NAME

       update-fonts-dir - compile fonts.dir files

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       update-fonts-dir creates a fonts.dir file in an X font directory by invoking mkfontdir(1x)
       with the appropriate arguments.  It is typically invoked only from  the  post-installation
       and post-removal scripts of a package containing fonts for the X Window System, but may be
       invoked at any time to reconstruct fonts.dir files.  For each directory, which  is  simply
       the last component of its path (such as ‘75dpi’ or ‘misc’), update-fonts-dir will generate
       either /usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory/fonts.dir or  /usr/share/fonts/X11/directory/fonts.dir
       from the fonts.scale and font files found within it.

       This  enables multiple packages to provide names for fonts in the same directory.  No font
       package actually provides the fonts.dir 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-base’ (real) and ‘xfonts-nifty’ (hypothetical) may
       both install fonts into the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc, and  update-fonts-dir  will
       ensure that the fonts.dir file in that directory contains information about the font files
       provided by both packages.

       The format of fonts.dir files is described in the mkfontdir(1x) manual page.

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

OPTIONS

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

       -7,  --x11r7-layout  switches  the  font  layout  to the one introduced in X11R7: fonts in
       /usr/share/fonts/X11/directory (default is: fonts in /usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory)

OPERANDS

       update-fonts-dir 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-dir 75dpi
       is  correct, while ‘update-fonts-dir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi’ and ‘update-fonts-dir
       /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.

DIAGNOSTICS

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

       usage error: unrecognized option
              update-fonts-dir  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-dir skipped it.

EXIT STATUS

       0      update-fonts-dir ran successfully.

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

       2      update-fonts-dir 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-dir, please  see  /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt  or
       the reportbug(1) command.

AUTHOR

       update-fonts-dir was written by Branden Robinson.

SEE ALSO

       mkfontdir(1x)