MKFONTDIR(1) — USER COMMANDS

NAME

mkfontdir − creates a fonts.dir file for each specified directory of font files.

SYNTAX

mkfontdir [directory-names]

DESCRIPTION

For each directory argument, mkfontdir reads all of the font files in the directory and searches 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 depend 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 ALIASES

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 searched 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), precede them with back-slash:

"magic-alias with spaces"	"\"fontname\" with quotes"
regular alias	fontname

If the string FILE_NAMES_ALIASES stands alone on a line, each filename in the particular directory (stripped of it’s .snf suffix) will be used as an alias for that font.

USAGE

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