[SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-14 20:21:25

Hello,
So I am trying to create an AUR package for a font called "fang zheng kai ti pinyin" (it's a Chinese font I need for studies). The official website is here. Problem is, this website is demanding a phone number to download, but I don't live in China, so I can't download fonts from it (and even if I could, it would probably be really hard to get it downloading in a PKGBUILD). However, I have found a mirror site which does not seem to be the official website, but hosts the font nonetheless. So would it be permissible to download the font from this mirror site (or just put the font on GitHub and download it there)? Or should I include the TTF/TTC in the package itself when pushing the package to the AUR? What would be best practice?

(Please note: I'm don't know native Chinese, I'm just studying it, please don't direct me to Chinese forums.)

Last edited by Matr1x-101 (2023-09-15 15:40:18)

seth · 2023-09-14 21:22:48

You're not supposed to add source files to the AUR, let alone of questionable legality (I'm not saying that you're breaking any laws, but you don't sound like you'd know whether you are either)

Is this an AUR issue at all?
Your post sounds like you're mostly interested in a local installation of that file and when it comes to writing and compiling a package on your private system, all questions here collapse to "what you can get away with" and of course it's perfectly fine to reference a file in a relative path (ie. some local copy of the font)
Also, when it comes to fonts specifically: they're rarely dependencies for other packages and un/installation boils down to copy/remove file to/from /usr/share/fonts using a package is rather overengineering the problem.

loqs · 2023-09-14 21:29:07

Personal non-commercial license would be governed by the Founder Type Home Edition User License Agreement? https://www.foundertype.com/index.php/A … erPer.html Which I suspect is related to the required registration.

From the second site the disclaimer seems somewhat suspect to me:

Disclaimer: The fonts and related content provided by the website are collected from the Internet or uploaded by netizens, and are only for learning and communication. If your rights are violated, please write to inform us, and we will deal with it immediately. In addition, the font world website does not provide any guarantee for the authenticity and accuracy of the content.

You can host the PKGBUILD on AUR and require the font source to be supplied locally.

Last edited by loqs (2023-09-14 21:29:50)

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-14 21:32:17

Hello, I think it would be better to make an AUR package, since the ArchWiki specifically says that creation of an AUR package is recommended over manual installation. And if you look at the source link, it allows non-commercial use, so no if I copy the ttfs over this isn't violating copyright law.

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-14 21:39:13

Actually, I believe that @Ioqs' solution of asking for a manual user download is superior to other options, since it avoids less than ideal copyright and licencing issues. Of course, the licence should probably be provided through the AUR package directly (since that is standard procedure)

seth · 2023-09-14 21:41:11

The wiki wrote:

You should give pacman the ability to manage your fonts, which is done by creating an Arch package. These can also be shared with the community in the AUR. The packages to install fonts are particularly similar; see Font packaging guidelines.

And arch package isn't an AUR package, this is only relevant if you think more users might be interested in this.
And while there're benefits to get the font under pacman control and you maybe "should" do that, the extra effort, especially in this case, might outweigh the benefits by the oder of a couple of magnitudes.

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-14 21:57:29

Idk, I have a lot of time on my hands, and it's not like I have to maintain the package every 2 weeks. There's probably at least like 1 other person in the world that may want this font in the future so it's not all to waste.

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-15 15:39:19

Besides, if everyone took the purely practical approach of "let's just install packages for ourselves and not worry about community repos like the AUR" then how would the AUR be maintained? After all, someone has to do stuff like that to make it easier for everyone else. (note: I'm marking this as solved, there's not much more to be said.)

seth · 2023-09-15 15:45:28

If you think building a package where you first have to manually download a file so that the package can then copy that single file into a not-so-obscure location simplifies things, then sure.
There're very good reasons to use package managers to build and maintain stuff, the general wisdom isn't challenged at all.
The question is whether they apply in this single, extremely specific case.

Matr1x-101 · 2023-09-15 15:57:21

I think that while some advantages of package managers are not applicable in this case, many others are. After all, many GOG games should be downloaded manually and run from an auto-install script, but people still download the sh script and manually use a PKGBUILD to extract all the files and install them to arch. Why? It's the ease of install/uninstall, the fact the licence installs automatically, and more importantly, if a compatibility issue occurs, you usually aren't left completely in the dark. Although I understand compatibility issues with fonts are quite rare, they still can crop up time to time. Besides, many ttfs on the AUR (apart from the manual file download) are not dependencies of any package, and are just as obscure. But people still maintain them sometimes for the aforementioned reasons.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-09-14 20:21:25

[SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#2 2023-09-14 21:22:48

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#3 2023-09-14 21:29:07

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#4 2023-09-14 21:32:17

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#5 2023-09-14 21:39:13

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#6 2023-09-14 21:41:11

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#7 2023-09-14 21:57:29

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#8 2023-09-15 15:39:19

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#9 2023-09-15 15:45:28

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

#10 2023-09-15 15:57:21

Re: [SOLVED] Issues with downloading when making an AUR package for a font

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