From: martin@radiogaga.harz.de
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 10:28 PM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Re: C and X11 programming, finding info

JF Mezei (jfmezei.spamnot@videotron.ca) wrote:
> Martin Vorlaender wrote:
> > $ mkfontdir sys$common:[sysfont.decw.common]
>
> Thanks. I had seen that utility, but didn't know what incantation would
> make it work (eg: which directory to specify).

I must admit that I looked into a Linux system for that (after making
sure there was no VERB for it). And afterwards I applied the usual
amount of mental translation for *ix X11 manuals ;-)

<QUOTE>
MKFONTDIR(1)                                         MKFONTDIR(1)

NAME
       mkfontdir,  fonts.dir,  fonts.scale,  fonts.alias,  encod-
       ings.dir - create an index of X font files in a directory

SYNOPSIS
       mkfontdir [-x suffix] [-r] [-p prefix] [-e encoding-direc-
       tory-name] ...  [--] [directory-name ... ]

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 converted to lower case and used as
       font names, and, along with the name of the font file, are
       written out to the file "fonts.dir" in the directory.  The
       X  server  and  font  server  use "fonts.dir" to find font
       files.

       The kinds of font files read by mkfontdir depend  on  con-
       figuration  parameters,  but typically include PCF (suffix
       ".pcf"), SNF (suffix ".snf") and BDF (suffix ".bdf").   If
       a  font  exists  in multiple formats, mkfontdir will first
       choose PCF, then SNF and finally BDF.

       The first line of fonts.dir gives the number of  fonts  in
       the  file.  The remaining lines list the fonts themselves,
       one per line, in two fields.  First is  the  name  of  the
       font file, followed by a space and the name of the font.

SCALABLE FONTS
       [...]

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 two
       white-space  separated  columns,  the   first   containing
       aliases  and  the  second  containing  font-name patterns.
       Lines  beginning  with  "!"  are  comment  lines  and  are
       ignored.

       If  neither  the  alias  nor  the value specifies the size
       fields of the font name, this is a scalable alias.  A font
       name of any size that matches this alias will be mapped to
       the same size of the font that the alias resolves to.

       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 it  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 its suffix)
       will be used as an alias for that font.

ENCODING FILES
       The option -e can be used  to  specify  a  directory  with
       encoding  files. [...]

OPTIONS
       The following options are supported:
       [...I don't think any of those are supported on VMS.
           And no, "-r" wouldn't mean "recursive" here...]

FILES
       [...]

SEE ALSO
       X(7), Xserver(1), xfs(1), xset(1)

X Version 11               Release 6.5               MKFONTDIR(1)
</QUOTE>

cu,
  Martin
-- 
                        | Martin Vorlaender | VMS & WNT programmer
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