NAME

       update-fonts-scale - generate fonts.scale files

SYNOPSIS

       update-fonts-scale [OPTION] directory ...

DESCRIPTION

       update-fonts-scale  assembles  a fonts.scale file in an X font directory using one or more
       scale files found in a subdirectory of /etc/X11/fonts/.  It is typically invoked only from
       the  post-installation  and  post-removal  scripts  of a package containing scalable fonts
       usable by the X Window System whose X LFD font names are not in the font files themselves,
       but  may  be  invoked  at  any time to reconstruct fonts.scale files.  For each directory,
       which is either an absolute path to an X font directory or (preferably)  simply  the  last
       component of its path (such as ‘75dpi’ or ‘misc’), update-fonts-scale will assemble either
       /usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory/fonts.scale   or   /usr/share/fonts/X11/directory/fonts.scale
       from the index files found at /etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.scale, where package is the
       name of the package installing the fonts.

       This enables multiple packages to provide names for fonts in the same directory.  No  font
       package actually provides the fonts.scale file in the X font directory itself, so there is
       no danger of overwriting one package's font names with those of another.

       For instance, the two packages ‘xfonts-scalable’ (real) and ‘xfonts-nifty’  (hypothetical)
       may both install fonts into the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1.  They each place their
       fonts.scale      files       in       /etc/X11/fonts/Type1/xfonts-scalable.scale       and
       /etc/X11/fonts/Type1/xfonts-nifty.scale  (respectively).   update-fonts-scale concatenates
       these two files (as well as  any  others  that  match  /etc/X11/fonts/Type1/*.scale)  into
       /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/fonts.scale.

       The format for fonts.scale files is given in the mkfontdir(1x) manual page.

       An  example  of how to use update-fonts-scale in package maintainer scripts is provided in
       the Debian Policy Manual.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help displays a brief usage message and exits.

OPERANDS

       update-fonts-scale takes one or more X font directory names to  operate  on  as  operands.
       Only the final path component of the directory name should be specified; e.g.,
              update-fonts-scale 75dpi
       is     correct,     while    ‘update-fonts-scale    /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi’    and
       ‘update-fonts-scale /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi’ are not.

ENVIRONMENT

       COLUMNS
              indicates the width of the terminal device in character cells.  This value is  used
              for  formatting  diagnostic  messages.   If  not set, the terminal is queried using
              stty(1) to determine its width.  If that fails, a value of ‘80’ is assumed.

       DEBUG  determines whether low-level diagnostic  messages  are  issued  to  standard  error
              output.   A null (empty) or unset value indicates that they are not, and a non-null
              value indicates that they are.

DIAGNOSTICS

   Errors
       usage error: one or more font directories must be provided
              update-fonts-scale was invoked  without  operands.   Supply  one  or  more  X  font
              directory names to operate on.

       usage error: unrecognized option
              update-fonts-scale  was invoked with an unrecognized option argument.  Use only the
              options documented in “OPTIONS”, above.

       fatal error: path to X font directory must be used
              A directory name was supplied that was not an X font directory name.  Supply X font
              directory names only.

   Warnings
       warning: absolute path directory was provided
              Usage  of absolute paths is deprecated.  Use only the final component of the X font
              directory name for directory.

       warning: directory does not exist or is not a directory
              The supplied directory was invalid.  update-fonts-scale skipped it.

   Notes
       Notes are only displayed under special circumstances; see “ENVIRONMENT”.  above.

       note: index references nonexistent font file filename
              The index file /etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.scale, refers to a nonexistent font
              file,  filename.  This is normal when package has been removed, but not purged from
              the system.  In other circumstances, it likely indicates an error in package.

EXIT STATUS

       0      update-fonts-scale ran successfully.

       1      update-fonts-scale experienced  a  fatal  error;  see  the  section  on  diagnostic
              messages above.

       2      update-fonts-scale was invoked with invalid arguments.

BUGS

       See the Debian Bug Tracking System ⟨https://bugs.debian.org/xfonts-utils⟩.  If you wish to
       report a bug in update-fonts-scale, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt  or
       the reportbug(1) command.

AUTHOR

       update-fonts-scale was written by Branden Robinson.

SEE ALSO

       mkfontdir(1x)