update-fonts-alias(8)					 update-fonts-alias(8)



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-installa
       tion 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/direc
       tory/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
       packages 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)  man
       ual 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 argu
	      ment.  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 com
	      ponent 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
       http://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)



Debian Project			  2004-11-11		 update-fonts-alias(8)