NAME

       update-fonts-alias - compile fonts.alias files

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       update-fonts-alias  assembles  a fonts.alias file in an X font directory using one or more
       alias 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 X Window System
       fonts that provide aliases for their XLFD names,  but  may  be  invoked  at  any  time  to
       reconstruct  fonts.alias files.  For each directory, which is simply the last component of
       its  path  (such  as  ‘75dpi’  or  ‘misc’),  update-fonts-alias   will   assemble   either
       /usr/lib/X11/fonts/directory/fonts.alias   or   /usr/share/fonts/X11/directory/fonts.alias
       from the files found in /etc/X11/fonts/directory/package.alias.

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

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

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

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

OPTIONS

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

OPERANDS

       update-fonts-alias 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-alias 75dpi
       is     correct,     while    ‘update-fonts-alias    /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi’    and
       ‘update-fonts-alias /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-alias was invoked  without  operands.   Supply  one  or  more  X  font
              directory names to operate on.

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

EXIT STATUS

       0      update-fonts-alias ran successfully.

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

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

AUTHOR

       update-fonts-alias was written by Branden Robinson.

SEE ALSO

       mkfontdir(1x)