(debian-policy.info)Packages providing fonts

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11.8.5 Packages providing fonts
-------------------------------

Packages that provide fonts for the X Window System (1) must do a number
of things to ensure that they are both available without modification of
the X or font server configuration, and that they do not corrupt files
used by other font packages to register information about themselves.

  1. Fonts of any type supported by the X Window System must be in a
     separate binary package from any executables, libraries, or
     documentation (except that specific to the fonts shipped, such as
     their license information).  If one or more of the fonts so
     packaged are necessary for proper operation of the package with
     which they are associated the font package may be Recommended; if
     the fonts merely provide an enhancement, a Suggests relationship
     may be used.  Packages must not Depend on font packages.  (2)

  2. BDF fonts must be converted to PCF fonts with the ‘bdftopcf’
     utility (available in the ‘xfonts-utils’ package, ‘gzip’ped, and
     placed in a directory that corresponds to their resolution:

        - 100 dpi fonts must be placed in
          ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/’.

        - 75 dpi fonts must be placed in ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/’.

        - Character-cell fonts, cursor fonts, and other low-resolution
          fonts must be placed in ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/’.

  3. Type 1 fonts must be placed in ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/’.  If
     font metric files are available, they must be placed here as well.

  4. Subdirectories of ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/’ other than those listed
     above must be neither created nor used.  (The ‘PEX’, ‘CID’,
     ‘Speedo’, and ‘cyrillic’ directories are excepted for historical
     reasons, but installation of files into these directories remains
     discouraged.)

  5. Font packages may, instead of placing files directly in the X font
     directories listed above, provide symbolic links in that font
     directory pointing to the files’ actual location in the filesystem.
     Such a location must comply with the FHS.

  6. Font packages should not contain both 75dpi and 100dpi versions of
     a font.  If both are available, they should be provided in separate
     binary packages with ‘-75dpi’ or ‘-100dpi’ appended to the names of
     the packages containing the corresponding fonts.

  7. Fonts destined for the ‘misc’ subdirectory should not be included
     in the same package as 75dpi or 100dpi fonts; instead, they should
     be provided in a separate package with ‘-misc’ appended to its
     name.

  8. Font packages must not provide the files ‘fonts.dir’,
     ‘fonts.alias’, or ‘fonts.scale’ in a font directory:

        - ‘fonts.dir’ files must not be provided at all.

        - ‘fonts.alias’ and ‘fonts.scale’ files, if needed, should be
          provided in the directory
          ‘/etc/X11/fonts/fontdir/package.extension’, where fontdir is
          the name of the subdirectory of ‘/usr/share/fonts/X11/’ where
          the package’s corresponding fonts are stored (e.g., ‘75dpi’ or
          ‘misc’), package is the name of the package that provides
          these fonts, and extension is either ‘scale’ or ‘alias’,
          whichever corresponds to the file contents.

  9. Font packages must declare a dependency on ‘xfonts-utils’ in their
     ‘Depends’ or ‘Pre-Depends’ control field.

  10. Font packages that provide one or more ‘fonts.scale’ files as
     described above must invoke ‘update-fonts-scale’ on each directory
     into which they installed fonts `before' invoking
     ‘update-fonts-dir’ on that directory.  This invocation must occur
     in both the ‘postinst’ (for all arguments) and ‘postrm’ (for all
     arguments except ‘upgrade’) scripts.

  11. Font packages that provide one or more ‘fonts.alias’ files as
     described above must invoke ‘update-fonts-alias’ on each directory
     into which they installed fonts.  This invocation must occur in
     both the ‘postinst’ (for all arguments) and ‘postrm’ (for all
     arguments except ‘upgrade’) scripts.

  12. Font packages must invoke ‘update-fonts-dir’ on each directory
     into which they installed fonts.  This invocation must occur in
     both the ‘postinst’ (for all arguments) and ‘postrm’ (for all
     arguments except ‘upgrade’) scripts.

  13. Font packages must not provide alias names for the fonts they
     include which collide with alias names already in use by fonts
     already packaged.

  14. Font packages must not provide fonts with the same XLFD registry
     name as another font already packaged.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) For the purposes of Debian Policy, a “font for the X Window
System” is one which is accessed via X protocol requests.  Fonts for the
Linux console, for PostScript renderer, or any other purpose, do not fit
this definition.  Any tool which makes such fonts available to the X
Window System, however, must abide by this font policy.

   (2) This is because the X server may retrieve fonts from the local
file system or over the network from an X font server; the Debian
package system is empowered to deal only with the local file system.