[Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

piedro · 2013-11-18 12:33:35

Hi!

In my home folder I have a folder "fontconfig" which I haven't placed there and it annoys me that it is sitting there beetween "Music" and Documents". At least it could be a hidden folder. But I don't get any hint which program produced it. So I deleted it to find out which process will be complaining ... (a bit brute foce but ...) To my astonsihment nothing happened and the folder (well, to be exact it's absence) seems not to have any effect on anything ... good so far ... but after a few days the same folder with some cryptic files in it was back!

So, plz, how can I move this folder from ~/fontconfig to ~/.fontconfig or somewhere where it belongs?

thx for reading,
piedro

Last edited by piedro (2014-01-10 19:37:03)

karol · 2013-11-18 12:56:44

Post the names of these files and see which package - if any - they belong to.

Trilby · 2013-11-18 13:01:19

Karol, they are in ~, so they can't belong to any package.

~~Take a look at /etc/fonts/*/50-user.conf, I suspect somehow the '.' got removed from the path.~~

EDIT: I misread a bit of that file - that may still be possible, but it is much more likely there is an issue with your XDG_CONFIG_HOME setting. what does the following give:

echo $XDG_CONFIG_HOME

If that variable is set, processes should use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fontconfig, so it may be set to your home directory. If it is not set, processes should use $HOME/.fontconfig.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-11-18 13:04:48)

piedro · 2013-11-18 13:27:54

1f4f925ede335be07618ee0c9da6cf6f-le64.cache-3

names like that, about 10 to 15 files

and the variable is not set

so I deleted the folder again and get again no effect of that

hmmm

piedro · 2013-11-18 13:31:21

btw: I can't read them with Kate

p.

karol · 2013-11-18 13:37:45

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … figuration
Looks like $XDG_CACHE_HOME/fontconfig/*.cache-*
Try setting $XDG_CACHE_HOME to something sensible and see if it helps.

Last edited by karol (2013-11-18 13:39:08)

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:04:31

hmm after reading this article on font configuration, I am completely confused:

It looks like something is forcing depreciated settings ...
And I don't understand how to set $XDG_CACHE_HOME.

Where to set it? Which programs use it?

I don't need any "per user" configrations - I am the only user of this machine ...
So I shouldn't need any font configurations in my home folder except for those in the KDE systemsettings. But these are saved within the .kde4 and .config folders ...

thx anyway,
piedro

karol · 2013-11-18 15:07:26

E.g. in your ~/.bashrc add

export XDG_CACHE_HOME=/path/to/cachedir

Last edited by karol (2013-11-18 15:07:51)

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:10:58

"Configuration can be done per-user through $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fontconfig/fonts.conf, and globally with /etc/fonts/local.conf ..."

This article is outdated it seems, I don't have any of these files - there was no font.conf in the dubious fontconfig folder and there is no /etc/fonts/local.conf file anyway ... also I searched the whole system for a "fontconfig" folder - none exists (apart from the one in the trash) ...

p.

karol · 2013-11-18 15:18:47

I have a fontconfig directory in my $XDG_CACHE_HOME.

$ ls -l ~/mycache/fontconfig/
total 96
-rw-r--r-- 1 karol users    72 May 22 04:16 17090aa38d5c6f09fb8c5c354938f1d7-le32d4.cache-4
-rw-r--r-- 1 karol users    80 May 22 04:16 2d31a572ce6667f6a0da9c8dc611898b-le32d4.cache-4
-rw-r--r-- 1 karol users 74480 May 22 04:16 8d4af663993b81a124ee82e610bb31f9-le32d4.cache-4
-rw-r--r-- 1 karol users   200 May 22 04:16 CACHEDIR.TAG
-rw-r--r-- 1 karol users    72 May 22 04:16 df311e82a1a24c41a75c2c930223552e-le32d4.cache-4

These cache-4 files seem to be accessed on fontconfig update:

$ stat -c "%n %x" ~/mycache/fontconfig/*
/home/karol/mycache/fontconfig/17090aa38d5c6f09fb8c5c354938f1d7-le32d4.cache-4 2013-11-10 12:43:03.693064024 +0100
/home/karol/mycache/fontconfig/2d31a572ce6667f6a0da9c8dc611898b-le32d4.cache-4 2013-11-10 12:43:03.693064024 +0100
/home/karol/mycache/fontconfig/8d4af663993b81a124ee82e610bb31f9-le32d4.cache-4 2013-11-10 12:43:03.669730691 +0100
/home/karol/mycache/fontconfig/CACHEDIR.TAG 2013-05-22 04:16:44.033393618 +0200
/home/karol/mycache/fontconfig/df311e82a1a24c41a75c2c930223552e-le32d4.cache-4 2013-11-10 12:43:03.669730691 +0100

From my pacman.log:

[2013-11-10 12:43] [PACMAN] upgraded fontconfig-infinality-ultimate (2.11.0-6 -> 2.11.0-8)

Last edited by karol (2013-11-18 15:19:17)

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:23:56

"export XDG_CACHE_HOME=/path/to/cachedir"

ok, so I add this line to the .bashrc file?
but where is my correct cachedir? should I really have to set it manually? I shouldn't have make a cache dir for fonts in my user home folder I feel, because I don't use any per user configuration ... is there a way to find out which application forces the creation of this fontconfig folder?

sry for all the questions but I don't find any comprehensive information ... in the fontconfig article I don't get which case is the case for me ...

thx, p.

progandy · 2013-11-18 15:29:27

The default for $XDG_CACHE_HOME is ~/.cache/
You might want to set this variable in ~/.profile so it only gets set once after you login and not for each shell anew.

Last edited by progandy (2013-11-18 15:31:41)

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:30:00

Aah!

So thank you. Obviously only the updating produces the cache files then ...
So I can safely delete them. I still don't get why they are created within my home folder as the update process of pacman uses root privileges, right?
This behaviour seems unwanted to me ...

I now will set the cache to ~/.fontconfig and wait until the next update (yes I use the infinality stuff also)

thx a lot, I will post if there is more in the future,
for now I guess your workaround should work,
piedro

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:34:20

I was too late on that post!

In the folder ~/.cache I have another fontconfig folder with similar files. (why dolphin hasn't found it when I searched for "fontconfig" is beyond me ...)

So I will not reset the path as it is working already. Only some application ignores the default cache setting. This brings me back to the question: How to find out which package it is?

thx again, p.

Last edited by piedro (2013-11-18 15:35:29)

karol · 2013-11-18 15:37:50

piedro wrote:

In the folder ~/.cache I have another fontconfig folder with similar files. (why dolphin hasn't found it when I searched for "fontconfig" is beyond me ...)

You should check what's excluded from indexing: http://userbase.kde.org/Nepomuk

Strigi does not index every file on the hard drive. Its default configuration in most Linux distributions excludes some common patterns for backup files and configuration directories, and it only indexes certain directories in your home folder. You can change this in System Settings -> Desktop Search -> Desktop Query -> Customize index folders… -> Folders to index.

piedro · 2013-11-18 15:44:10

Thx Archivist, I checked and you are right: the hidden folders aren't indexed (probably a good thing!)

piedro

Last edited by piedro (2013-11-18 15:44:40)

progandy · 2013-11-18 18:05:59

piedro wrote:

So I will not reset the path as it is working already. Only some application ignores the default cache setting. This brings me back to the question: How to find out which package it is?

You can't find that out so easily. Remove the directory and run inotifywait in the background. If some application creates it you will be notified, then you can try to fix its configuration or source code.

while read file; do
   [ "$file" = "fontconfig" ] && notify-send "~/fontconfig CREATED"
done < <(inotifywait -m -e create --exclude "\." --format "%f" ~ )

piedro · 2013-11-19 10:10:14

After I started my computer today the folder reappeared.

Setting the $XDG_CACHE_HOME to ~/.cache/ doesn't seem to make sense (as you said it's the default anyway and the folder .cache contains a fontconfig folder also. So obviously the $XDG_CACHE_HOME setting is ignored by the package in question.

The file ~/.profile cannot be changed (as you suggested) because it doesn't exist.

I tried to run inotifywait but there is no such command. How to do that? Where to write your code to? Does the inotifywait solution work while I restart the machine (or relogon)?

it's a bit cryptic to me,
thx for your effort,
piedro

progandy · 2013-11-19 10:19:24

inotifywait is part of inotify-tools. It allows you to watch a file or directory for changes. This short script waits for the creation of a file or directory with the name "fontconfig" in your home. You'd run it from a shell in the background during your normal computer usage.
It cannot help during boot or relogon. If the directory is created in these cases, it should be easier to disable nonessential autostart applications and daemons, then verify fontconfig will not be not created, and then start one after the other until you find the culprit.

piedro · 2013-12-21 15:49:02

@progandy:

I left "inotify" running as you suggested but after about one week nothing showed up.
Now suddenly I found the folder again (probalby came up when I stopped running inotify :-()...

I reinstalled everything font related and while I installed the folder hasn't come back. Now I am waiting again ...

It's strange ...

p.

piedro · 2014-01-10 19:36:11

Hah! I found the culprit: A linux poker client software from "Seals with Clubs" obviously ignores systemwide settings (at least on Arch) and writes the folder into my home-directory. I informed the developers and they will look into it for their next version ... so I consider this solved ...

thx everyone for your help!

Cheers,
piedro

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-18 12:33:35

[Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#2 2013-11-18 12:56:44

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#3 2013-11-18 13:01:19

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#4 2013-11-18 13:27:54

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#5 2013-11-18 13:31:21

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#6 2013-11-18 13:37:45

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#7 2013-11-18 15:04:31

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#8 2013-11-18 15:07:26

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#9 2013-11-18 15:10:58

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#10 2013-11-18 15:18:47

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#11 2013-11-18 15:23:56

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#12 2013-11-18 15:29:27

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#13 2013-11-18 15:30:00

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#14 2013-11-18 15:34:20

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#15 2013-11-18 15:37:50

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#16 2013-11-18 15:44:10

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#17 2013-11-18 18:05:59

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#18 2013-11-19 10:10:14

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#19 2013-11-19 10:19:24

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#20 2013-12-21 15:49:02

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

#21 2014-01-10 19:36:11

Re: [Solved] Folder "fontconfig" in my user folder

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