-12 02:21:53)

a821 · 2017-01-12 09:06:35

Did you check if by running "fc-cache" directly the system freezes? I just updated my system (fontconfig included) and it didn't freeze (but it took a bit). FWIW:

$ fc-list | wc -l
1303

toxygen · 2017-01-12 12:23:41

I did, both fc-cache and fc-cache-32, both completed instantly, it only happens with an upgrade or new font installation

a821 · 2017-01-12 13:11:21

Did you run it with "--force" or without? I just realized that forgot to tell you that, because you said it ran instantly. It uses "--force" after upgrades, see here.

https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … fontconfig

toxygen · 2017-01-13 00:20:15

time fc-cache --force

real    0m44.549s
user    0m41.913s
sys     0m0.193s

time fc-cache-32 --force

real    0m48.547s
user    0m46.017s
sys     0m0.180s

since both update at update time for any font, that's over a minute and a half each time

WorMzy · 2017-01-13 00:25:46

Run with the --verbose flag and see where the most time is being spent.

toxygen · 2017-01-13 00:54:14

got stuck on

/usr/share/fonts/noto:

everything else went quick

i have:

extra/noto-fonts 20161221-1
    Google Noto TTF fonts
extra/noto-fonts-cjk 1.004-3
    Google Noto CJK fonts
extra/noto-fonts-emoji 20161020-1
    Google Noto emoji fonts

noto by itself seems ok
noto+noto-cjk - slow
noto+noto-emoji - ok

Packages (1) noto-fonts-cjk-1.004-3

Total Installed Size:  120.17 MiB

that might be why right?

eschwartz · 2017-01-13 02:04:02

Note that the fontconfig hook only runs "fc-cache -s", without --force. So it won't bog down on every single font.

None of this is new, though -- it used to be in a per-package install script, but the non-forced updates were moved to a hook. If things are unusually slow these days, it is more likely to be an issue with fontconfig itself.

toxygen · 2017-01-13 02:17:21

Eschwartz wrote:

So it won't bog down on every single font.

nothing needs to be done user-side for this right? because I sometimes see it run multiple times when there are several font updates

eschwartz · 2017-01-13 03:13:05

"Something runs multiple times, once for each package" is exactly what hooks are supposed to fix.
The hook is automatically installed, and used, by fontconfig. Font packages are responsible for clearing up their obsolete install scripts.

The hook already runs without unnecessary forcing, which is why it won't (shouldn't) bog down on fonts that haven't been updated. I would hope that the (obsolete) install scripts used by various font packages would do the same, but I haven't checked...

a821 · 2017-01-13 07:16:55

Eschwartz wrote:

Note that the fontconfig hook only runs "fc-cache -s", without --force. So it won't bog down on every single font.

Ha! you're right, fontconfig was updated 10 hours ago after I posted and doesn't run "fc-cache -f" anymore, but "fc-cache -rs" [1, 2]. And now there is a hook /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/fontconfig.hook which was not present (I had thought there was one in there, but I couldn't find it). I guess this will make things run faster

[1] https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … fontconfig
[2] https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/pack … 6c2cdd4980

Arch Linux

#1 2017-01-12 02:21:04

updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#2 2017-01-12 09:06:35

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#3 2017-01-12 12:23:41

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#4 2017-01-12 13:11:21

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#5 2017-01-13 00:20:15

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#6 2017-01-13 00:25:46

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#7 2017-01-13 00:54:14

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#8 2017-01-13 02:04:02

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#9 2017-01-13 02:17:21

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#10 2017-01-13 03:13:05

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

#11 2017-01-13 07:16:55

Re: updating fontconfig cache freezes system

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