Fontconfig - Oct 2007 - fc-cache is not always caching newly installed fonts.

Dears fontconfig developers,

I found  a problem in fontconfig.

When system have been installed, and we adjust the system time to past,
and then install some new fonts in system fonts dir (/usr/share/fonts).
Applications can not find new installed fonts. So what can we do to fix
this problem?

Regards,
Huang Peng

> When system have been installed, and we adjust the system time to past,
> and then install some new fonts in system fonts dir (/usr/share/fonts).
> Applications can not find new installed fonts. So what can we do to fix
> this problem?
I''m nobody, but it seems to me: a) Don''t mess with system
time, b) run
fc-cache ?


/d

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 09:57 +0200, Donn wrote:
> > When system have been installed, and we adjust the system time to
past,
> > and then install some new fonts in system fonts dir
(/usr/share/fonts).
> > Applications can not find new installed fonts. So what can we do to
fix
> > this problem?
> 
> I''m nobody, but it seems to me: a) Don''t mess with system
time, b) run
> fc-cache ?
For a). In many Linux distributions, users can not adjust the system
time before installing system (Except the BIOS). They  have to adjust
system time in firstboot.

For b). fc-cache can not find new installed fonts too. :(

Thanks
Huang Peng

> For a). In many Linux distributions, users can not adjust the system
> time before installing system (Except the BIOS). They  have to adjust
> system time in firstboot.
I don''t understand properly. It seems to me that if time must be set on
every
single boot, something''s wrong (battery). 
  If time has to be set only once on first install, then that''s
okay--it''s
before any fonts get installed anyway (I think). 
  Either way, setting the time into the past is going to mess-up all kinds of 
things. Why do it?
> For b). fc-cache can not find new installed fonts too. :(
I guess it''s the time-stamp on the files, although this seems odd. Is
there no
way to locate/grep/touch through all fonts and update their timestamps? or 
just set the time correctly and re-install the fonts.

Just wondering aloud. I didn''t mean to down-play your problem :)
/d

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 10:45 +0200, Donn wrote:
> > For a). In many Linux distributions, users can not adjust the system
> > time before installing system (Except the BIOS). They  have to adjust
> > system time in firstboot.
> I don''t understand properly. It seems to me that if time must be
set on every
> single boot, something''s wrong (battery). 
>   If time has to be set only once on first install, then that''s
okay--it''s
> before any fonts get installed anyway (I think). 
>   Either way, setting the time into the past is going to mess-up all kinds
of
> things. Why do it?
In some cases, the BIOS''s time is in the future. Users can not adjust
system time and most of them did not know the time is incorrect, before
installing the first OS.  So they have to install the first OS with
wrong system time. When they first boot the system, they will adjust the
time. It''s no problem. All fonts have been installed correctly. But
after some days, he want to add some new fonts for other languages
(Japanese, Chinese, and etc) which were not installed. And then the
problem happened. :(
> 
> > For b). fc-cache can not find new installed fonts too. :(
> I guess it''s the time-stamp on the files, although this seems odd.
Is there no
> way to locate/grep/touch through all fonts and update their timestamps? or 
> just set the time correctly and re-install the fonts.
I can use ''fc-cahce -f'' to re-create all caches. It''s
easy for me and
most of Linux hackers.:) But it''s difficult for ordinary desktop users.
And I can not add ''fc-cache -f'' in POST-INSTALL script of a
font
package, because it is too slow. Especially, when users install many
font packages at the same time (like installing a OS, many font packages
will be installed). It will invoke ''fc-cache -f'' many times.
It waste
much time. That is the problem. Hope can find an acceptable solution.



Thanks
Huang Peng

2007/10/24, Huang Peng <shawn.p.huang at
gmail.com>:
> > > For b). fc-cache can not find new installed fonts too. :(
> > I guess it''s the time-stamp on the files, although this seems
odd. Is there no
> > way to locate/grep/touch through all fonts and update their
timestamps? or
> > just set the time correctly and re-install the fonts.
>
> I can use ''fc-cahce -f'' to re-create all caches.
It''s easy for me and
> most of Linux hackers.:) But it''s difficult for ordinary desktop
users.
> And I can not add ''fc-cache -f'' in POST-INSTALL script of
a font
> package, because it is too slow. Especially, when users install many
> font packages at the same time (like installing a OS, many font packages
> will be installed). It will invoke ''fc-cache -f'' many
times. It waste
> much time.
> That is the problem. Hope can find an acceptable solution.
FYI, Under a quite "fast" system, fc-cache -f takes 13 seconds with
155 fonts.

So if a Linux installer has to run that command one by one every time
a font is being installed, it will be a huge time.

Ref:
[root@ ~]# time fc-cache -f

real    0m13.280s
user    0m8.751s
sys     0m0.486s
[root@ ~]# fc-list | wc -l
155

[root@ ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep model | grep name
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.20GHz
[root@ ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep processor | wc -l
2
[root@ ~]# cat /proc/meminfo  | grep MemTotal
MemTotal:      1034616 kB


-- 
Best Regards,
Nguyen Hung Vu
vuhung16plus{remove}@gmail.dot.com
An inquisitive look at Harajuku
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vuhung/sets/72157600109218238/

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 15:49 +0800, Huang Peng wrote:
> Dears fontconfig developers,
> 
> I found  a problem in fontconfig.
> 
> When system have been installed, and we adjust the system time to past,
> and then install some new fonts in system fonts dir (/usr/share/fonts).
> Applications can not find new installed fonts. So what can we do to fix
> this problem?
I''ve got some changes pending for fontconfig which place the directory
timestamp right in the cache file; when that timestamp changes, the
cache is invalidated. As it no longer cares what timestamp the cache
file has, and uses simple equality (instead of ''earlier''), it
should be
much more resistent to system time changes (and other sources of clock
weirdness).

You might try the current ''master'' version of fontconfig and
see if that
works for you.

-- 
keith.packard at intel.com
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Op woensdag 24-10-2007 om 17:22 uur [tijdzone +0800], schreef Huang
Peng:
> I can use ''fc-cahce -f'' to re-create all caches.
It''s easy for me and
> most of Linux hackers.:) But it''s difficult for ordinary desktop
> users.  And I can not add ''fc-cache -f'' in POST-INSTALL
script of a
> font package, because it is too slow. Especially, when users install
> many font packages at the same time (like installing a OS, many font
> packages will be installed). It will invoke ''fc-cache -f''
many times.
> It waste much time. That is the problem. Hope can find an acceptable
> solution.
I think Debian & Ubuntu do (something like) this at the moment, and
it''s
really slow indeed.  But recently apt/dpkg has grown a "hooks" system
that allows for running such commands only once after installing all
selected packages.  That should make the wait-times acceptable.


-- 
Jan Claeys

On Fri, 2007-10-26 at 15:27 +0200, Jan Claeys wrote:
> Op woensdag 24-10-2007 om 17:22 uur [tijdzone +0800], schreef Huang
> Peng:
> > I can use ''fc-cahce -f'' to re-create all caches.
It''s easy for me and
> > most of Linux hackers.:) But it''s difficult for ordinary
desktop
> > users.  And I can not add ''fc-cache -f'' in
POST-INSTALL script of a
> > font package, because it is too slow. Especially, when users install
> > many font packages at the same time (like installing a OS, many font
> > packages will be installed). It will invoke ''fc-cache
-f'' many times.
> > It waste much time. That is the problem. Hope can find an acceptable
> > solution.
> 
> I think Debian & Ubuntu do (something like) this at the moment, and
it''s
> really slow indeed.  But recently apt/dpkg has grown a "hooks"
system
> that allows for running such commands only once after installing all
> selected packages.  That should make the wait-times acceptable.
I''ve just rewritten the debian fontconfig hook that runs when fonts are
installed -- it runs ''fc-cache -f'' only on the directory
receiving the
fonts (to make sure updates are re-cached). Then it runs ''fc-cache
-s''
to make sure any directories leading to the new fonts are cached as
well. All of these are run after all fonts are installed, so each
directory is only cached once (well, twice currently, but I think
that''s
a bug somewhere).

Performance is quite reasonable now.

-- 
keith.packard at intel.com
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Op dinsdag 30-10-2007 om 10:48 uur [tijdzone -0700], schreef Keith
Packard:
> On Fri, 2007-10-26 at 15:27 +0200, Jan Claeys wrote:
> > I think Debian & Ubuntu do (something like) this at the moment,
and it''s
> > really slow indeed.  But recently apt/dpkg has grown a
"hooks" system
> > that allows for running such commands only once after installing all
> > selected packages.  That should make the wait-times acceptable.
> 
> I''ve just rewritten the debian fontconfig hook that runs when
fonts
> are installed -- it runs ''fc-cache -f'' only on the
directory receiving
> the fonts (to make sure updates are re-cached). Then it runs
''fc-cache
> -s'' to make sure any directories leading to the new fonts are
cached
> as well. All of these are run after all fonts are installed, so each
> directory is only cached once (well, twice currently, but I think
> that''s a bug somewhere).
> 
> Performance is quite reasonable now.
That sounds great, and this should get imported in the next Ubuntu
release too then.

Thanks!


-- 
Jan Claeys