mkfontdir(X)             X Version 11 (Release 4)               mkfontdir(X)



 Name

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

 Syntax

    mkfontdir [directory-names]


 Description

    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 depend on configuration parame-
    ters, 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.
    Each entry in the file consists of 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"  \"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

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


 See also

    X(X), Xsco(X), xset(X)