[SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

Trilby · 2017-10-08 14:02:49

I've long had issues with font-config which I've just not cared about. I don't use it for anything and prefer to avoid tools that use it. This has, however, prevented me from using the st terminal emulator.

I'd really like to give st a try again, but I'd like to use terminus font (that's [community]/terminus-font not any TTF variant of it). In order to use terminus, I need to have a string that fc-match will recognize as terminus. I am aware of the issue of the name changing from "Terminus" to "xos4 Terminus", but that is not my issue, rather font-config simply has no entry at all for terminus, the following returns nothing:

fc-match -a | grep -i term

Terminus font is installed under /user/share/fonts/misc. This path is in a "Files" section of an xorg.conf.d file and is listed in my xorg log. But I don't think this should matter as the fontconfig wiki notes the following:

wiki wrote:

The font paths initially known to Fontconfig are: /usr/share/fonts/, ~/.local/share/fonts (and ~/.fonts/, now deprecated). Fontconfig will scan these directories recursively.

In my case, however, fontconfig is most definitely not scanning those directories recursively as dumping all files in the fc-list includes *only* /usr/share/fonts/TTF and /usr/share/fonts/OTF fonts:

$ fc-list : file | cut -d/ -f5 | sort -u
OTF
TTF

Other directories are there, but ignored:

$ ls /usr/share/fonts
100dpi/  75dpi/  OTF/  TTF/  Type1/  cyrillic/  encodings/  local/  misc/  util/

Is fontconfig supposed to scan directories recursively as the wiki states? If so, how can I track down why it isn't for me? (I have forced a rebuild of the fc-cache but there has been no change). Alternatively, is there another way to specify a font for st? In urxvt despite being able to use fontconfig, if you pass it a proper XLFD it will use the specified font (I use terminus just fine in urxvt), st however does not seem to accept XFLDs.

I did start hacking away at st to remove all traces of fontconfig, but that turned out to be more work than I had anticipated.

(edit: typos)

Last edited by Trilby (2017-10-08 16:25:35)

bgc1954 · 2017-10-08 15:25:04

I'm not a fan of font configuration either and have, like you, generally ignored it.

After reading your post, I looked at an old /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that I had used long ago for terminus font recognition in urxvt which still had an entry in the "Files" section for "/usr/share/fonts/local/". See, that's how much I pay attention to fonts. I didn't even realize that they were under misc now. Anyway, even with the erroneous xorg.conf, I still get misc showing in my fc-list and all my terminus fonts show up for

fc-match -a | grep -i term

I have nothing in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d and I removed my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and my terminus show up as it should so I'm not sure what's going on on your end. Odd?

edit: wrong code tagging

Last edited by bgc1954 (2017-10-08 15:27:49)

dlz · 2017-10-08 15:42:25

Trilby wrote:

Is fontconfig supposed to scan directories recursively as the wiki states? If so, how can I track down why it isn't for me? (I have forced a rebuild of the fc-cache but there has been no change).

To see which font directories are cached, use:

fc-cache -v

Trilby · 2017-10-08 16:05:30

Thanks bgc, it's good to at least know it *should* work. Now to figure out why mine isn't.

Diz, here's the output, the 'misc' directory is listed just like the OTF/TTF directories:

$ fc-cache -v
/usr/share/fonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 10 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/OTF: skipping, existing cache is valid: 23 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/TTF: skipping, existing cache is valid: 69 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/Type1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/encodings: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/encodings/large: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/local: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/misc: skipping, existing cache is valid: 107 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/util: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/home/jmcclure/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/home/jmcclure/.fonts: skipping, no such directory
/var/cache/fontconfig: not cleaning unwritable cache directory
/home/jmcclure/.cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/jmcclure/.fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded

I've been exploring other fc-* tools (via trial and error as none of the documentation provides a clear picture of any sort of deterministic behavior). I found `fc-cat` does include terminus and other fonts under `misc`, yet fc-list and fc-match do not find them - this makes no sense to me as the different fc-* tools seem to disagree on what is in the fontconfig cache.

----------------------------

Solution:

I had - following the wiki - enabled several configs by creating links under /etc/fonts/conf.d to config files in /etc/fonts/conf.avail. One of these was 70-no-bitmaps.conf which prevents fc-match from finding any bitmapped fonts even when they are specifically requested. I also had 75-yes-terminus.conf, but this has the old name "Terminus" and doesn't work unless it's revised to "xos4 Terminus". I think I'm just nuking that font-config directory, apparently it's purpose is to prevent fontconfig from actually working.

Last edited by Trilby (2017-10-08 16:25:17)

dlz · 2017-10-08 16:32:55

Trilby wrote:

I had - following the wiki - enabled several configs by creating links under /etc/fonts/conf.d to config files in /etc/fonts/conf.avail. One of these was 70-no-bitmaps.conf which prevents fc-match from finding any bitmapped fonts even when they are specifically requested. I also had 75-yes-terminus.conf, but this has the old name "Terminus" and doesn't work unless it's revised to "xos4 Terminus". I think I'm just nuking that font-config directory, apparently it's purpose is to prevent fontconfig from actually working.

in my "/etc/fonts/conf.d/" directory, there is NO link to "70-no-bitmaps.conf"
but I have a link to "75-yes-terminus.conf"
inside this file there si the line:

<patelt name="family"><string>Terminus</string></patelt>

so you do not have to change this to "xos4 Terminus".
I use Terminus for dwm and st. it works just fine.

Well, in the "config.h" of dwm you have to actually use "xos4 Terminus".

Last edited by dlz (2017-10-08 16:34:48)

Trilby · 2017-10-08 16:54:45

diz, that 75-yes-terminus.conf only server as an exception to the 70-no-bitmaps. Essentially the latter blocks all bitmap fonts, and the former allows "Terminus" in as an exception to that. But now that 75-yes-terminus is completely ineffective: without 70-no-bitmaps it doesn't matter, but with 70-no-bitmaps it fails to properly provide an exception (as "Terminus" is no longer the correct name).

ubone · 2018-04-22 04:40:39

you could just start st with -f xos4\ terminus-18

Trilby · 2018-04-22 10:40:55

ubone, please actually read the thread, that would not have worked at all. But regardless this was solved over six months ago. Do not necrobump particularly solved threads.

WorMzy · 2018-04-22 10:48:50

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-08 14:02:49

[SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#2 2017-10-08 15:25:04

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#3 2017-10-08 15:42:25

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#4 2017-10-08 16:05:30

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#5 2017-10-08 16:32:55

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#6 2017-10-08 16:54:45

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#7 2018-04-22 04:40:39

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#8 2018-04-22 10:40:55

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

#9 2018-04-22 10:48:50

Re: [SOLVED] terminus in st, fontconfig doesn't scan /usr/share/fonts/misc

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