Arch Linux

shasherazi

Member

Registered: 2022-06-23

Posts: 1

Accidentally deleted the /etc/fonts/ directory, how do I restore?

There are no backups, reinstalling fontsconfig gives the

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file: No such file: (null)

error. Can't find the default files either. Are there symlinks I need to create too after restoring the files somehow?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,530

Website

Re: Accidentally deleted the /etc/fonts/ directory, how do I restore?

The contents of that directory are (mostly) symlinks to conf files under /usr/share/fontconfig/{conf.default,conf.avail}.  The links to the conf.default files I believe are created by a post-install script and / or pacman hook from the fontconfig package.  So reinstalling fontconfig should have you back up and running.  But any specific configurations you've added by creating new links to itesm in conf.avail can not be reconstructed automatically unless you have a backup - you'll just have to redo any of your own configs.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,193

Re: Accidentally deleted the /etc/fonts/ directory, how do I restore?

Yes, the font configuration has to be created.
You can either force-remove fontconfig and install it again or manually run the command founds in /var/lib/pacman/local/fontconfig-????/install
fontconfig has a special install script that only works for a clean installation or an update from a somewhat older version. A reinstallation in form of an upgrade does not create the default configuration.

Last edited by progandy (2022-06-23 12:32:00)

---

| alias CUTF='LANG=en_XX.UTF-8@POSIX ' |