MKFONTDIR(1)                         SysV                         MKFONTDIR(1)



NAME
     mkfontdir - create fonts.dir file from directory of font files.

SYNOPSIS
     mkfontdir [directory-names]

DESCRIPTION
     Mkfontdir For each directory argument, mkfontdir reads all of the font
     files in the directory searching for properties named "FONT", or (failing
     that) the name of the file stripped of its suffix.  These are used as
     font names, which are written out to the file "fonts.dir" in the
     directory along with the name of the font file.

     The kinds of font files read by mkfontdir depends on configuration
     parameters, but typically include SNF (suffix ".snf"), compressed SNF
     (suffix ".snf.Z"), BDF (suffix ".bdf"), and compressed BDF (suffix
     ".bdf.Z").  If a font exists in multiple formats, the most efficient
     format will be used.

FONT NAME ALIAES
     The file "fonts.alias" which can be put in any directory of the font-path
     is used to map new names to existing fonts, and should be edited by hand.
     The format is straight forward enough, two white-space separated columns,
     the first containing aliases and the second containing font-name
     patterns.

     When a font alias is used, the name it references is search for in the
     normal manner, looking through each font directory in turn.  This means
     that the aliases need not mention fonts in the same directory as the
     alias file.

     To embed white-space in either name, simply enclose them in double-quote
     marks, to embed double-quote marks (or any other character), preceed them
     with back-slash:

     "magic-alias with spaces"     "\"font\name\" with quotes"
     regular-alias            fixed

     If the string "FILE_NAMES_ALIASES" stands alone on a line, each file-name
     in the directory (stripped of it's .snf suffix) will be used as an alias
     for that font.

USAGE
     Xserver(1) looks for both "fonts.dir" and "fonts.alias" in each directory
     in the font path each time it is set (see xset(1)).

SEE ALSO
     X(1), Xserver(1), xset(1)