Re: [PATCH 2/3] profiles: Add fonts-dir-file hook.

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:

> Ludovic Courtès (2016-07-02 17:34 +0300) wrote:
>
>> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> skribis:
>>
>>> * guix/profiles.scm (fonts-dir-file): New procedure.
>>> (%default-profile-hooks): Add it.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> A potential problem with this hook is that it pulls mkfontscale and
>> mkfontdir regardless of whether they are needed; I can’t really think of
>> a way to avoid it though.
>
> Yes, I also don't like it.  We have the same problem with
> 'info-file-dir' hook: it always pulls texinfo and gzip, but not all
> profiles include info manuals.

Yes, but I thought it was OK to make these mandatory dependencies.

The closure of mkfontscale + mkfontdir is small; it’s slightly annoying
for someone building from source because you have to build a few X11
libraries, but it’s not that much either (‘guix graph’ shows just a few
boxes.)

So this hook is probably fine, after all.

What do people think?

>> Also, how does it relate to this:
>>
>>   commit bf9655f57d2442d56661594b80f6d0031ca0ae73
>>   Author: Eric Bavier <bavier@member.fsf.org>
>>   Date:   Mon Oct 19 06:44:23 2015 -0500
>>
>>       font-alias: Install dummy fonts.dir files.
>>
>>       * gnu/packages/xorg.scm (font-alias)[arguments]: New 'install-fonts-dir'
>>         phase.
>>
>> ?
>
> It doesn't relate at all.

Good.  :-)

> This hook generates "fonts.dir" only for "share/fonts/truetype"
> directory.  Directories with X fonts are not touched, because all
> sub-directories of "share/fonts/X11" already contain "fonts.dir" files
> (font-adobe75dpi, font-misc-misc and other X font packages install
> "fonts.dir").
>
> 'font-alias' package does not contain fonts.dir file because it doesn't
> make sense: this package does not provide any font.  It just installs
> "fonts.alias" files inside "share/fonts/X11/{75dpi,100dpi,cyrillic,misc}"
> directories.  Eric made this commit for one particular case: to make it
> possible to use font aliases in the default X server configuration
> ('xorg-configuration-file' in (gnu services xorg) module).
>
> Just to mention, I think we shouldn't modify 'font-alias' package as it
> leads to a bug <http://bugs.gnu.org/22100>, and should do some other
> workaround.  I have 2 ideas (not sure if they make any sense):
>
> 1) To add a special package (font-alias-with-fonts.dir) that will be used
> in 'xorg-configuration-file'.
>
> 2) To do 'union-build' on packages with X fonts and aliases and to use it
> in the X config.  With this, we can revert that Eric's commit, and
> everything should just work (I mean the X config will work and the bug
> will be fixed).

Could you discuss it with 22100@debbugs.gnu.org and Cc: Eric?  I’m not
sure I’m competent enough to comment, so I’d rather let you and Eric
figure out what needs to be done.  :-)

Thanks!

Ludo’.